Garcia

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

This court has recently experimented in selected cases with memorandum opinions—that is, opinions with little or no reference to the evidence or the procedural history of the action and with an abbreviated discussion of the relevant legal issues and authorities. We take the opportunity presented by appellant Steven Anthony Garcia's petition for rehearing to confirm the propriety of memorandum opinions in unpublished cases and to signal the bar that it will likely see an increase in the frequency of such opinions, civil and criminal, from this court. [1]

Review by the Courts of Appeal can serve three purposes—the determination of the legal correctness of the challenged trial court action, the progressive development of the law, and, to some degree but less so than review by the Supreme Court, the uniformity of the law in the jurisdiction. (See People v. Rojas (1981) 118 Cal.App.3d 278, 289 ; Aldisert, Opinion Writing (1990), § 2.9, p. 21; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 976(b).) [2] The publication of an opinion of the Court of Appeal is warranted only when one or both of the latter two goals are advanced. Thus, rule 976(b) authorizes…