Criminal Appeals

Our criminal appeals team deal with a huge variety of cases. We firmly believe that every person should be treated as equal before the law and that miscarriages of justice occur – particularly given the neglect which has been shown to our criminal justice system and the decimation of legal aid budgets.

Members of our team have interests in various specialised areas of criminal appeals, including appeals against joint enterprise convictions following the 2016 Supreme Court case of R v Jogee, appeals against indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP), appeals involving youths and vulnerable persons including women in the criminal justice system and individuals suffering from mental health conditions whose difficulties were not fully appreciated at their trial.

We are receiving increasing number of requests to look at issues raised by the Modern Slavery Act 2015 by potential victims of exploitation and those who have had positive grounds decisions from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

Usually anyone who is convicted, sentenced or made subject to an order by a criminal court can ask for the outcome to be looked at again. If it is from a Youth Court or Magistrates’ Court, you do not need permission, but you must do so within 21 days of the case ending unless there is good reason to extend that period.

If the decision was made in the Crown Court, you will have 28 days from the date of that decision to apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal. Again, that period can be extended if there is good reason to do so. If you have been refused permission or your appeal has been rejected, you may be able to apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to review your case. There are other specialist forms of appeal involving Judicial Review or Case Stated which we also can assist with.

It depends on the type of appeal. A Crown Court judge can certify a point of law for appeal, or you may need to apply to the Court of Appeal.

Permission is granted by the Judge who originally heard the case and whose decision you wish to Appeal or (if not sought from him, or sought and refused) you apply to the Court to which you are Appealing, for that Permission. Generally, in order to obtain that permission, the Judge will evaluate whether you have a real prospect of success in your Appeal.

We specialise in applications to the Court of Appeal and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. We work to overturn unsafe convictions and sentences which are manifestly excessive. We take on a broad range of cases, often where the defendant has been represented by a different legal team within the original proceedings.

Sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPPs) were created by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and started to be used in April 2005. They were designed to protect the public from serious offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence.

We understand that the system of criminal appeals is a complex one and client care is at the heart of everything we do – ensuring that each client understands the appeals process and the reasons behind each step we take is of utmost importance to us.

Our ethos is to do all we can to fight for our clients, litigating fearlessly and without favour to anyone, on their behalf. We are passionate about fighting for justice and will explore all realistic avenues of appeal on behalf of our clients where we feel that they may have been let down by the criminal justice system.

If you have a concern about a conviction which you or a loved one have received, or if you believe that a sentence is manifestly excessive, please do not hesitate to contact the GT Stewart Appeals Team.