In a personal injury case, what is the standard of argument in a defendant's opening brief?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Harmless, C066882 (Cal. App. 2012):

In making his argument, defendant simply quotes his statement to the court at sentencing, proclaiming his innocence. He provides no citations to authority or argument. "An appellate court is not required to examine undeveloped claims, nor to make arguments for parties." (Paterno v. State of California (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 68, 106 (Paterno).) Our role is to evaluate "legal argument with citation of authorities on the points made." (People v. Stanley (1995) 10 Cal.4th 764, 793.)

Defendant's opening brief contains a short summary of the People's case, focusing on the evidence of prior acts, and completely devoid of citations to the record. It contains a detailed 16-page recitation of the defense evidence. This is inappropriate and violates fundamental rules of appellate procedure in its complete failure to fairly recite the facts or to set forth all of the material evidence that supports the judgment. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rules 8.204(a)(2) & 8.360(a).) "[A]n attack on the evidence without a fair statement of the evidence is entitled to no consideration when it is apparent that a substantial amount of evidence was

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received on behalf of the respondent. [Citation.]" (Nwosu v. Uba (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 1229, 1246.)

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