Issued pursuant to the provisions of section 7C(2) of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 (as inserted by section 10 of the Court of Appeal Act 2014)

PRELIMINARY

1. Order 86, rule 2(1) of the Rules of the Superior Courts requires that all appeals before the Court of Appeal shall be prepared for hearing or determination and heard and determined in a manner which is just, expeditious and likely to minimise the costs of the proceedings.
2. The parties to appeals before the Court of Appeal and their legal advisors are under an obligation to ensure that all steps in proceedings before the Court are taken expeditiously and in accordance with and within the time prescribed by the Rules of the Superior Courts and this Practice Direction.

PROVISION OF TRANSCRIPTS AND LISTING APPEALS FOR DIRECTIONS

3. The appellant must furnish the Registrar with the Notice of Appeal together with Grounds of Appeal, the venue of the trial, the relevant dates of the trial and, if the convicted or accused person seeks legal aid, a Statement of their Means. Once the Registrar is in receipt of all of these documents the Registrar will cause copies of the relevant transcripts to be made available in accordance with Order 87, rule 2 of the Rules of the Superior Courts. The Registrar shall forward copies of the certified transcripts to the parties (with a note that they are not verified) so that the parties may progress the appeal. The Registrar shall arrange for the production of verified transcripts and, when copies of verified transcripts become available, shall provide same to the parties.
4. Once the certified transcripts are released to the parties, the Registrar will list the appeal or application before the Judge in Charge of the List for Directions and will notify the parties in writing of the date of the first listing of the matter for directions.

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS

5. In the case of appeals against conviction, or against conviction and sentence, written submissions shall not, save with the prior leave of the Court, exceed 10,000 words. In the case of appeals against sentence (whether severity or undue leniency), the written submissions shall not, save with prior leave of the Court, exceed 5,000 words.
6. The submissions should identify and specifically address all authorities of significance to the resolution of the issues on appeal. Parties and practitioners are reminded of their responsibility to bring all relevant authorities to the attention of the Court and, for that purpose, are expected to take all reasonable steps to identify such authorities. Parties and practitioners must ensure that authorities on which they rely have not been subsequently reversed on appeal or overruled. Citation of authorities for propositions that are not in dispute should be avoided.

DIRECTIONS

7. At the first listing of the appeal before the Judge in Charge of the Directions List, the Judge may make directions for the hearing of the appeal to include:

1. A date for the filing of amended grounds of appeal (if necessary);
2. A date for the lodging and service of the appellant’s submissions;
3. A date for the lodging and service of the respondent’s submissions;
4. A date for the filing and service of the Books of Appeal;
5. A date and duration for the hearing of the appeal;
6. Any other direction as may seem appropriate to facilitate the hearing of the appeal, including directions in relation to the hearing of any pretrial applications.

CALLOVER OF APPEALS

8.  Six weeks prior to the week on which the appeal is listed for hearing (or at the list nearest to such date), there will be a callover by the Judge in Charge of the Directions List of the appeals listed for hearing during that week, to ensure that the directions of the Court have been complied with and that the appeal is ready to proceed, at which all parties should attend. The Judge may give such further directions in relation to the appeal as he or she sees fit in all the circumstances, including a direction that the appeal will proceed without a defaulting party’s written submissions, or that the hearing date be vacated and the appeal returned to the Directions List to be assigned a new hearing date. No submissions may be filed after the time fixed for their delivery without the express leave of the Court.
9. If any directions given by the Judge at the callover are not complied with, the Registrar shall list the appeal or application before the President of the Court of Appeal on the earliest Friday the Court is in session after any such default where it will be listed for mention in the Directions List of the Civil Appeals. The President will hear any explanation for the failure to comply with the previous directions of the Court and may vacate the hearing date of the appeal.

BOOKS OF APPEAL

10. Subject to any order made at a Directions hearing, the appellant shall, not later than four weeks before the date fixed for the hearing of the appeal, lodge in the Office of the Court of Appeal four hard-copy complete sets of Books of Appeal prepared in the manner set out in this Practice Direction. The appellant shall, at the time the hard-copy Books of Appeal are lodged, furnish to the Registrar a matching electronic copy of the Books of Appeal. This electronic copy should comply with the requirements of the Information Notice on Filing Appeal Papers Electronically in Civil Appeals during the Covid-19 Pandemic and related matters dated 20 April 2020 (and any Statutory Practice Direction that replaces it). Once the appeal books have been lodged with the Office, the appellant must, as soon as practicable, serve a hard copy of the books on the respondent(s).
11. Compliance with the time-limits at paragraph 10 above is essential to the proper functioning of the Court and the effective and efficient hearing of appeals. Any failure to comply with these time-limits or directions given in relation to a criminal appeal will result in the Court making such order as it considers just and appropriate in the circumstances, including the vacating of a hearing date.
12. The Registrar shall not accept Submissions or other documentation that are lodged at any time after the time specified in any Direction made under paragraph 7 above or Books of Appeal that are lodged at any time after the time-limit at paragraph 10 above, without express leave of the Court.
13. Books of Appeal should be bound, indexed and paginated. The record number and the names of the parties should be clearly indicated on the cover sheet. All documents in the Books of Appeal must be legible and complete.

The Books of Appeal shall comprise the following sections:

1. Core Section/Book containing:

1. The Rule of Court;
2. Notice of Appeal;
3. Respondent’s Notice (if applicable);
4. Grounds of Appeal (if not already set out in the Notice of Appeal);
5. Indictment;
6. Submissions of the appellant on the appeal;
7. Submissions of the respondent on the appeal;

2. Transcripts

The transcripts of the trial should be furnished as double sided documents with each day’s hearing stapled separately. Folders should not be used. Where necessary the transcripts may be placed in a box or boxes, with an index identifying the dates of the transcripts in each box and clearly labelled with the names of the parties.

3. Section/Book of Documentary Material

Documentary material includes any written materialwhich was relied upon in the trial court. Such material includes (but is not limited to):

1. Probation report(s);
2. Medical report(s) or letter(s) by suitably qualified medical practitioners;
3. Psychological report(s);
4. Psychiatric report(s);
5. Certificate(s) or other documentation relating to rehabilitative treatment;
6. Testimonial(s) by employers or other persons known to the convicted person;
7. Education report(s);
8. Governor report(s);
9. List of Previous Convictions;
10. Victim Impact Statement(s).

4. Book of Authorities

1. It is the responsibility of the parties to the appeal to agree a Book of Authorities which shall be filed as one of the Books of Appeal. To that end, and subject to any Directions given by the Court, no later than 8 weeks prior to the hearing date, the appellant should deliver to the respondent and any other parties to the appeal a draft list of the authorities to be included in the Books of Authorities having regard to subparagraphs (b)-(e) below. No later than 6 weeks prior to the hearing date, the respondent and any other party shall deliver to the appellant a list of any additional authorities to be included in the agreed Books of Authorities.
2. Where a case has been reported in the Irish Reports or the Irish Law Reports Monthly, such report is the only report of the case which should be included in the Book of Authorities. If a case has not been reported in the Irish Reports or the Irish Law Reports Monthly but has been reported in another series of law reports, that reported judgment should be included in the Book of Authorities.
3. No unreported judgment or computer-generated copy should be included where a reported judgment is available.
4. Parties, when agreeing the Book of Authorities, should have regard to the Court of Appeal (Criminal and Military)’s Book of Frequently Cited Authorities, which shall be made available on the Courts Service website. It shall not be necessary to include in any agreed Book of Authorities cases that are already provided in the Court’s Book of Frequently Cited Authorities.
5. Parties and practitioners are expected to exercise their judgment and to co-operate to ensure that, while all necessary authorities are provided to the Court, the provision of unnecessary authorities is avoided. Parties and practitioners are reminded that it is only necessary to include in the Books of Authorities those judgments that are likely to be referenced to a significant extent in oral argument and/or which the Court will require to review in detail in preparing for and deciding the appeal. It is not necessary that authorities, extracts from which are merely referred to in written submissions (and in particular those which simply apply well-known principles with which the Court will be familiar), should be included in Books of Authorities. The inclusion of multiple authorities for the same proposition of law should be avoided.
6. While the full report of a case should ordinarily be included in the Book of Authorities, where a case report is very lengthy and it is clear that a significant portion of the text contained in an authority is not relevant to the issues arising in the proceedings, an extract of the case report concerned will suffice, provided that the title of the case, the court(s) and date(s) of judgment, the subject headings and reporter’s headnote (if any) should always be included.
7. While the full text of primary and secondary legislation should ordinarily be included in the Book of Authorities, where the legislation concerned is very lengthy and it is clear that a significant portion of the text is not relevant to the issues arising in the proceedings, the following should be included:

1. The title page
2. The legislative provisions relevant to the issues arising;
3. Other key provisions of the legislation which may be of assistance in understanding the context of the provision which is relevant to the issues, e.g., the long title, any other subsections contained in the provision of the legislation concerned which are relevant and any other provision in the legislation which defines an expression used in the provision being relied on or would assist in interpreting or putting into context the provision being relied upon.

MOTIONS AND MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE APPLICATIONS

14. The Books in relation to motions or Miscarriage of Justice Applications should be bound, indexed and paginated and contain all relevant documents or as otherwise directed by the Judge in Charge of the Directions List. The record number and the names of the parties should be clearly indicated on the cover sheet.

IMPOSITION OF SENTENCE BY THE COURT OF APPEAL

15. In the event of an appeal against severity of sentence or an undue leniency application being allowed, the Court of Appeal will proceed to impose sentence. If it is desired to place up to date documentary material before the Court to assist in such exercise, four copies of any such material must be available in court on the day of the appeal hearing in bound, indexed, tabbed and paginated books.

GENERAL

16. Parties are expected to engage constructively with each other in identifying the materials (including authorities) which are genuinely required to be included in the papers provided to the Court so as to avoid the inclusion of unnecessary materials and avoid the risk of materials of significance being omitted from the books provided to the Court and having to be produced to the Court during the appeal hearing.
17. No additional material may be produced to the Court at the appeal hearing without express leave of the Court, save in accordance with paragraph 15 above.
18. The parties, and in particular counsel or solicitor presenting arguments, must ensure that at the hearing they are using the same Books of Appeal as those provided to the Court.
19. Non-compliance with a requirement of this Practice Direction may result in any one or more of the following consequences:

1. Where such non-compliance relates to a failure to comply with the requirements of this Practice Direction with respect to a document or appeal book, the Registrar may reject the document or appeal book.
2. In any case, the Court may make such orders as it considers just and appropriate in the circumstances, including (but not limited to):

1. May make further directions regarding outstanding matters;
2. May direct that an appeal will proceed without a defaulting party’s written submissions;
3. May vacate the hearing date.

20. This Practice Direction is without prejudice to any case management directions that the Court or any member of the Court may give in relation to the case management of any specific criminal appeal.
21. This Practice Direction will come into operation on 26 May, 2025.

14th day of May, 2025
The Hon. Ms. Justice Caroline Costello
President of the Court of Appeal