As Joshua Rozenberg points out (Defendants should be allowed to waive their right to trial by jury, theguardian.com, 18 June), Sir Brian Leveson suggests reform to the system of appealing against a criminal conviction or sentence received in a magistrates court. As well as wanting to reduce the number of ways of appealing, he suggests axing the automatic right to appeal. He suggests that all requests to appeal should be “filtered” by judges. Transform Justice has carried out research to show that there are already big financial and cultural barriers to appealing against a sentence from a magistrates court. New court charges are an additional disincentive.
Many people are now convicted in magistrates courts without being represented by a lawyer. How could someone put together legal arguments to appeal without legal help? If the automatic right to appeal is abolished, fewer will appeal and more miscarriages of justice are likely to occur.
Penelope Gibbs @PenelopeGibbs2
Director, Transform Justice
