About Criminal Appeals

First, you do not want to miss the appeal deadline, which is 30 days from the day that sentence was imposed by the trial court. A document called a Notice of Appeal setting out the grounds of appeal must be served on the appropriate branch of the Crown’s office and filed with the appropriate appeal court. Although it is possible to ask for an extension of time if you miss the deadline, this involves additional time and expense and comes with no guarantees. 

Second, if you are likely to be sentenced to custody, you will want to consider whether to bring an application for bail pending the appeal. Such applications take several weeks to prepare. The longer you wait to start the process, the longer you may have to be incarcerated before the application can be heard. 

It depends on the type of charges involved. Criminal offences with less serious penalties are called summary conviction offences. Appeals in these cases are heard by a single judge of the Superior Court of Justice in the same community in which the trial took place.

Criminal offences with more serious maximum penalties are called indictable offences. Appeals in these cases are heard by a panel of three judges in the Court of Appeal for Ontario located in Toronto, regardless of where in the province the trial took place. 

It depends on many variables but it can be anywhere from a few months to a year, and sometimes quite a bit longer. Generally speaking, the longer the trial, the longer it will take for the appeal to be heard. Proceed to Steps of an Appeal for more detailed information.

Ninety percent of an appeal takes place outside the courtroom, before the hearing. (Go to Steps of An Appeal for more detailed information.) The appeal lawyer must review the evidence from trial in detail, conduct legal research, and draft a factum, which is a detailed summary of the evidence and the legal arguments on appeal. The factum is the most important part of case preparation at the appeal level and can make or break the whole appeal.

After the appeal is heard, the court may take a brief recess and return to announce its decision right away. Often, however, the appeal court will ‘reserve’ judgment, meaning that it will take some time to consider the case for both sides and render its decision at a later date. There is no way to know when that might be – it could be days, weeks or months later.