If you've been convicted in the Magistrates’ Court and you believe that you've been wrongly convicted or your sentence isn't within the sentencing guidelines, you have the right to appeal that conviction and/or sentence.
You must lodge a notice of appeal with the Magistrates’ Court you were convicted at within 21 days of the date you were sentenced. You'll then be advised of a court date at the Crown Court for your appeal to be heard.
You have the automatic right to appeal if you do so within the 21-day time frame. If you want to appeal after 21 days, you'll need to write to the Crown Court for permission before you can appeal.
If you're appealing by way of a case stated, different rules apply. It's important to call us to ensure you don't miss any important filing deadlines.
If you want to appeal a court decision, we strongly advise you to talk to us. Having an experienced solicitor by your side when appealing a conviction and/or sentence is always beneficial.
We’ve decades of experience in representing clients in motoring offence cases. We’ll act on your instructions and advise you on what we believe is the best course of action.
When it comes to appealing a motor offence conviction, it’s vital you’re well represented. Appealing to the Crown Court essentially means your case will be trialled again and therefore it is essential you have the best representation. If successful, your conviction and sentence will be quashed.
In some cases, you may be able to seek for your case to be reopened. This'll see your conviction and any sentence set aside and the proceedings will start again from the beginning.
You'll need to explain when you first found out about the proceedings and why you were unaware of them. This might be because the court didn't send you a notice of a court hearing and the first time you found out about the proceedings was when you got a letter confirming the sentence imposed against you.
To have a case reopened, you must notify the court as soon as possible and arrange for a statutory declaration to be made. In this, you can give your reasons why you were unaware of the proceedings which happened in your absence.
We can help you get your case reopened and give you the opportunity to answer to the case against you.
The court has to power to reopen a case to correct a mistake or an error that has occurred.
For example, if the court has fined you, but not reduced the fine to reflect credit for an early guilty plea, this should be corrected.
If you think the court has made a mistake in your case, contact us to discuss. We can help you apply to the court and ask for your case to be reopened so that the mistake can be rectified.
We’ll begin by collecting and reviewing all the relevant documentation relating to your case and taking a full statement of events from you. We’ll then be able to advise you on your appeal options.
We’ll draft and lodge a Notice of Appeal to the court, help you complete a Statutory Declaration or apply to the court to reopen your case – whatever is required. We will help you prepare the necessary evidence to support your case. We’ll also arrange for you to be represented by a specialist barrister at court.
