New York is generous with immediate appeals "as of right" to the Appellate Division from non-final (interlocutory) orders of the Supreme Court, about the only qualification being that the non-final order "involves some part of the merits" or "affects a substantial right" (see CPLR 5701[a][2][iv-v]). However, a party need not appeal from an interlocutory order, but may instead elect to raise all appealable and preserved issues on an appeal from the final judgment, provided such interlocutory order "necessarily affects the final judgment" (see CPLR 5501[a][1]).    

Given the wide availability of interlocutory appeals to the Appellate Division, aggrieved parties often "take" an appeal from an adverse order by filing a notice of appeal within the short 30-day jurisdictional time limit prescribed by CPLR 5513(a) to preserve the right to appeal at that stage of the litigation, if so advised, rather than await an appeal from the final judgment. This gives an appellant time to assess the posture of the case, the merits of the proposed appeal and the costs of the appeal relative to the overall value of the litigation. These considerations inform an appellant's decision whether to "perfect" the appeal by filing the record on appeal or appendix and the appellant's main brief in the court to which the appeal has been taken.