The Court of Appeal is the second highest court of the UK. Its decisions bind all courts, bar the Supreme Court. 

If you are convicted in the Crown Court, you can appeal against either your conviction or your sentence. 

There is not an automatic right to appeal to the Court of Appeal.  An application must first be made to a Single Judge, who will decide whether to allow permission to appeal. These applications must be expertly drafted, and it is important that you choose a firm, such as Lloyds PR Solicitors, who have experience in dealing with such appeals. 

Appeals against conviction

You will have 28 days from the date of your conviction to appeal. It is possible to make a late application, but reasons for your lateness must be given. The only ground that can be pursued is that the conviction is unsafe. This can include a number of causes, for example; 

    • Failure to refer to a defence

    • Misdirection on the facts

    • Wrongful admission or exclusion of the evidence

    • Defects in the indictment

    • Rejection of no case to answer

    • Jury irregularities

    • Irregularity in relation to verdict

    • Inappropriate comments by the Judge 

    • Prosecution failures over disclosure 

    • Additional evidence not available at the trial. 

 

Appeal against Sentence

 

You will have 28 days to submit an appeal post sentence. This application can be made late, if there are exceptional explanations given. 

There are two grounds of appeal: 

    1. The sentence was manifestly excessive, or; 

    2. The judge made an error of law. 

If your appeal against sentence is unsuccessful, there is a risk that the judge could order that the time spent on appeal does not count towards your sentence. This is known as a loss of time direction. We will never advise you to make an appeal unless we think it has merits.