2008 Pa. Super. 179 - Commonwealth v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It has been held that when the trial court directs an appellant to file a concise statement of matters complained of on appeal, any issues that are not raised in such a statement will be waived for appellate review. Commonwealth v. Dowling , 778 A.2d 683 , 686 (Pa. Super. 2001), citing Commonwealth v. Lord , 553 Pa. 415 , 418, 719 A.2d 306 , 308 (1998). Similarly, when issues are too vague for the trial court to identify and address, that is the functional equivalent of no concise statement at all. Id. Rule 1925 is intended to aid trial judges in identifying and focusing upon those issues which the parties plan to raise on appeal. Commonwealth v. Lemon , 804 A.2d 34 , 37 (Pa. Super. 2002). Thus, Rule 1925 is a crucial component of the appellate process. Id. "When the trial court has to guess what issues an appellant is appealing, that is not enough for meaningful review." Id. , citing Dowling, supra.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Williams