ABSTRACT
Research undertaken for the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1993) revealed that of 300 appeals in 1990, just over one-third were successful. Almost two-thirds of defendants appealed against conviction on the ground that the trial judge had made a critical mistake and of these, 43% succeeded in having their convictions quashed. In about 80% of cases where convictions were quashed, there had been an error at the trial, usually by the judge.
