I've always been baffled by the term "harmless error" in the legal world. An appeals court will often find that an error has been made, but will find it harmless.
When a term in a statute is not defined by the legislature, the courts often look the dictionary definition. In the same spirit, I look to see what "error" means. Error is defined as: "a deviation from accuracy or correctness; a mistake." The definition goes on and provides the legal definition of error as: "a mistake in a matter of fact or law in a case tried in a court of record."
And so I am left to wonder, yet again... Is an error really ever harmless?
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