Appellate judges and the lawyers who handle appeals might occasionally wish that an appellate court could decide a particularly fascinating legal issue in the abstract, unconstrained by the facts and circumstances of the case in which the issue arises. In actuality, however, the resolution of most appellate cases depends integrally on the facts and circumstances of those cases.
In every case that proceeds to appeal from a trial court’s ruling, no matter how large or how small the case happens to be, a trial court record exists. The trial court record consists of the papers and pleadings that were filed in the trial court, together with any transcripts of trial court proceedings and the exhibits and other items that were accepted into evidence while the case was pending at trial.
