How We Review a Case

Our review and investigation process is very thorough, robust, impartial and independent.  On receipt of an application the Chief Executive of the Commission will conduct an initial assessment and decide whether the application should be accepted for review.  The Chief Executive will then make recommendations to the Board of the Commission and the Board will agree whether or not the application should be accepted for review.

Once an application is accepted we will obtain papers from the Court, the police and the Crown.  We will also write to all relevant parties (e.g. the police, the defence, the Crown) and notify them that the case has been accepted for review and request that all documents and productions they hold in relation to the case be preserved for the duration of our review.  The case will then be allocated to a Legal Officer and a Committee.  The Legal Officer will conduct a review of the papers and issues in the case and will arrange to interview the applicant if this is possible.  The Legal Officer will prepare a case plan document setting out information relating to the Crown case and defence case at trial; the appeal; the grounds of review; and recommendations to take the review and investigation of the case forward.  The case plan is submitted to the Committee of two or three Board Members and the Chief Executive within a maximum period of two months from the date of allocation of the case to the Legal Officer.  The Committee consider the case plan and agree a course of action with the Legal Officer for the review of the case.

The Legal Officer proceeds with the investigation and review, reverting to the Committee for further guidance as necessary.  The Chief Executive provides daily assistance to the Legal Officers in the review of cases.  This part of the review process should take no longer than a maximum of nine months for cases where a review of conviction is involved and four months for sentence only reviews.  Once the review of the case is complete, the Committee take a view on whether or not the case should be referred to the High Court and the Legal Officer prepares a draft statement of reasons for referral or non-referral for the Committee’s consideration.  Once the Committee is content with the draft statement of reasons, the case is submitted to the Board of the Commission for a decision.