Court of Appeal Criminal Division

Whether you’re appealing against your sentence or your conviction, you may be unsure as to the procedure in relation to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division. If leave to appeal has been refused by the single judge, you or your counsel will attend court in person to argue for leave in the ‘full court’. If leave is granted in court, it is possible then to go on to consider the appeal during the same hearing.

Who Can Address The Court?

There are only three classes of persons who may be ‘heard’ in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division: barristers, solicitors who have ‘higher rights’ of audience and appellants in person. Other solicitors do not have rights of audience in these cases. The court should be addressed as ‘My lords’ or ‘Your lordships.’ If you are addressing all the judges in court, call them ‘Your lordships.’ If one judge asks you a question, refer to him as ‘My lord.’

Procedure For Appeal Against Conviction

You will have ‘grounds’ for appealing your conviction which will have been advanced to the court beforehand. The appellant or the appellant’s lawyer stands up and introduces the appeal. The judges should have read all the papers in relation to the appeal in advance so there is no need to check this with them beforehand. It is normal when addressing the court of appeal that you will be interrupted by the judges, so be prepared to answer questions. The court may also give an indication in relation to the grounds of your appeal, so if a judge says that they do not think one of them has merit, be prepared to move onto your next ground.

The representative for the Crown may not say much during this process, although the court may ask for him or her to address certain grounds of the appellant’s appeal. After the Crown representative has done this, the appellant can reply to anything that the court or the crown has raised that the appellant has not already addressed.

Once the parties have addressed the court, and all questions have been answered, the court may do one of four things:

• decide to dismiss the appeal
• allow the appeal, and direct that the appellant is acquitted
• allow the appeal, and substitute the conviction for a lesser charge (which must have been open to the trial jury, e.g. manslaughter instead of murder.)
• allow the appeal and direct that there is a retrial

Procedure For Appeal Against Sentence

Again, the appellant introduces the appeal and tells the court details of the conviction, such as whether there was a trial, details of the offences and any aggravating and mitigating features. (Aggravating features make the offence more serious; mitigating features lessen the severity of the offence.) The appellant then may state the sentence that was imposed and why he or she seeks to persuade the court that this was incorrect, stating what the proper sentence should be and why. During this presentation, the appellant can also mitigate. After hearing all the submissions and asking questions where appropriate, the court can:

• dismiss the appeal against sentence
• allow the appeal, and substitute a different sentence to replace the one imposed by the Crown Court. In these circumstances the appellant or the appellant’s lawyer may ask the court to make a defendant’s costs order.

Appeals from The Court of Appeal

There is a limited right, after an appeal against conviction or sentence in the Court of Appeal, for further appeals to be taken to the House of Lords. However, these types of appeals are only for cases that are considered to have ‘general public importance’, and must be certified as such. These types of cases are rare and you will without question have a lawyer to assist you in relation to this process.