An important principle of the legal system not only in England and Wales but in the vast majority of countries that operate under common law is the concept of the right to appeal.

If there was a procedural error, a mistake in fact or a critical omission that affected the decision of the court in a criminal, civil or family court case, an appeal can be launched with the help of a solicitor who can help a court rectify a potential error in judgement.

According to GK v PR from 2021, the five grounds for an appeal from the family court are:

• An “error of law”.
• A conclusion not based on the evidence.
• The judge has not appropriately weighted different aspects of the case, treating something serious with frivolity and vice versa.
• The judge has exercised discretion outside of the parameters of reasonable disagreement.
• An irregular procedure and process was adopted during the case that was so unfair as to make the decision unjust.

Whilst successful appeals are rare, the existence of the right to appeal is a vital part of why this is the case, as the possibility of overturning a legal error emphasises that the focus is getting the right decision in the eyes of the law.

What established the need for this in the eyes of the public is the unfortunate case of Adolf Beck.

Born in Norway in 1841, Adolf Beck was a struggling businessman who had worked as a clerk, a singer, a house flipper and at one point owned a copper mine in Norway.

However, by the end of the century, Mr Beck was on the cusp of destitution, even as he attempted to keep up appearances with his worn-out top hat and coat.

This got far worse on 16th December 1895, when Mr Beck was arrested on suspicion of 22 acts of fraud over the course of two years as well as being connected to prior convictions in 1877 by someone under the assumed name “John Smith”. 

His grey hair and moustache were pointed out by the victims in a police lineup and a policeman involved in the original arrest claimed he was the same man “without doubt”.

He was convicted on 5th March 1896 and sentenced to seven years hard labour on the Isle of Portland. When he was freed in 1901 he was arrested and convicted again in 1904 on similar charges.

However, in all three cases, he was a victim of mistaken identity. Adolf Beck was living in South America in 1877 and had nothing to do with any of the cases he had been accused of, convicted and served time for.

Instead, a week after Mr Beck’s second conviction, the actual “John Smith”, real name Wilhelm Meyer of Vienna, was apprehended, identified and eventually imprisoned for five years.

Mr Beck was pardoned in 1904 and eventually awarded £5,000 (equivalent to £600,000) after his case became a cause celebre, but it happened because at the time appeals could only be approved by the Home Secretary and evidence that proved Mr Beck could not have been “John Smith” was excluded.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, later superseded by the Court of Appeal for England and Wales, acts as a check and balance to ensure that a similarly astonishing miscarriage of justice cannot happen again, and is rectified before it can ruin a life in the way it did Mr Beck.