With limited exceptions, issues raised for the first time on appeal will not be considered as grounds for a reversal or modification. As the Court of Appeals has made clear, “the requirement of preservation is not simply a meaningless technical barrier to review.”1 There is an element of unfairness about seeking to reverse a judgment on a point not called to the attention of the trial court or intermediate appellate court, and on which the court was not given an opportunity to rule or correct its asserted error. Furthermore, the preservation requirement affords the opposing party an opportunity to make a necessary factual showing or take available legal counter-steps.
Appellate courts, however, may consider a newly raised issue involving a “pure question of law” that is decisive of the appeal and could not have been obviated if raised in the trial court.2 For example, questions of pure statutory interpretation may be raised for the first time on appeal since they could not have been obviated or cured by factual showings or legal counter-steps.3
