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General Notices:14 June 2023, Court of Appeal Criminal

General Notices:14 June 2023, Court of Appeal Criminal

List to Fix Dates and Case Management Lists

Listing Procedures

LIST TO FIX DATES

Appeals are entered in the List on receipt of the submissions of the moving party. The List of such cases will be published in the Legal Diary in due course and cases will be added to the List as submissions of the moving party are filed.  For administrative reasons the List closes on the preceding Wednesday and any case where submissions of the moving party are received after 1pm that day and before the date of the List and where possible may be added to the end of the List as a “late addition”. Otherwise, the case will be included in the subsequent List to Fix Dates (date to be published in the Legal Diary). If there is a degree of urgency in the appeal the office will, at the request of the solicitor for the moving party, include the appeal in a management list on a convenient Friday to facilitate an application for a priority hearing.
 
Where an appeal extends to sentence as well as conviction practitioners are requested to ensure that the submissions deal with both aspects of the appeal.  With effect from Easter term 2018 the court has endeavoured, as far as practicable, to hear the sentence appeal on the same day as the conviction appeal to save time and to avoid additional listings although it may be that a decision on sentence is not required if the conviction appeal is successful.
 
Replying submissions:

As a matter of practice the Court requires that the replying submissions of the respondent to an appeal be filed and served no later than two weeks before the hearing date allocated.
 
Books of Authorities:

Four copies of the Book of Authorities of the moving party should be lodged no later than two weeks before the hearing date and a copy of the index furnished to the solicitors for the respondent.  Four copies of a Book of any authorities not included in the moving party’s Book and intended to be relied on by the respondent are to be lodged no later than one week before the hearing date and a copy of the index furnished to the solicitors for the moving party. Practitioners will be aware that in undue leniency applications the Chief Prosecution Solicitor prepares an eversion of the Book of Authorities on which the Director of Public Prosecutions intends to rely and furnishes such eBook to the solicitors for the respondent and to the Court.  This practice is currently under review as to whether it may be extended to other appeals coming before the Court. 
 
Note:  practitioners are reminded that the Court is very familiar with the leading cases on principles of sentencing and there is no need to include such cases in the Books of Authorities – a reference in the submissions to any such case and, if deemed necessary by counsel, a short extract setting out the principles concerned, will for the most part suffice.
 
Documentary exhibits:

Three copies of any relevant documentary exhibits are to be lodged by the solicitors for the moving party no later than one week before the hearing of the appeal.  Practitioners will be aware of the contents of the Practice Direction CA02 dealing with documentary exhibits in sentence appeals and undue leniency applications including any post-sentencing materials intended to be put before the Court in the event of an error in principle being found. The Practice Direction has been revised to provide for the availability of four (rather than three) copies of any post-sentencing materials to be put before the Court. Post sentencing material must be separately bound and clearly marked as such.

 

CASE MANAGEMENT LIST

Management lists sit most Friday’s during Term. It is advisable to check with the office in advance to confirm such sittings. Lists will be published in the Legal Diary.

Procedural note: all motions, applications for enlargements of time to appeal, applications to transfer a legal aid (appeal) certificate, applications for priority hearing dates and other miscellaneous applications which can be dealt with by a Judge sitting alone will be listed on an ongoing basis on the Friday that the management list is sitting at 10 o’clock before the President. Unless the Court otherwise directs no application for a hearing date will be entertained at the Management List unless the submissions of the moving party have been filed. 

Applications for bail pending appeal

Such applications are brought by way of Notice of Motion grounded on affidavit and made returnable for a management list for directions not less than 7 days after service of the motion papers on the Chief Prosecution Solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions.  It should be noted that instead of allocating a date for the hearing the application for bail the Court may give directions for the filing of submissions and fix an early hearing date for the appeal.

Applications for a legal aid (appeal) certificate

Where an appellant was legally aided for the trial and application is made to the Court of Appeal for a legal aid (appeal) certificate such application will be dealt in chambers and ruled in open court at a management list. There is no requirement that the solicitors for the appellant attend for such ruling as notification of the grant of a legal aid (appeal) certificate (which will be on the same basis as the representation at the trial) will issue to the solicitors concerned except in cases of a change of solicitor which will be listed in a case management list for application in relation to notice of change of solicitor and legal aid (appeal) certificate.

Any enquiry in relation to the List to Fix Dates or the Management List may be made via email to courtofappealcriminal@courts.ie

A. Gaughan
Court of Appeal Criminal Office Manager
14 day of June, 2023