The Court of Appeal Criminal Division
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I appeal?
How long will my appeal take?
What stages does my appeal have to go through?
I want to abandon my appeal. How do I do this?
How do I complain?
You need to make sure, first, that you should be appealing to the Court of Appeal and not to another court.
Appealing against sentence If you were sentenced at the Crown Court, you can appeal against your sentence to the Court of Appeal (even if you were convicted in the Magistrates Court)
Appealing against conviction You can only appeal against conviction to the Court of Appeal if you were convicted at the Crown Court. If you were convicted in the Magistrates Court, you need to appeal to the Crown Court (or possibly to the Administrative Court Office) and you should speak to the Magistrates Court for advice on how to appeal.
An appeal is made by filling in form NG, giving the reasons why you think the conviction or sentence was wrong (i.e. giving the grounds of appeal) and then sending that to the Crown Court where the conviction took place. The Crown Court will then copy all the documents used at the trial and send them, with form NG, to the Criminal Appeal Office, which provides administrative support to the Court of Appeal.
- If you want to ask for bail whilst your appeal papers are being processed, you need to fill in form B.
- If you want to ask for a witness to appear in court (usually for conviction matters only), you need to fill in form W.
- If your appeal is dismissed and you want to appeal to the House of Lords (After the hearing) you must use form HL
You can get form NG (Notice and Grounds of appeal), form B (asking for bail) and form W (asking for a witness to attend court) from any Crown Court; from this website (forms and guidance section) ; from the Prison Legal Aid or Personnel Officer.
You can get form A (abandoning your appeal or part of your appeal), form HL (asking for permission to appeal to the House of Lords) or any other appeal forms from the forms and guidance section of this website or from this office – see details below:
Criminal Appeal Office, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL
Criminal Appeal Office, DX 44450, Strand
Telephone: 020 7947 6011
Fax: 020 7947 6900
E mail: Criminal Appeal Office
You can fill in form NG yourself and send it to the Crown Court where you were convicted or your solicitor or barrister may be willing to do this for you (see How can I get legal advice about making an appeal?)
Form NG must be sent to the Crown Court or, if you are in custody, handed to a Prison Officer, within 28 days from the date of your conviction (for appeals against conviction) or within 28 days from the date of your sentence (for appeals against sentence).
If you are going to be outside those time limits, you need to ask for an “extension of time” (i.e. permission to send the form in late). You need to send in form NG containing your grounds of appeal and also the reasons why you were late in sending the form in. We cannot accept reasons for an extension of time on their own without the grounds of appeal (Rule 2 of the Criminal Appeal Rules 1968).
If you had a solicitor or barrister representing you at court free through public funding (under a Representation Order) they must give you advice (in writing if you request it) about whether or not there are good grounds for an appeal. If they think there are good grounds, they will fill the form in for you and send it to the Crown Court. The Representation Order will cover your solicitors and barrister taking any further necessary action on your behalf right up to the stage when your application is sent to a judge.
If you have already had advice from your barrister saying there are no grounds for appeal, you don't have the right to public funding to get further advice from a different barrister. You can always pay yourself to get advice from another firm of solicitors or another barrister.
In some circumstances it may be possible for you to be given further public funding to get advice from or have enquiries made by new legal representatives. However, it may be necessary for you to make enquiries about this with the Community Legal Service. They can be contacted on (details being obtained)
If you are not in custody you could look for further legal advice from a Citizens' Advice Bureau
There are a number of different factors which affect the time an appeal will take (see What factors can affect the time my appeal takes?). Our targets are being reviewed at the moment but at present are:
- to process straight forward conviction cases, on average, within 8 months (i.e. from receipt in the office to the final Courthearing)
- to process straight forward sentence cases, on average, within 5 months (i.e. from receipt in the office to the final Court hearing)
However, the appeal process is in two general stages:
- the first stage is getting the papers to a judge (“the Single Judge”) so s/he can decide, from looking at the papers, whether to grant “leave” (permission) to appeal (See How long will my appeal take to get a single Judge?)
- the second stage is preparing the case for a hearing in court.
- We have an over all target of getting all cases to a Single Judge before the appellant's release date.
- Length of sentence – we will try to get all cases heard in court before the appeallant's release date but this is not always possible. For appeals against sentence, cases with a shorter sentence are generally dealt with more quickly than cases with longer sentences
- Complexity – if a case is very complicated it will usually take longer
- Co-appellants – if your appeal is linked to someone else's, it may take longer eg if there are some issues relating to their file which are not proceeding so quickly
- Personal characteristics of appellant – we will take these into account if appropriate eg very young or old appellants or appellant suffering a serious illness
Subject to the factors set out above (in What factors can affect the time my appeal takes?), we try to ensure that straightforward sentence cases are sent to our General Office, for them to send to a Single Judge, within 5 to 6 weeks of receipt in the office. We try to send straightforward conviction cases to our General Office within 3 to 4 months of receipt.
Our General Office is responsible for sending papers to judges and its staff try to send papers to a judge within a few days of receipt. However, at various times (particularly Christmas, Easter and in August and September) there is limited availability of judges. This means there is sometimes unavoidable delay in the General Office sending the papers to a judge.
Judges usually make their decision and return the papers to the General Office within a month at most.
We will give your case a reference number and send confirmation that the appeal has been received. We will put the case details on our database and make a file up. The file is usually sent within 2 days to one of our casework sections (called sections A, B, C or D).
The casework section will make sure they have all the papers the judge will need in order to make a decision whether or not to give leave to appeal. This may take some time. They may need to get further papers from the Crown Court or your solicitors or barrister. They will also have to get a typed-up record (transcript) of what happened at the relevant time at the Crown Court. If the appeal is against conviction they may have to send a copy of the transcript to your barrister for him / her to “perfect” the grounds of appeal by referring to the transcript.
The casework group will send the papers to our General Office, which deals with allocation of all papers to judges. (See How long will my appeal take to get a single Judge?) Once the judge has made a decision, the papers are returned to the General Office and from there to the casework section. The judge may grant or refuse leave to appeal or, sometimes but not often, may refer the case to the Full Court of Appeal without having made a decision either way.
If the judge grants leave to appeal or the case is being referred to the Full Court of Appeal, the casework section will usually produce a Representation Order giving you public funding for a barrister to represent you whilst you continue with the appeal (unless an appellant is paying privately). They will send a copy to you and your barrister.
A case summary will be written (usually by a member of Criminal Appeal Office administrative or legal staff) to assist the judges at the full hearing of the appeal. If your case is very complex it can take some time to complete the summary. A copy of the case summary will be sent to your barrister or to you if you don't have a barrister acting for you.
Once the summary has been written all the papers will be copied for the judges and the case details sent to our List Office for them to set a hearing date.
If leave is refused, a copy of the judge's decision will be sent to you and you will need to sign and hand the form to a prison officer or return it to us within 14 days of receipt if you want to “renew” your application (i.e. if you disagree with the Single Judge's decision and want the Full Court of Appeal to consider your case).
You do not have a right to public funding for a barrister to represent you if your application is being renewed. You may be able to find a barrister who will represent you for free (“pro bono”) or you may be able to pay a barrister privately to represent you. If you are in prison you do not have the right to be present at the hearing of your renewed application.
As above (If leave to appeal is granted / referred) a case summary will be written and the papers copied before the case details are sent to our List Office for them to set a hearing date.
If you do not renew your application we will arrange for the case to be closed in due course. If your case is closed, we will send a letter confirming this.
The List Office will contact your barrister if you are being represented at the hearing. They will try to set a hearing date as quickly as possible and, subject to this, will try to set a date which is convenient for your barrister.
A letter will be sent to you telling you the date which has been set. If you are in prison and have been granted leave to appeal you have the right to be brought to court to listen to your appeal. However, if you don't want to attend, you can sign a paper saying this (i.e. “waiving” your right).
This will usually be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in a court room open to the public. There will usually be 3 judges to decide your appeal.
If the Single Judge refused leave to appeal and the Full Court confirms this, your appeal is at an end.
If the Single Judge refused leave to appeal but the Full Court grants leave, they will usually grant you public funding for a barrister to represent you and will ask for another hearing date to be set. Occasionally, the Full Court may decide your case there and then if your appeal is against sentence and the judges feel that your sentence should be reduced. (When told about the result, you would still have the right to a full hearing, with a barrister representing you, if you wished.)
A copy of the judges order will be sent to you. A typed up record of what the judges said when making the decision and their reasons (“the judgment”) is usually received in Criminal Appeal Office within 6 weeks of the date of the hearing.
If the Full Court has dismissed your appeal or refused leave to appeal, your appeal is at an end. If you feel the court has not considered your case properly you can apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), asking for your case to be referred back to the Court of Appeal. The CCRC's address is: Alpha Tower, Suffolk Street, Queensway, Birmingham, B1 1TT. The phone number is: 0121 633 1800.
If your appeal has been dismissed (but not if leave to appeal has been refused) you can ask the Court of Appeal to certify that a point of general public importance was involved in the decision. You need to make this application using form HL (see forms). If the Court of Appeal certifies that a point of general public importance was involved, you may then be able to appeal to the House of Lords.
If your conviction is quashed and you have already paid a fine which you want to reclaim, or if your conviction still stands and you now need to pay the fine, you should talk to the Magistrates' Court which dealt with you.
If you decide at any stage that you don't want to go on with your appeal or want to give up on part of your appeal, you must confirm this in writing by completing and sending us form A (see Where can I get these forms?).
The Court Service leaflet “I want to complain” sets out all the details concerning this. A copy will be supplied on request if you speak to one of our Customer Service Officers (020 7947 6011) or write to the Customer Service Manager, Criminal Appeal Office, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL or make your request by e mail to: Criminal Appeal Office
If you want to complain, the staff dealing with your problem will try to assist you there and then. If you are not satisfied you can write or send an e mail to the Customer Service Manager (see details above) or to the Court Manager (at the same address). If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Court Manager, you can write to the Group Manager (at the same address). If still not satisfied you can contact the Court Service Customer Service Unit as set out below:
Customer Service Unit, 5th Floor, Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, SW1H 9HD
Telephone: 020 7189 2000
Fax: 020 7189 2732
Disability helpline: 0800 358 3506 (freephone)