For judges, evidentiary rulings are a minefield of possible reversible error. Doesn the Protocol add new mines to the minefield?
The Protocol’s criteria, for determining whether facts are dispositive and witnesses appropriate, are sufficiently clear that reversals should be few. The possibility of reversal helps assure reasonable discretion in applying them. Trial judges expect to be appealed; it’s being reversed that irks them. Close calls will presumably be decided in favor of parties invoking the protocol, because of the risks involved in invoking it for a deceptive witness.
