The U.S. Supreme Court once observed that a party is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one.1 At least one piece of inadmissible evidence creeps into the typical case, inadvertently if not by design.2 Fortunately for an already over-burdened judicial system, the admission of inadmissible evidence usually is curable by a limiting instruction, rather than a reversible error requiring a mistrial.
Some mistakes of course are outcome determinative. Trial level lapses leading to faulty yet dispositive evidence reaching the jury may be rare, but epic mistakes do happen—and are enormously costly when they do. Litigants, lawyers and the judicial system at large collectively pay a high price when a trial is redone to correct an evidentiary miscue. Recent decisions from around New York state arising from an assortment of admission errors demonstrate the resilience and enduring importance of fundamental evidentiary rules.
Faulty Webpage Authentication
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