Few questions

hotspur

Hi, Hopefully someone can answer or point me in the right direction on a few questions, I'm quite ignorant about the areas I am asking about:

1) Does the Court of Criminal Appeal take an August & September summer break?

2) Does anybody have an idea or is it even possible to find out what the average length of time is between lodging a criminal appeal and the hearing date? And failing that how far in advance are they scheduled? That is, could you find out relatively quickly when the appeal date is set for even though the date may be far away?

3) If application to appeal on severity of a custodial sentence is granted for a relatively minor offence is how typical is it for bail to be granted? At what point in the process can bail be applied for?

4) Is it true that one cannot request a change of prison (or just will not be granted) during a period when one has an appeal hearing pending?

5) (really showing my ignorance of matters here) If the case were originally head in the District Court with only a solicitor and the appeal is in the Court of Criminal Appeal does that mean the client now requires a barrister for the hearing of the appeal?

6) How much new or better information / advocacy can there be in the appeal?

Thanks for any help.

445279.ie

Cases heard in the District Court are appealed to the Circuit Court not the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Tom Young

hotspur wrote: »

Hi, Hopefully someone can answer or point me in the right direction on a few questions, I'm quite ignorant about the areas I am asking about:

1) Does the Court of Criminal Appeal take an August & September summer break?

2) Does anybody have an idea or is it even possible to find out what the average length of time is between lodging a criminal appeal and the hearing date? And failing that how far in advance are they scheduled? That is, could you find out relatively quickly when the appeal date is set for even though the date may be far away?

3) If application to appeal on severity of a custodial sentence is granted for a relatively minor offence is how typical is it for bail to be granted? At what point in the process can bail be applied for?

4) Is it true that one cannot request a change of prison (or just will not be granted) during a period when one has an appeal hearing pending?

5) (really showing my ignorance of matters here) If the case were originally head in the District Court with only a solicitor and the appeal is in the Court of Criminal Appeal does that mean the client now requires a barrister for the hearing of the appeal?

6) How much new or better information / advocacy can there be in the appeal?

Thanks for any help.

Seems as though you are looking for legal advice here which is against the charter, isn't it?

Whlle this might be a relatively minor and academic set of questions, I think a solicitor might be the best person to advice on the answers.

Jo King

The Court of Criminal Appeal only hears appeals from the Circuit Criminal Court, The Central Criminal Court and the Special Criminal Court. It is based on an analysis of the transcript of the trial.
The Circuit Court hears appeals from the District Court. It is a de novo hearing which means the entire trial is repeated and new evidence may be introduced.
Where a prisoner is detained is a matter for the Prison Service and nothing to do with the courts.

hotspur

Thanks for the replies. I may have been wrong regarding the district court. Mostly I wished to know if the Court of Criminal Appeals took a summer break.

None of this has anything to do with me btw.