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Practice Direction No 2 of 2019 - Criminal Appeals

COURT OF APPEAL

PRACTICE DIRECTION NO. 2 OF 2019

CRIMINAL APPEALS

General

1. The purpose of this practice direction is to supplement the Rules of the Court in order to achieve a more timely disposition of criminal appeals.
   

Appeal records

2. From 1 July 2019 upon the filing of a notice of appeal as of right under section 21(1)(a), 21(2)(a) or section 22 of the Court of Appeal Act 1949 (the Act) or upon the filing of an application for leave to appeal or upon an application for an enlargement of time, the Registrar shall obtain copies of the summing up (from the High Court), the judgment and the sentence.
   
3. From 1 July 2019 the Registrar, upon the filing of a notice of appeal as of right or upon leave having been granted or upon an enlargement of time having been granted or upon the filing of a notice to renew a leave application before the Court of Appeal, shall arrange for the transcription of any sound recording of the evidence and of the court’s notes of the proceedings (including interlocutory mentions and pre-trial conferences) and the notes of evidence.
   
4. The Registrar shall, within 42 days of filing of any of the documents in paragraph 3 forward to the legal practitioner for the appellant copies of the transcripts referred to in paragraph 3 for the preparation of the appeal record.
   
5. For appeals filed after 1 July 2019 appeal records are to be lodged for certification within 42 days of receipt by the legal practitioner for the appellant of the transcripts referred to in paragraph 4.
   
6. For all criminal appeals that were filed prior to 1 July 2019, the following arrangements are to apply:
   
   • (i) Where the notice of appeal was filed in 2015 or earlier, the appeal record is to be lodged for certification no later than 31 December 2019;
     
   • (ii) Where the notice of appeal was filed in 2016 the appeal record is to be lodged for certification no later than 31 December 2019.
     
   • (iii) Where the notice of appeal was filed in 2017 the appeal record is to be lodged for certification no later than 30 June 2020.
     
   • (iv) Where the notice of appeal was filed in 2018 the appeal record is to be lodged for certification no later than 30 June 2020.
     
   • (v) Where the notice of appeal was filed between 1 January and 30 June 2019 the appeal record is to be lodged for certification no later than 31 December 2020.
     
   • (vi) The Court may extend the time for lodging the appeal record for certification by such time as is necessary under the circumstances of each case.
     
   • (vii) A reference to the filing of a “notice of appeal” in this paragraph is a reference to either the date on which the notice of appeal was filed as of right or the date of the Ruling granting leave or the date of the Ruling granting an enlargement of time or the date of filing of the notice of renewal of the leave application before the Court of Appeal.
     
7. The appellant’s legal practitioner shall collect the appeal record from the Registry within 14 days of certification of the record.
   

Written submissions

8. Within 42 days after certification of the appeal record the appellant’s legal practitioner is required to file and serve written submissions.
   
9. The respondent is required to file and serve answering written submissions within 28 days thereafter, in default of which the respondent is to be restricted to oral submissions only.
   

Abandonment

10. In the event of non-compliance by the appellant’s legal practitioner with paragraphs 5, 6, 7 or 8, then paragraph (13) and (14) of Rule 44 of the Rules apply as if non-compliance were non-compliance with any of the other requirements under Rule 44.
    
11. Abandonment is an automatic consequence of non-compliance with this Practice Direction and or Rule 44 of the Rules. Parties will not receive formal notice that the appeal is deemed to have been abandoned.
    
12. Apart from paragraphs 2 – 4 this Practice Direction does not apply where the appeal record is prepared by the Registrar for an unrepresented appellant.
    

DATED at Suva this __ 11^th day of June 2019.

W.D. CALANCHINI

PRESIDENT, COURT OF APPEAL