Opinion ID: 895053
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Effort

Text: In harmless-error review, we have also considered whether admission of improper evidence was calculated or inadvertent. As this Court has stated before, a party's insistence on introducing inadmissible testimony indicates how important he thought it was to his case. [29] In the related area of improper evidence of insurance, Texas courts often look to whether the injection of insurance was inadvertent or not. [30] When attorneys insist that prejudicial evidence be admitted, that can be some evidence that at least they thought it would have some likely effect. Here, of course, admission was no accident. Proof of Reliance's income was not offered in the heat of the moment, but as a deposition excerpt prepared in advance and offered outside the presence of the jury, giving the plaintiffs time to overcome the defendants' objection and the trial court's reservations. Intentionally leading the trial court into error does not always make the error harmful. But when issues like race, religion, gender, and wealth are injected into a case unnecessarily, there is the potential for damage not just to a litigant but to the civil justice system. [31] Courts must provide equal justice to all, regardless of their circumstances, and efforts to suggest that jurors should do otherwise cannot be lightly disregarded. [32]