Shell

BACKGROUND

A. Preliminary Matters At the outset, we note that the lack of a complete appellate record hinders our review of this appeal. The California Rules of Court provide an appellant with a choice of several types of records upon which to take an appeal. The choices include a reporter’s transcript, a clerk’s transcript, an agreed statement, and a settled statement. (California Rules of Court, rules 8.831, 8.832, 8.834, 8.836, 8.837.)2 Shell has elected to proceed with a clerk’s transcript and a partial reporter’s transcript. Although the underlying bench trial took place over four days, Shell only listed two of the four days in his notice designating the reporter’s transcript on appeal. As a consequence, we have no transcript for the first two days of trial. Nor is there a suitable substitute such as an agreed or settled statement. (Rules 8.134, 8.137.) The only trial testimony in the appellate record is Glen’s testimony on redirect examination and Shell’s testimony. We note that a self-represented party is not exempt from the rules of appellate practice. (See Nwosu v. Uba (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 1229, 1246-1247.) In addition to an incomplete appellate record, Shell’s opening…