After hearing the appeal, the Court must give judgment without regard to technical errors or defects, or to exceptions, which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.
Cal. Penal Code § 1258
Judgment Upon Appeal
Applied in 32 court decisions — leading case Chapman v. State of California (1967)
Most recently applied in 5 Cal. 4th 478 - People v. Cahill (June 1993)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.