Our legal expertise is a tremendous source of pride for us. We receive regular requests to review cases, both to establish whether there are grounds for challenging a particular ruling by a prosecuting authority or appealing the conviction or sentence of the accused.
If you have a criminal appeal, we can analyse your legal position regardless of whether we represented you in the original matter,
If you were to listen only to government ministers, you would be under the impression that miscarriages of justice are few and far between. On our experience, however, there are more individuals convicted today than at any time in modern history.
In recent years criminal appeals have become harder and harder to win. Successive UK governments have competed for over 30 years to be regarded as the toughest on crime. Successive governments have introduced measures to reduce the protection available for the accused while simultaneously making it far easier to bring successful convictions against people.
Some of the primary examples of this that have led to miscarriages of justice are:
- Informing a jury about a defendant’s character.
- Reduced funding available to pay for lawyers.
- Increased funding for prosection experts, but not defence experts.
- Significant incentives within the criminal justice framework for individuals who provide evidence on behalf of the Crown.
The above examples all contribute to the increased likelihood of a miscarriage of justice occurring.
There is a desire among many to remove the need for ‘corroboration’, a feature of the current system that many believe protects against miscarriages of justice.
The current system is weighted heavily against the party accused of wrongdoing. Both the Crown prosecution and the police spend considerable resources on conducting investigations. At the same time, lawyers working for Legal Aid are subject to limited funding, well below what is available to their opponents.
While the above is happening within the legal system of this country, the nation’s media have tirelessly campaigned against ‘criminals’. The effects of this can have a significant impact on juries. It is often far too late before this becomes apparent. By this time it is too late to do anything about it.
Our success record at criminal appeals is formidable. We attribute this excellent record to our comprehensive analysis of the original trial, our relentless attitude in seeking new evidence and our vast experience of putting forward cases in the Court of Appeal.
Grounds for a criminal appeal are usually based on a failure in representation in the original case or the emergence of new evidence not available at the time of the initial trial. Whatever the reason, we will examine all possible rights for appeal.
A criminal appeal can go all the way to the Supreme Court or the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (“SCCRC”). Wherever your case ends up, we will see it through to the end with you if you have grounds for appeal. We are diligent and relentless and work closely with some of Scotland’s finest legal minds in the field of appeal advocacy.
