From: "Derek Bernard", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ........ If magistrates were simply
> following the law as written and the judge was ruling objectively I would
> have won
>
> Steve.
>
My single experience of an Appeal to our Royal Court with respect to what,
in UK terms, would be a "Section 5" technicality, was the same.
Clearly, as a very interested party, I could readily be accused of bias, but
the quality of the "evidence" from the police was abysmal (eg. "riot guns
are only for the police and the public shouldn't have them"), and I formed a
distinct impression that the Bench simply could not contemplate the
authorities losing on a such an issue. In principle, if not at all in
degree, a bit like the Court of Appeal Judgement in the Birmingham Six Case
when they upheld the "Guilty" verdict in the face of overwhelming evidence
to the contrary, because "the alternative was too awful to contemplate".
Derek Bernard
--
I think in criminal cases you do stand more of a chance than in a Section 44
appeal because it has to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas with
an appeal it is the balance of probabilities.
My experience with Section 44 appeals is that to win it has to be something
really blatant rather than some fine point of you being right and them
misreading the law. The only Section 44 appeal I can recall in recent
history being successful in Birmingham was some chap who had had his
FAC revoked ten years ago, because someone said he pointed a pistol at
them during an argument, and the police searched the restaurant where
he worked and found his Glock, which he shot at the club in the evening
after work. He denied that he had pointed the gun at anyone, and no
charges were ever filed against him, but still his FAC was yanked.
Ten years later he applies for a new FAC and the police say he is "unfit"
based on an unproven allegation from ten years ago and the judge asked
Biddle when he thought the applicant would be fit again, to which
Biddle replied: "Never." The judge ruled against the police based
on the fact that even if the allegation were true it happened ten years
ago.
Stuff like that is clear cut.
If you want x calibre and they'll only give you y calibre you stand
virtually no chance.
Steve.
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