ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: Damian Taylor, Olga Ladrowska, Lawal Ijaodola and Eleanor Higginson, Slaughter and May
Permission to appeal will usually only be granted if the appeal has a real prospect of success or if there is some other compelling reason for it to be heard. 10.3 Procedure for Taking an Appeal The procedure for taking an appeal involves fil- ing a notice of appeal and, where permission is required, an application for permission to appeal. These must be filed within the timeframe prescribed by the court that made the decision appealed against, or otherwise within 21 days from the date of the decision being appealed against. To appeal from the Court of Appeal to the UK Supreme Court, a party must seek per- mission to appeal within 28 days after the date of the Court of Appeal’s decision. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal Generally, the appeal court will only review the first instance decision on the grounds that the judgment was either incorrect – due to an error of fact or law, or the exercise of the court’s discretion – or unjust because of a procedural irregularity or other serious issue. Litigants are expected to raise all relevant points during the original proceedings. However, with the court’s permission, there are circumstanc- es in which new points can be introduced on appeal, particularly if these points pertain to new evidence that has become available and could not reasonably have been obtained during the first instance. 10.5 Court-Imposed Conditions on Granting an Appeal The court can impose conditions when grant- ing an appeal, and these conditions will depend on the circumstances of the case. The court may require the appellant to provide security for
costs, impose time limits for submissions, grant a stay of proceedings or limit the grounds on which the appeal can be pursued. 10.6 Powers of the Appellate Court After an Appeal Hearing After hearing an appeal, the appellate court may allow or dismiss the appeal, either wholly or partially. This may involve upholding the original decision, reversing it, remitting the case or part of it to the lower court, modifying the decision and/or awarding costs. Since the appellate court has general control over the matters covered under the scope of the appeal, it can make any order that it considers the lower court ought to have made regarding those matters. 11. Costs 11.1 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation The general rule is that “costs follow the event”, which means that the unsuccessful litigant is liable to pay the costs incurred by the success- ful litigant (in addition to its own legal costs). In practice, the court has broad discretion in the matter of costs. As a more unusual example, the court may even order a non-party (such as a litigation funder) to pay costs if it considers that to be appropriate. Once the court has decided who is to pay costs, the next step is to quantify the amount of those costs. Unless litigants can reach an agreement, the court will assess costs with a view to ensur- ing that only those that were reasonably (and, in most cases, proportionately) incurred are paid. That means that a successful litigant will never recover all of its costs; in practice, it is very unu- sual for a litigant to recover more than 70% of its costs.
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