10.26 Substantial error

Sometimes a mistake happens during a trial that nobody objects to at the time. Normally, if you don't object right away, you lose the chance to complain about it later. This rule creates an exception to that general practice.

If a mistake was serious enough and clearly affected someone's basic rights, a judge or appeals court can still fix it, even if no one spoke up about it during the trial. The mistake has to be obvious and it has to have caused real unfairness, not just a small technical problem.

This gives courts a way to correct major errors that would otherwise slip through the cracks. It's meant for serious situations where letting the mistake stand would be unjust, not for minor slip-ups that didn't really change the outcome of the case.