Magistrates’ court appeals to the Crown Court

A. Select the route from plea and complaint

Under Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 section 108(1), the ordinary position is that a defendant who pleaded guilty may appeal to the Crown Court against sentence; a defendant who pleaded not guilty may appeal against conviction, sentence or both. A conviction appeal can therefore challenge the magistrates’ assessment of witnesses and the inference they drew from the evidence. It is not limited to a transcript-based search for an error of law.

The appeal is a rehearing under Senior Courts Act 1981 section 79(3). The Crown Court can receive admissible evidence, hear witnesses and reach its own conclusions on the appealed issues. On a conviction rehearing, the prosecution still has to prove the charge to the criminal standard: the appellant does not acquire a burden to prove innocence because the magistrates convicted. On a sentence-only appeal, guilt is not reopened merely because the appellant now disputes the allegation.

The ordinary hearing is before a Crown Court judge with two to four magistrates, not a jury. Those magistrates must not have taken part in the original decision. CrimPR 34.11 permits specified departures, including sitting with one magistrate to avoid unreasonable delay or to finish an appeal begun with more magistrates; the judge may sit alone where an appeal against conviction is not contested. These composition rules do not change the nature of the ordinary contested appeal into a jury trial.

The statutory declaration and reopening mechanisms are respectively addressed by Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 sections 14 and 142 and their procedural rules. They are not general devices for avoiding an expired appeal period. A guilty plea alleged to be equivocal, involuntary or legally invalid requires analysis of that precise defect and the available corrective or legal route; a simple change of mind does not create the ordinary conviction rehearing excluded by section 108. The exceptional treatment of a conviction referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission is considered later.

B. Procedure, permission and deadline

No ordinary leave requirement. A defendant exercising the ordinary section 108 right does not first have to persuade a judge to grant permission. That is distinct from an appellant who is already out of time and needs the Crown Court to extend the notice period. CrimPR 34.2 and 34.10 regulate those different questions.

Serve the notice. Under CrimPR 34.2–34.3, the appellant serves the appeal notice on the magistrates’ court officer and, for a defendant’s appeal, the prosecutor. Identify the conviction, sentence, order or failure to make an order being challenged; specify the issues; and provide the required information for preparation, including relevant witnesses and any communication or language needs. Do not substitute a letter expressing general unhappiness for an effective appeal notice.

An adjournment simply to obtain a report is not automatically the statutory deferment of sentence mentioned in the rule. Record what order the court actually made. Equally, do not wait for a Crown Court sentencing hearing where an earlier committal for sentence has already started the clock for appealing the magistrates’ conviction.

Late notice. The Crown Court can extend a Part 34 time limit even after expiry under CrimPR 34.10. Under CrimPR 34.2(3), serve the notice with the extension application and an explanation for the delay. State the relevant chronology accurately and provide the material supporting the explanation. The power is discretionary: lateness does not turn the ordinary no-leave route into an entitlement to an extension.

C. Crown Court powers and sentence risk

Under Senior Courts Act 1981 section 48, the Crown Court can correct an error in the proceedings under appeal, confirm, reverse or vary the decision, remit the matter with its opinion, or make an order that the magistrates’ court could have made. On a successful conviction appeal it can reverse the conviction; on a sentence appeal it reconsiders the disposal within the jurisdiction available below. A rehearing is not confined to finding an error and sending the case back.

A sentence may increase. In an ordinary defendant appeal from the magistrates’ court, the Crown Court may impose a more severe sentence, but only within the sentencing powers that the magistrates’ court had in that case. Its wider sentencing powers in indictment cases do not enlarge this appellate ceiling. Advice should therefore address the attainable benefit, the lawful ceiling and the risk of an increased sentence, not simply promise that an appeal cannot make things worse. An appropriate costs order is also possible; discontinuing an appeal does not guarantee there will be no costs consequence (CrimPR 34.9; Part 45).

Abandonment also has a procedure. Under CrimPR 34.9, before the hearing begins the appellant can abandon the appeal by the required notice; once the hearing has begun, the Crown Court’s permission is needed. Reassess the risk with the client before the hearing rather than assuming withdrawal is always unilateral. A subsequent legal challenge to the Crown Court’s appellate decision is considered next; there is no automatic second factual appeal to the Court of Appeal.