Bail Applications

If you are arrested police will take you back to the police station and may charge you. Once you are charged, police will need to decide whether to release you or not.

Police can let you go and hand you a court attendance notice notifying you of your next court date. Alternatively, they can give you bail or refuse to give you bail.

There may be certain conditions imposed with the bail but the requirement is that you attend your next court date.

If police refuse bail you will be brought before the court where you can ask the court for bail. It is at this point a bail lawyer with experience is necessary to have the defence documents ready to hand to the Magistrate to improve your chances of release from custody. This includes all essential materials in support of the bail application to strengthen it.

The court will consider two factors when deciding to give you bail:

• Whether you need to ‘show cause’ and,
• Whether ‘unacceptable risk’ test has been satisfied.

If you have been refused bail, you can apply to the Supreme Court to give you bail.

You can only ask for bail again if:

1. You were not legally represented the first time you asked for bail,
2. There has been a change of circumstances
3. You have new information to tell the court
4. You are under 18 years of age and the last bail application was made on your first appearance for the offence.
   

If you are granted bail and you breach it then you may be arrested and brought back to court, otherwise it continues until it is changed by the court or your court case finishes.

Get in touch with our expert team to make an appointment to discuss your criminal law matter.

We offer fixed fee initial consultations, and look forward to helping you.