What is the harmless error doctrine?

The harmless error doctrine is a legal principle used in appellate courts to determine whether a trial court's error affected the outcome of a case. If an error is deemed "harmless," it means that despite the mistake, the overall result would likely have been the same without it, and thus, the appellate court may uphold the original decision. This doctrine aims to prevent the reversal of convictions or judgments based on trivial or inconsequential errors that do not impact the fairness of the trial.