Criminal Appeals

You have an automatic right to appeal against a conviction and/or sentence in the magistrates’ court. This means that you do not have to justify your decision to appeal. You are entitled to appeal because you disagree with the decision. An appeal form must be submitted within 21 days of the date of sentence, unless you can demonstrate good reason for submitting it outside of that time.

When appealing a decision of the magistrates’ court, the appeal will be dealt with in the Crown Court. When appealing a conviction from the magistrates’ court the Crown Court will hear all the evidence afresh. This means new and fresh evidence can be relied upon that was not used in the magistrates’ court.

When Crown Courts deal with appeals from the magistrates’ court there will not be a jury. The case will be dealt with by a Crown Court Judge and two magistrates.

Some decisions from the magistrates’ court can be appealed directly to the High Court by way of case stated or judicial review. This appeal procedure can be relied upon, for example where the magistrates’ court have made an error on the law.

Appeals from the Crown Court are dealt with by the Criminal Court of Appeal. The procedure is very different when appealing a decision of the Crown Court, compared to a decision of the magistrates’ court.

The first step is identifying grounds of appeal. You can only appeal a conviction in the Crown Court if the Court of Appeal finds that the conviction was unsafe. Appeals against conviction from the Crown Court will normally arise where there has been an error in law or procedural unfairness. Below are some common issues that form the basis of an appeal against conviction:

• Evidence is wrongly admitted or excluded
• Ineffective legal representation
• Errors in decisions made by the trial judge or the way the judge dealt with the case including the way that the evidence was summed up for the jury
• In some cases, new evidence may give rise to an argument that the conviction was unsafe
• You can appeal against a sentence in the Crown Court if it is manifestly excessive or in some other way unlawful.

Once grounds of appeal have been identified, an application for permission to appeal must be sent with a detailed description of the grounds of appeal. This is considered by a single judge of the Court of Appeal who will decide whether or not to grant permission to appeal. The application for permission to appeal must be submitted within 28 days of the decision being appealed.

In some cases the Court of Appeal may extend the deadline for submitting an application for permission to appeal, even where the deadline has passed. We understand that there may be many reasons that an appeal may need to be considered after the deadline has passed.

Criticising decisions of experienced Crown Court Judge’s or calling into question the representation provided by experience lawyers can be daunting. We will help you present difficult arguments in a professional manner.

The Supreme Court replaced the House of Lords as the highest Court in the UK. Appeals from the High Court and Court of Appeal will be dealt with by the Supreme Court.

As in the Court of Appeal, permission must be sought to appeal to the Supreme Court. It will only be granted where the Court of Appeal certifies that a point of law of general public importance is involved in the decision and it appears to the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court that the point is one which ought to be considered by the Supreme Court. For this reason, decisions of the Supreme Court can change the way the law is applied.