Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act 1933
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1933 c. 38 |
Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act, 1933
(23 & 24 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 38.
An Act to amend the law relating to appeals from courts of summary jurisdiction.
[28th July 1933]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Amendment of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. s. 31.
1. The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, shall have effect as if for section thirty-one of that Act (which relates to procedure on appeal to general or quarter sessions) there were substituted the following section:—
31 ‘Procedure on appeal to quarter sessions.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, where a person is authorised by or under any Act, including any local Act, to appeal to a court of general or quarter sessions against a conviction, sentence, order, determination or other decision of a court of summary jurisdiction, the following provisions shall apply:—
(i) the appeal shall be made to a court of quarter sessions having jurisdiction in the county, borough or place for which the court of summary jurisdiction acted;
(ii) the appellant shall, within fourteen days after the day on which the decision of the court of summary jurisdiction was given, give to the clerk to that court and to the other party notice in writing of his appeal, stating the general grounds of his appeal, and signed by him or by his agent on his behalf;
(iii) the appellant shall, after giving notice of appeal to the clerk to the court of summary jurisdiction and within twenty-one days after the day on which the decision of the court was given, enter into a recognisance with or without sureties as that court, or any other court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessional division or place, may have directed, and in such reasonable sum as, having regard to the purpose of the recognisance and to his means, they may have thought necessary to fix, conditioned to prosecute his appeal with diligence, or, with the consent of the court, he may, as respects the whole or any part of the sum so fixed, give such other security, by deposit of money with the clerk to the court, or otherwise, as the court deem sufficient;
(iv) where the appellant is in custody, the court who fix the recognisance to be entered into, or the other security to be given, under the preceding paragraph, or any other court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessional division or place, may, if they think fit, release him from custody on his complying with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, if he has not already done so, and on his either entering into a recognisance, with or without sureties, and in such reasonable sum as they think necessary to fix, conditioned to appear at the hearing of the appeal, or giving with their consent other security for his appearance;
(v) recognisances for the purposes of paragraphs (iii) and (iv) of this subsection may, if it be convenient, be combined in one recognisance;
(vi) quarter sessions may from time to time adjourn the hearing of any appeal;
(vii) quarter sessions may by their order confirm, reverse or vary the decision of the court of summary jurisdiction, or may remit the matter with their opinion thereon to a court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessional division or place as the court by whom the decision appealed against was given, or may make such other order in the matter as they think just, and by such order exercise any power which the court of summary jurisdiction might have exercised; and any order made by quarter sessions shall have the like effect and may be enforced in the like manner as if it had been made by the court of summary jurisdiction. Quarter sessions may also make such order as to costs to be paid by either party as they think just;
(viii) on an appeal against a conviction or a sentence, the powers of quarter sessions under the preceding paragraph shall be construed as including power to award any punishment, whether more or less severe than that awarded by the court of summary jurisdiction, which that court might have awarded;
(ix) the clerk of the peace shall send to the clerk to the court by whom the decision appealed against was given, for entry in his register, a memorandum of the decision of quarter sessions, and if the appeal was an appeal against a conviction or sentence or against an order, shall endorse a like memorandum on the conviction or order, as the case may be, and whenever any copy or certificate of the conviction or order is made, a copy of the memorandum shall be added thereto and shall be sufficient evidence of the decision of quarter sessions in every case where the copy or certificate would be sufficient evidence of the conviction or order;
(x) a notice of appeal under paragraph (ii) of this subsection may be transmitted to the person to whom it is to be given in a registered letter addressed to that person at his last or usual place of abode and, if so transmitted, shall be deemed to have been given at the time when it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.
(2) Nothing in the preceding subsection shall apply to, or affect the procedure on, appeals under sections three hundred and one to three hundred and thirteen of the Lunacy Act, 1890 , or under section ninety seven of the Poor Law Act, 1930 .’
2 Provisions as to legal aid.
(1) Where a person who has been convicted of an offence by a court of summary jurisdiction desires to appeal to quarter sessions against the conviction or the sentence but has not sufficient means to enable him to obtain legal aid for the purpose, he may make an application for free legal aid to the court by whom he was convicted or to any court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessional division or place, and, where a person so convicted has given notice of appeal to quarter sessions, the other party to the appeal, if he has not sufficient means to enable him to obtain legal aid for the purpose of resisting the appeal, may make an application for free legal aid to any court of summary jurisdiction acting for that division or place.
(2) If, on an application made to them under the preceding subsection, it appears to the court of summary jurisdiction that the means of the applicant are insufficient to enable him to obtain legal aid, and that, by reason of the nature of the offence of which the appellant was convicted, or by reason of the sentence, or of exceptional circumstances, it is desirable in the interests of justice that the applicant should have free legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his appeal, or, as the case may be, in resisting the appeal, the court may grant in respect of him a certificate (in this section referred to as ‘an appeal aid certificate’).
(3) Where, on an application made to them under this section, the court of summary jurisdiction have refused to grant an appeal aid certificate, the applicant may make an application for the same purpose to the court to whom the appeal lies either—
(i) by letter addressed to the clerk of the peace and setting out the facts of the case and the grounds of his application; or
(ii) in person to the court,
and the court shall have the like power, exerciseable on the like grounds, of granting an appeal aid certificate as the court of summary jurisdiction.
In this subsection the expression ‘the court’ means, in the case of an application sent by post to the clerk of the peace for a county, the chairman of the appeal committee of quarter sessions, and includes a deputy chairman of that committee.
(4) A person in respect of whom an appeal aid certificate has been granted under this section shall be entitled to free legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his appeal or in resisting the appeal, as the case may be, and to have a solicitor and counsel assigned to him for that purpose in the prescribed manner:
Provided that, where before the court to whom the appeal lies a party may be heard by a solicitor, the court or person granting the certificate may direct that a solicitor only shall be assigned.
(5) Where an appeal aid certificate has been granted under this section in respect of any party to an appeal, an order shall be made by the court before whom the appeal is heard, directing his costs, as fixed by, or ascertained in accordance with, rules made under this section, to be paid out of local funds, that is to say,—
(a ) where the court of summary jurisdiction by whom the appellant was convicted was a court acting for a borough, being a county borough, out of the general rate fund of the borough; and
(b ) in any other case, out of the county fund.
Where notice of the abandonment of an appeal has been received by the clerk of the peace, an order under this subsection may be made by any court before whom the appeal might have been heard if it had been duly prosecuted.
(6) So soon as the amount of the costs so payable has been ascertained, the clerk of the peace shall make out and transmit to each person to whom any sum is due an order for payment addressed to the treasurer of the county borough or county out of the funds of which the costs are payable, and the treasurer shall forthwith comply with the order, and shall be allowed the sum paid by him in his accounts, and, if any order for payment of costs has been made against the other party to the appeal in favour of the person in respect of whom...
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