28. Appeals from the Crown Court
Sentence correction, leave, conviction and sentence appeals, fresh evidence, retrials, references, prosecution appeals, CCRC and Supreme Court.
How to study for BSB Criminal Litigation
Prepare for a closed-book assessment by linking every power, gateway, burden, procedure and appellate route to its place in the criminal case.
Core concepts
Concept 1
The Crown Court may correct qualifying sentencing mistakes, while appeals against conviction or sentence require the Court of Appeal route and ordinarily leave.
Exam cue: Identify appellant or referring authority, decision challenged, time, leave and governing test.
Concept 2
Counsel must advise promptly, settle properly arguable grounds and comply with notice, renewal and fresh-evidence procedure, including any loss-of-time risk.
Exam cue: Frame conviction grounds around safety and sentence grounds around principle or manifest excess rather than simple disagreement.
Concept 3
The syllabus also covers retrials, unduly lenient sentence references, prosecution appeals against rulings, CCRC referrals and certified-point appeals to the Supreme Court.
Exam cue: For fresh evidence, address credibility, admissibility, explanation for non-use and impact on safety.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Treating an application for leave as an automatic second trial.
Guardrail: Do not import a current-law change into the assessment merely because it post-dates the syllabus cut-off; use the latest BSB-issued syllabus or amendment for exam scope.
Filing grounds that merely repeat rejected submissions without identifying appellate error.
Guardrail: Do not import a current-law change into the assessment merely because it post-dates the syllabus cut-off; use the latest BSB-issued syllabus or amendment for exam scope.
Assuming the prosecution has the same general right to appeal as a convicted defendant.
Guardrail: Do not import a current-law change into the assessment merely because it post-dates the syllabus cut-off; use the latest BSB-issued syllabus or amendment for exam scope.
Memory anchors
Conviction appeal
The Court of Appeal allows the appeal if the conviction is unsafe.
Sentence appeal
Identify legal error, wrong principle or a sentence that is manifestly excessive.
Leave and renewal
Seek leave through the required notice and renew properly after a single-judge refusal where advised.
Fresh evidence
Address capability of belief, admissibility, explanation and relevance to safety.
Special routes
Know retrial, unduly lenient sentence, prosecution ruling appeal, CCRC and Supreme Court certification routes.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A Crown Court judge realises shortly after sentence that credit for time served was omitted. What power may permit correction?
What is the ordinary prescribed period for the Crown Court to exercise its sentence-variation power?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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