Court of Appeal Civil Division

If you have had a case heard at the County Court or High Court and wish to appeal the judge’s decision you may apply to the Court of Appeal Civil Division. You need permission to appeal in virtually all types of cases and in most cases the application for permission to appeal should (and in some cases must) be obtained from the judge whose order it is you are seeking to appeal against.

Obtaining Leave from The Court of Appeal Civil Division

The judge may refuse your request for permission to appeal, or it may be that you did not ask for permission to appeal at the end of the hearing. In either of these situations, you apply to the Court of Appeal and seek permission from a single judge. Your notice of appeal must be filed within four weeks of the decision that you wish to appeal against being made. However in the case of interim orders it is always worthwhile checking the rules as timescales may be shorter.

Fresh Evidence

It is possible to ask for permission to call fresh evidence, but you must provide details of the evidence and show not only that the evidence was not available at the time of the original trial, but also that this fresh evidence, if available, would have been likely to have altered the outcome of the trial. Lastly, the evidence must seem to be both truthful and admissible in court.

Procedure in Court

The appellant introduces the case, and his or her opponent. It is courteous to ask the court whether they have had an opportunity to read the papers or not prior to the hearing. If their lordships have not, the appellant should open the case in as much detail as they think is necessary, or as otherwise indicated by the court. While presenting the case to the court, the appellant should be prepared to be interrupted by their lordships and to answer questions pertaining to aspects of the appeal. The court may also indicate whether there are any grounds of appeal upon which they are not persuaded, so as to enable the appellant to move onto another ground.

After the appellant has presented his or her case to the court, the respondent may present his or her responses. If the court has not considered that there are any grounds upon which the appellant has persuaded them to allow the appeal, then the court may dismiss the appeal without hearing from the respondent at all. Once the respondent has addressed the court, the appellant has the right of reply in relation to new issues that have arisen (whether because they have been raised by the court or the respondent.)

Judgment

Once all parties have addressed the court, it can do a number of things in relation to delivering judgment.

• Reserve judgment to another occasion
• Deliver a short judgment, and specify that reasons for this decision will be given at a later stage
• Deliver a full judgment

If the court decides to deliver judgment on the day the appeal is heard, it has five options open to it:

• Allow the appeal in full
• Allow the appeal in part
• Dismiss the appeal
• Make an order (as long as the same order could have been made by the court which has been appealed)
• Order a retrial (this is usually when there is fresh evidence.)

Costs

As a general rule in relation to costs, they are said to ‘follow the event.’ This means that if the appellant is successful, the respondent will be ordered to pay and if the respondent is successful, the appellant will be ordered to pay. If the successful party is legally aided, they must still apply for costs from the unsuccessful party in order to pay back the public purse.