the barrister
33
There are statutory limits on the period of
with a view to creating their own bodies in
examine the intestines of a case and try to read
time for which a Commissioner can serve,
due course.
in them the thousands of words that would
so all of the original Commissioners have
eventually make up the court’s judgment
now stood down in phases, and an entirely
The statutory provisions that create and
if the matter were to be referred. But the
fresh set of minds direct the Commission.
control the CCRC are brief and gnomic. The
margin of interpretation that surrounds the
On the management side, too, there have
Act tells us that we must not refer cases back
CCRC’s test is simply a reflection of a similar
been significant changes. There is now a
to the courts … unless; unless there is a ‘real
margin that has long accumulated around
small Senior Management Team led by the
possibility’ that the conviction or sentence
the Court of Appeal’s own test. As another
Principal Director.
would not be upheld (s.13 Criminal Appeal
Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, said in R v
Act 1995). So, our primary task consists of
Lake, 64 Cr. App. R. 172, “… such doubts are
When Sir Fred Crawford retired in 2003,
assembling complex webs of data, analysing
resolved not, as I say, by rules of thumb and
it was another academic who received the
them into manageable sets of information,
not by arithmetic, but they are largely by the
Chairman’s post, but this time one with a
and then trying to predict what might be
experience of the judges concerned and the
legal background. Professor Graham Zellick
the reactions of the appeal courts to any
feel which the case has for them.”
was keen to raise the Commission’s public
changes that have occurred since the original
profile and he has established a mature
hearings.
I say ‘appeal courts’, because
The complex and subtle relationship between
relationship with the legal press. Steering
the CCRC can send summary convictions
the CCRC and the Court of Appeal has been
the Commission through a more austere
for appeal in local Crown Courts, as well as
examined recently in several controversial
financial climate, he has reduced the number
Crown Court convictions for appeal in the
cases, the most recent being R v Cottrell; R
of Commissioners and promoted radical
Strand’s Criminal Division.
v Fletcher, [2007] EWCA Crim 2016 (31 July
changes in the Commission’s structure and
2007).
A century after the Court of Appeal
practices, while maintaining the productivity
The test at the heart of this process - fixed
was created and a decade after the CCRC
and standards of casework.
by Parliament as ‘real possibility’ – is almost
appeared on the scene, it’s clear that the
unique in legislation, despite being a familiar
evolution of our criminal appeal system is far
The CCRC now occupies three floors of Alpha
phrase in common law. Apart from the CCRC
from complete.
Tower and has a staff of about 100. Although
legislation, the term appears in only one
cases are generally reviewed by individuals,
other British statute: the Criminal Procedure
casework staff sit in groups to share experience
and Investigations Act 1996.
and ideas. An administrative section handles
received early attention from a Lord Chief
incoming applications and looks after them
Justice, Lord Bingham, in a judicial review
while they receive a preliminary assessment
heard on 18 May 1999, R v Criminal Cases
from a Commissioner to predict the amount
Review Commission, ex parte Pearson [2000]
of time each is likely to require. They are
1 Cr.App.R. 141, [1999] 3 All E.R. 498, [1999]
then allocated in turn so as to provide each
C.O.D. 202.
Its meaning
member of the casework groups with a balanced range of smaller and longer cases.
Lord Bingham, CJ, did not attempt to guide the CCRC by expressing the meaning of the
As well as support from their colleagues
term as a mathematical probability or ratio.
and Group Leaders, the casework staff can
Instead he preferred verbal analogies, many
turn to two Investigations Advisers, both of
drawn from the context of gambling. From ex
whom have been heads of CID in major police
parte Pearson we learn that a real possibility
forces, and two Legal Advisers, as well as a
is something more than ‘an outside chance’,
resourceful range of administrative support
or ‘a bare possibility’, or ‘an obviously
staff. The Commissioners are available to
threadbare argument’; but it is less than ‘a
discuss practical difficulties that arise, as
probability’, ‘a likelihood’, ‘a racing certainty’
well as sitting in more formal committees to
or ‘an assured success’. We can also deduce
consider case plans and ultimate outcomes.
that a real possibility is equal to ‘at least a reasonable prospect’.
Other
jurisdictions,
including
Norway,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA
This may not seem like a lot for the CCRC’s
have studied this British innovation carefully
Commissioners to go on when they come to