Appeals and judicial review

General principles—appeals

In principle, every order made by a court can be subject to an appeal. Appeals need not relate to the whole of the order made, but simply to part of it, eg costs. However, an appellant cannot appeal simply because they do not agree with the order made by the court—it must either be wrong in law, or unjust due to some serious procedural or other irregularity and unmeritorious appeals can have costs implications for the unsuccessful appealing party.

A prospective appellant must seek permission to appeal in almost all cases. Permission is not required in relation to:

  1. a decision of a bench of lay magistrates or a single lay justice

  2. a committal order

  3. a secure accommodation order

  4. a refusal to grant habeas corpus for release in relation to a minor

See Practice Notes: Appeals—general principles, practice and procedure, Applications for permission to appeal in the Family Court and Appeals in public law children proceedings.

Procedure—appeals

Certain appeals from circuit judges and recorders lie to the High Court rather than the Court of Appeal with effect

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

Powered by Lexis+®
Latest Family News

High Court judgment demonstrates usefulness of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 in Schedule 1 claims (Re P (A Child) (Financial Provision))

Family analysis: In this Schedule 1 case the mother received, for her son’s benefit: a housing fund of nearly £1m (the property to be held on trust); child maintenance (including ‘HECSA’/carer’s allowance) until completion of his first degree; and lump sums in respect of his capital needs and her own substantial liabilities (chiefly relating to her unpaid legal fees). The father (whose resources could be measured in the ‘tens of millions of pounds’) had sought to prejudice the mother’s claims via transferring his valuable shares to family members, who then transferred the same into a trust structure (settled under Czech law). A further onwards transfer was then made of the trust’s assets into a Liechtenstein foundation. Inferences were drawn by the court in respect of the level of the father’s wealth, and specifically as to the value of the transferred shares. Detailed findings were made against him in respect of the identified transactions, which had been the focus of the mother’s section 423 application. Although a section 423(2) order was not actually made, the application was adjourned pending the father’s compliance with the award, with security in the sum of £600,000 also ordered, alongside a continuation of the freezing orders made earlier in the proceedings. David Wilkinson, solicitor at Slater Heelis, considers the issues.

View Family by content type :

Popular documents