20 April 2007
R v Harries [2007] All ER (D) 224 (Mar)
(a) a crown court judge should grant a certificate of fitness to appeal only if there are very clear reasons, such as an unresolved issue of law, or where there are clear reasons for supposing that the appeal is likely to succeed;
(b) it is an unsatisfactory course for a judge to grant bail in such a case, particularly without prior enquiry at the Criminal Appeal Office regarding the speed at which an appeal could be heard. It is undesirable for someone to be granted bail, and then to have his appeal fail, and to have to begin a prison sentence. The ordinary course is therefore to allow the appeal to be expedited first.
