Bail and Common Bail Conditions
Bail is defined in Section 7 of the Bail Act 2013 (“the Act”) as “authority to be at liberty for an offence”. Bail can be granted to any person accused of an offence.
The purpose of bail is to ensure that you attend court when you are meant to and that you comply with the conditions of your order. Bail is therefore a written agreement between defendants and the police or court.
If the police charge you with an offence, they may:
- Give you a court attendance notice with a future court date and not place you on bail;
- Release you on bail;
- Refuse to give you bail.
If the police refuse to give you bail, you will be brought before the Local Court as soon as possible. The Court will then decide whether to release you and grant you bail.
If you apply to the Local Court for bail, the court can only refuse bail if there is an unacceptable risk and that cannot be mitigated by the imputation of appropriate bail conditions.
When preparing a bail application, it is important to formulate a list of conditions to alleviate any concerns the court may have about granting you bail. The bail conditions will vary from case to case and they must be reasonable, proportionate to the offence and appropriate to address the risk. They must not be more onerous than necessary and must be reasonably practical.
If the Local Court Magistrate does not give you bail, you cannot make a new (another) application for bail in the Local Court unless there is a change in your circumstances.
If you do not get bail in the Local Court, an application can then be made to the Supreme Court.
Common Bail Conditions
If you are released on bail, the following are examples of conditions that a court can impose on you:
- Residential condition – that you must live at a certain address
- Reporting condition – that you must report to a police station on certain days and times
- Contact restriction condition – that you are not to contact certain persons such as witnesses and/or alleged victims
- Curfew condition – to be at a certain address at a certain time period
- Conduct requirement – to attend court on a certain date and time
- Location restriction condition – not to go to certain places
- Surrender of passport condition
- Security condition – that you or an acceptable person offer to forfeit a certain amount of money in the event that you do not attend court as requested
- Enforcement condition – examples include, attending drug and alcohol programs, attending rehabilitation and counselling, attending medical appointments, not drinking alcohol, not driving a motor vehicle.
It is important to understand your bail conditions and abide by them.
Should you be arrested and charged by police and need to bring a bail application to Court, our experienced team of lawyers at NCL will tailor an application and give you the best opportunity to be at liberty while we prepare to defend you and your rights.
