Courts.ie - Preparing for court

Before you start your appeal
Lodging a notice of appeal
Motions
Before the appeal hearing
Authorities, reports & testimonials
Representation and legal aid

Before you start your appeal

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Lodging a notice of appeal

Appeals from decisions of the High Court in civil cases must be brought within 28 days of the perfection (signing by the court registrar) of the order to be appealed.

Sometimes there is a restriction on the right to appeal, for example the High Court may need to give leave to appeal before the Court of Appeal can deal with the case. The most common examples are in European Arrest Warrant cases and certain types of planning cases.

You can lodge a notice of appeal outside the 28-day limit if the respondent (the party on the other side) provides you with a letter consenting to the late filing of your appeal. If they do not consent, you can apply to the Court of Appeal by way of notice of motion for an extension of time.

You must pay court stamp duty on documents associated with an appeal unless they are exempt from duty. The main types of cases where no stamp duty is payable are extradition, family law, civil cases arising out of criminal proceedings (i.e. bail and judicial review), bankruptcy and asylum.

An order made in proceedings on appeal from the Circuit Court to the High Court cannot be appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The form of notice of appeal is in the court rules. If there is a section in the form that is not relevant to your appeal, do not delete the section – enter ‘N/A’ instead. You must provide the following information:

Title of the case as on the High Court order
Decision you want to appeal (e.g. Order of the High Court dated ….)
Grounds of appeal (the reasons why you want to appeal)
Order you want the Court of Appeal to make
Documents you will rely on
Contact details for you and the respondent to the appeal – including email addresses and telephone numbers

If the High Court delivered a written judgment in your case, you must lodge a copy of the judgment. If not, you may/must request a transcript of the judgment. The office will provide you with information as to how you apply for a transcript.

You must sign and date the notice of appeal form. You must pay court stamp duty – currently €250.00 – on the notice unless your appeal is exempt from the payment of duty.

You should bring your notice of appeal and at least two copies to the Court of Appeal Civil Office, Áras Uí Dhálaigh, Inns Quay, Dublin 7. You will also need an attested copy of the High Court order you want to appeal. You must request the attested copy from the High Court Central Office. Attested means that it contains a form of certificate which is noted on the copy order. You must pay court stamp duty – currently €15.00 – for an attested copy.

You can send a notice of appeal by post, but not by email.

At the court office, staff will check your notice of appeal to ensure that it complies with the court rules. If your form is in order, the appeal will be allocated a date for a court listing six to eight weeks later (a ‘directions’ date). This is the date the appeal will appear in court for directions as to the lodgment of written legal submissions and for the allocation of a hearing date.

The office will give you date-stamped copies of your notice of appeal. You must serve a copy on the respondent (the other party to the appeal) within seven days and keep a copy for yourself.

The respondent has 21 days to lodge and serve a Respondent's notice setting out grounds of opposition to the appeal.

If the appeal is from an order made in the Commercial Court the appeal will be given a date for the first Directions List after the appeal is lodged and the directions given by the Court will include time for the Respondent’s Notice.

If the appeal comes within the category of civil appeals arising from proceedings which have a custody or criminal element (e.g. extradition, bail, Article 40/habeas corpus, and judicial review in criminal proceedings) the appeal will be given the earliest available directions date for the criminal case-management list which is taken on a Friday in the Criminal Courts of Justice Building.

Motions

A motion is the procedure used to bring an application in the Court of Appeal in advance of the appeal hearing date. The most common forms of motion are for an extension of time to lodge a notice of appeal, for a stay on a High Court order (to suspend its operation until the appeal has been heard) or to adduce further evidence.

To bring a motion, you must complete a notice of motion and an affidavit (called a ‘grounding affidavit’). The respondent can file and serve an affidavit in response to your affidavit (called a ‘replying affidavit’).

You must pay court stamp duty – currently €60.00 – on the notice of motion and €20.00 on your affidavit.

If your motion is for an extension of time to lodge a notice of appeal, you must lodge a copy of your intended notice of appeal and an attested copy of the High Court order. You do not have to pay court stamp duty on the intended notice of appeal at this time but if your application is successful you will pay the fee (€250.00) when you lodge the original notice of appeal.

Before the appeal hearing

You must lodge books of appeal no later than four weeks before the hearing date in accordance with Practice Direction CA 06.

See Notice of the 13th of September 2021: Court of Appeal – Civil – Note for Parties in Court Of Appeal Proceedings regarding the lodging of Books of Appeal.

As at February 2020 this Practice Direction is in the process of being revised, so it may be that the parties to an appeal will be notified of a requirement of the Court for the lodgment of additional documents in advance of the appeal hearing. A recent change in practice is in relation to the lodgment of the books of authorities – see Notice in the Diary requiring the parties in an appeal which is listed for a day or more to lodge the books of authorities no later than 7 days in advance of the hearing, and it may be that the Court will also direct the lodgment of the books of authorities in other appeals (regardless of duration) in advance of the appeal hearing. Practice CA06 in its present form provides for the books of authorities to be handed in at the outset of the appeal hearing.

The Court holds a ‘Callover’ two weeks before the hearing of an appeal to ensure that:

Directions in respect of submissions and any other directions have been complied with
Books of appeal have been lodged
The appeal is ready to proceed on the hearing date

Authorities, reports & testimonials

Requesting & filing further documents that may be required for an appeal.

Books of authorities

Four copies of the Book of Authorities of the moving party should be lodged no later than two weeks before the hearing date and a copy of the index furnished to the solicitors for the respondent. Four copies of a Book of any authorities not included in the moving party's Book and intended to be relied on by the respondent are to be lodged no later than one week before the hearing date and a copy of the index furnished to the solicitors for the moving party. Authorities should be agreed upon between the parties.

Practitioners are reminded that the Court is very familiar with the leading cases on principles of sentencing and there is no need to include such cases in the Books of Authorities – a reference in the submissions to any such case and, if deemed necessary by counsel, a short extract setting out the principles concerned, will for the most part suffice.

Books of Authorities must be:

Bound
Paginated
Include a table of contents
Correctly recite the case title and court of appeal reference

Exhibits, reports & testimonials

Reports & testimonials for hearing date: Practitioners will be aware of the contents of Practice Direction CA02 dealing with reports & testimonials in sentence appeals and undue leniency applications. Please note the difference in procedure for pre- and post-trial materials, which necessitates that they be filed in separate booklets.

Governor’s reports for hearing date: When requesting reports, please do so sufficiently in advance of hearing dates to allow for their preparation.

Requests for Governor’s Reports, Educational Reports, Urinalysis, and other reports can be emailed to the Court of Appeal (Criminal) Office at [email protected].

The court office will requisition Governor’s and Educational Reports from the Prison. Requests for Urinalysis and other reports will be considered by the Court at a case-management listing; if a request is granted, the court office will then requisition the report from the Prison.

Representation and legal aid