An Overview of the Criminal Appeal Process

If you have been convicted in the Magistrates Court of sexual or domestic abuse then you have an automatic right to appeal the courts decision to the Crown Court within 21 days of conviction (if appealing conviction) or 21 days from the date of sentence (if appealing sentence).  

You may want to appeal your conviction because you feel the Magistrates got it wrong, evidence was heard that you believe should not have been, or that evidence was excluded from the trial that should have been heard. It could be a variety of reasons that lead you to wanting to appeal your conviction, and your legal team would discuss those in detail with you prior to starting the appeal process. 

Completing the appeal paperwork would be done by your legal time and we would then continue to liaise with the courts to have the re-hearing of your case listed. Whilst the courts are preparing to list your case we would be working with you during this time to prepare for your re-trial. 

When an appeal against conviction from the Magistrates takes place at the Crown Court then the case will be heard afresh by a judge and two lay magistrates who did not have any involvement in your magistrates court trial. New evidence can be admitted during the hearing by either party; yourself and/or the prosecution. Applications can also be made to exclude evidence where necessary. 

If you are applying to appeal your sentence, then a Crown Court Judge will consider the sentence made by the Magistrates to determine if it was correct. 

The Crown Court Judge hearing an appeal against sentence from the Magistrates Court does have the power to increase the sentence but only to that of the maximum sentence the Magistrates Court have imposed. For example; if the Magistrates Court sentencing powers were limited to 12 months, then the Crown Court could not impose a new sentence in excess of 12 months. 

If you wish to appeal against a Crown Court conviction or sentence then you have 28 days in which to do this from either the date of conviction, or the date of sentence. It is always our advice to lodge an appeal as soon as possible to avoid having to appeal out of time. 

If you do not apply to appeal straight away, or within the 28 day window, then you can appeal later but you will be required to apply for permission to appeal out of time. This will mean that your lawyers completing the application to appeal will have to explain why it is late, with good justification this is rarely a problem. 

Unlike an application to appeal a Magistrates Court decision, you will have to establish grounds to appeal when you are appealing a Crown Court decision, there is no automatic right. Grounds of appeal can include: 

• Wrongful admission or exclusion of evidence;
• Failure to properly exercise judicial discretion;   
• Conduct of the trial judge;
• Errors in the trial judge's summing up;
• Problems associated with jurors.

Grounds are established by close consideration of the evidence, transcriptions of the original trial and, what you say you feel went wrong during the trial to amount to a right to appeal. All of this information will be gathered initially and reviewed by our lawyers, and in some cases a specialist barrister. We will then provide you with a written advice on appeal which clearly sets out the grounds established with reference to any applicable law. 

Once the application is prepared, we have a written advice on appeal and any supporting documents, then this is lodged with the Registrar of Criminal Appeals. The application will go through an administrative process before it is put before a single judge. The single judge will consider the application and where they agree that there are potential appeal grounds the appeal application will be listed to go before the full Court of Appeal, it is at this hearing the court will hear legal arguments from your defence team, and also the prosecution. The court will then rule on the outcome of the application to appeal. The following outcomes are possible when appealing conviction: 

• quash the conviction and, in effect, order an acquittal;
• quash the conviction and order a re-trial;
• or dismiss the appeal