This post is the third in an ongoing series about maximizing a party’s chances of prevailing on appeal. California appellate courts impose specific requirements on how arguments are to be presented on appeal. A party cannot simply incorporate by reference trial arguments. Nor can a party simply cut and paste arguments made in trial briefs without the relevant discussion of the standard of review and citations to the record. Parties who proceed with an appeal without following appellate briefing rules run the risk of, at best, having an argument deemed forfeited on appeal, and at worst, being removed from a case and referred to the state bar. Consider the unfortunate outcomes following four California cases:
