Rule 2-704 Harmless error.

Here's a plain English summary:

If a judge makes a small mistake during a trial, like allowing or excluding a piece of evidence when they shouldn't have, that mistake alone usually isn't enough to throw out the result. Courts understand that trials aren't perfect and small errors happen. A new trial won't be granted, and a verdict or judgment won't be changed, just because something went slightly wrong along the way.

The key question is whether the mistake actually hurt the fairness of the outcome. The court looks at whether letting the result stand would go against basic justice. If the error didn't really affect the case in a meaningful way, the result stays as it is.

This rule exists so that cases aren't constantly overturned for tiny, harmless slip-ups. It keeps the focus on whether someone was truly treated unfairly, not on whether every single step of the trial was flawless.