Hundreds of people wrongly convicted of a serious crime will hear this week if they can make a fresh bid for compensation.

Nine senior judges from the Supreme Court will decide the exact definition of a ‘miscarriage of justice’ in a landmark ruling expected tomorrow.

Currently those whose convictions are quashed in the Court of Appeal can claim compensation only if they can actually prove they are innocent.

Such proof can often only be obtained through DNA evidence or another person being convicted of the crime.

Lawyers argue that their clients should maintain the presumption of innocence if their convictions have been dropped.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that there has only been one successful compensation claim from 37 made by wrongfully convicted people in the last year.

Up to 200 people who made successful appeals since the system was changed in 2006 could potentially be entitled to compensation following the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling.

The information was obtained by solicitor Daniel Machover, who represents Andrew Adams, who has been fighting for compensation since 2008 after being released from prison the previous year.

Adams had spent 14 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder.

The Justice Secretary has defended previous refusals of compensation on the grounds that a miscarriage of justice only occurs where someone is found to be clearly innocent.