From the Magistrates Court to The Crown Court
If you have been convicted and or sentenced in the Magistrates Court / Youth Court you have an automatic right to appeal the decision and your lawyer will advise you as to whether you should exercise that right. In essence, it results in a re-hearing of the evidence or of the mitigation and the Crown Court judge, together with two lay Magistrates decides the case from afresh.
If you are given positive advice to appeal to the Crown Court and you choose to follow that course of action, we will take care of the rest. An appeal needs to be lodged within 21 days of the date that the case concluded.
Again, if you received legal aid in the Magistrates/ Youth Court and your financial circumstances have not changed, you may be entitled to apply for legal aid for the appeal. Please refer to the Fees & Funding page for more details.
From the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal:
Appealing from the Crown Court to the Court of appeal is not automatic. If you have been convicted and or sentenced and have been advised there are grounds of appeal against your conviction and or sentence you will be told in writing if the grounds exist or not. If you receive a positive advice on appeal, we will pursue this on your behalf and seek leave from a single judge to appeal. This is a paper exercise and in effect we seek permission from the single judge to appeal your conviction or sentence or both.
If leave/permission is granted this leads to a hearing before the full court. Our team of solicitor advocates have had a number of victories before the full Court and if we take the view that the appeals process has been exhausted then we will refer your case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission or any other body that we feel appropriate that can assist you.
Judicial Review:
We have a dedicated team that are able to identify and progress potential claims for Judicial Review.
Funding & fees
If the judge grants leave he or she will usually grant funding for the appeal. Again, if you want to discuss privately funding an appeal then we can do so on a case by case basis.