Appeals
If you are convicted of an offence, the conviction itself as well as the length and/or type of sentence received can be appealed if suitable grounds can be found.
An appeal does not have to be made by the legal team who ran your original trial. Fresh eyes can be an advantage when considering whether there are realistic grounds of a successful appeal, and Zafar is frequently asked to advise on appeals where he has not been involved in the original trial.
Zafar is able to identify compelling and unusual appeal points that other counsel have missed, and has successfully taken appeal cases in the following areas:-
- Incompetent preparation by trial counsel
- Application of undue pressure by legal advisors (solicitors & barristers) on defendant to plead guilty
- Wrongly admitted evidence
- Incorrect rulings by original trial judge
- Incorrect use of bad character / previous convictions
Click on the ‘contact’ tab to get in touch for a quote for a written advice on appeal.
Recent appeals include:
R v McCarthy
Zafar recently secured the rare intervention of the Court of Appeal (presided over by Hallett LJ the Vice-President of the Criminal Division), via substitution of a lower charge and early release of a young defendant who had wrongly pleaded to s.18 Wounding under the misapprehension he was pleading to s.20, further to former Counsel’s advice. Read the judgment here: