Magistrate Court Appeals

The magistrates’ courts hear a wide variety of lower level criminal cases in England and Wales. When charged with a criminal offence for which you appear before the magistrates’ court, (or Youth Court) a number of things can happen. You may plead guilty to the offence with which you are charged, or be found guilty after a trial, after which you will have a conviction. In less common situations, the Crown may decide that they have insufficient evidence to continue to prosecute you, or that proceeding with the case against you is not in the public interest. It is possible for magistrates to proceed to try your case in your absence, so you can be found guilty of an offence even if you don’t attend your trial.

Sentencing - Once Convicted

Once you are convicted of an offence the magistrates may sentence you on the same day, or decide that they want further information about you before they decide how to sentence you (usually by way of a report compiled by the Probation Service, or if you are a youth, by the Youth Offending Team). If they consider that their powers of sentencing are insufficient to deal with your case in the magistrates’ court they may decide to commit you to the Crown Court for sentence.

Appealing Against Sentence or Conviction

You have a right to appeal against the decisions of the magistrates’ courts. If you were found guilty after a trial, you can appeal to the Crown Court against your conviction. However, if you pleaded guilty and were sentenced in the magistrates’ court you will not be able to appeal against your conviction, but you can still appeal against the length or nature of your sentence.

Procedure When Appealing

You must provide the prosecutor with your notice to appeal against your conviction or sentence within 21 days. It is possible to apply to the legal services commission for legal representation at your appeal. The Crown Court will give you a date when you must attend for your appeal, which will be heard by two magistrates and a Crown Court judge. There is no jury, but your entire case will be heard again. If your appeal is against sentence only, the prosecutor will tell the court details of your conviction and you or your lawyer will then tell the court about your personal and financial circumstances, if appropriate, and ‘mitigate’ in relation to the offence itself. If your appeal is against conviction, the witnesses who gave evidence at your original trial in the magistrates’ court will be required to give evidence again.

However, it is important to note that as well as quashing a conviction and reducing a sentence, the judge and magistrates are also entitled to impose a harsher or different sentence and may also make you liable to pay the prosecution’s costs if they consider that you shouldn’t have brought the appeal in the first place. There is no further right of appeal after you have appealed to the Crown Court from the Magistrates’ Court.

Appeals to The Divisional (High) Court From The Magistrates’ Court

In certain circumstances if you or your lawyer considers that the magistrates’ court has got the law wrong you can appeal to the Divisional Court ‘by way of case stated’. This procedure can be complicated and you should always consult a lawyer before embarking on this process. It should be noted that this type of appeal can only consider decisions relating to the law, rather than any evidence relating to facts (for which you should use the Crown Court process.) This type of appeal is only available for cases that have concluded. If you succeed, your case is usually sent back to the Magistrates’ Court with directions as to how to proceed.

Judicial Review

For appeals relating to decisions on points of law prior to the conclusion of a case, the procedure is called Judicial Review. In this type of appeal, the magistrates are asked to ‘stay the proceedings’ pending an application for Judicial Review (or JR.) The High Court considers the decision making process of the Magistrates’ Court to determine whether or not they made an error in law. Again this is a complex procedure and you should always consult a lawyer before embarking on this process.