Will Pop Rocks and soda make your stomach explode? Can a cell phone blow up a gas station? Are elephants terrified of mice? These urban legends are put to the test on the television show “Mythbusters.” Two special-effects experts and their team challenge conventional wisdom, conducting experiments to determine which myths are confirmed, plausible, or busted.
Appellate practice is rife with its own myths. Appeals have their own rules and customs that can be very different from what goes on in the trial courts. Lawyers can master these through research, experience and hard work. But some lawyers may turn instead to conventional wisdom passed around the water cooler, hazy memories of law school moot court, and what they see on TV — in other words, to myths.
