Judgements of lower courts can be appealed. Generally, there are two stages of appeal for criminal proceedings.
You can appeal a court’s decision or judgement if you do not agree with the way that the court has interpreted the facts or the law in your case. In addition, if you think that a lower court’s decision is unfair because some of your rights, as the accused, were violated in the proceedings, you must write that in your appeal. Read more about other ways to complain about a violation of your rights.
There is no automatic right to appeal in all cases and disputes. However, when the national law allows you to appeal a lower court’s decision, the court of appeal has to comply with all the requirements of a fair trial.
Stages of appeal:
The majority of the decisions and judgements of a lower court can be appealed in a higher court: the court of appeal (ringkonnakohus). In the review process, the court of appeal has the same power to consider the case as the lower court. This includes all disputes about the facts of your case and the correct application of law.
Generally, your rights and obligations in the court of appeal are the same as before a lower court, but depending on the nature of your appeal, some of your rights, such as the right to request an oral hearing and the right to be present at the hearing, may be more limited.
Judgements of the court of appeal can be appealed further before the court of cassation: the Supreme Court (Riigikohus). This court has more limited powers to review your case and will only examine arguments about law. The court of cassation will only examine your complaints about:
- the incorrect application or violations of the Criminal Law
- serious violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure
example The court of cassation will not consider a claim that you were not at the crime scene during a theft; but, it will examine your complaint about unequal treatment when accepting the evidence of the prosecution and refusing to accept yours.
Even if the court of appeal has made a mistake in applying the law, this mistake has to be serious enough to have led to a potentially incorrect final decision.
Access and hearings in the court of cassation
Since the court of cassation only deals with complaints about the application or violations of law, the requirements for your access to the court of cassation, such as the quality of legal arguments on which you base your cassation claim, may be stricter than in the court of appeal.
In addition, your right to request an oral hearing may be subject to more limitations than before a lower court. When submitting the cassation claim you may ask for an oral hearing to be held. However, it is up to the court to decide whether or not such a hearing is needed.