Commonwealth v. Roth

"It is a dangerous precedent to permit appellate advocates to ignore procedural rules. Procedural rules 'do not exist for the mere sake of form and style. They are lights and buoys to mark the channels of safe passage and assure an expeditious voyage to the right destination. Their importance simply cannot be disdained or denigrated.' "1 "Enforcement of procedural rules is a judicial responsibility of the highest order because without such rules '[s]ubstantive rights, even of constitutional magnitude ... would smother in chaos and could not survive." '2

An Appellant's brief must have a…