Route-first framework and comparison

First instance means the original decision. Appellate jurisdiction means a court is dealing with a challenge to an earlier court’s decision. The Crown Court exercises both. It may try an indictment, sentence after a magistrates’ committal, or rehear a magistrates’ appeal. Those are different jurisdictions even though the court building and the judge’s title may be the same. The principal statutory routes are in Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 sections 108 and 111, Senior Courts Act 1981 sections 28, 28A, 48 and 79, and Criminal Appeal Act 1968 sections 1, 9–11.

A rehearing decides the appealed matter again. An appellate review instead asks whether the statutory ground for intervention is established. Leave means permission to appeal. A certificate is a particular judicial certification required or recognised by legislation; it is not interchangeable with permission in every route. A reference places a case or legal question before a court through a designated public body or Law Officer, rather than through the defendant’s ordinary notice of appeal. Quashing sets aside a decision; remittal sends a matter back for the lower court to decide in accordance with the appellate ruling.

The table is a selection aid, not a choice of routes that can all be kept alive indefinitely. In particular, applying for a magistrates’ case stated causes the right to appeal that decision to the Crown Court to cease: Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 section 111(4). The statutory basis of a qualifying order must also be identified; not every complaint about court administration is an appeal against conviction or sentence.

Count the unit and the trigger separately. Under Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 rule 2.2, business days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday and bank holidays. A period expressed as days, rather than business days, is not converted into working days. For the ordinary notices below expressed as days after an event, exclude the event day and count from the following day. Do not carry that convention into a provision expressly beginning with an event: the further Supreme Court application described below is an important contrast. Check service requirements as well as preparation of the document; saving a draft does not serve a notice.

Interim protection is separate from the appeal. A client in custody needs advice about a bail application; filing an appeal does not itself release the client. Similarly, do not assume that a challenged order has been suspended. Identify any available stay or bail power and ask for the required order. CrimPR 34.2(3)–(4), Criminal Appeal Act 1968 section 19, and the relevant bail procedure address different settings; use the bail teaching for their substantive requirements.

The following sections give the exact periods, powers, extension routes and consequences. Do not assume one appeal mechanism corrects every error or restarts another clock. Authorities: Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 sections 108 and 111; Criminal Appeal Act 1968; CrimPR Parts 34–35 and 39.