What is required to preserve issues for appellate review?

• A. Proper objections and raising issues in motions or in the trial record to be included on appeal.
• B. Simply filing a notice of appeal.
• C. Waiting until after the trial to object.
• D. Relying on post-judgment motions alone.

Answer: (A)

Errors are reviewable on appeal only if they’re properly preserved in the trial court. That means making timely, specific objections and raising the issue in motions or otherwise getting a ruling that is recorded in the trial record. The appellate court can review what happened only if the trial court had a chance to rule on the issue and that ruling is part of the record. Simply filing a notice of appeal doesn’t preserve any error by itself; it starts the appeal but doesn’t create a preserve-for-review on the issues. Waiting until after the trial to object or relying only on post-judgment motions won’t generally bring pre-judgment or trial rulings into review, because those issues weren’t properly preserved at the time they occurred. So the best practice is to object when the issue arises and secure a ruling that appears in the record.