Bail is an agreement that you will attend court if you have been charged with one or more offences.
Once you are charged with an offence, police may do the following:
- Issue you with a Court Attendance Notice where you are free to leave and not place you on bail; or
- release you on bail; or
- refuse to give you bail.
If you do not get police bail, you must be taken to the Local Court as soon as possible (typically the same day or the next day) for the Court to determine whether you should be released on bail.
The court will consider two factors when determining whether to give you bail:
- Whether you need to ‘show cause’ and,
- Whether ‘unacceptable risk’ test has been satisfied.
If granted bail, this agreement means that you won’t be held in custody while the matter is in court. Your bail may also have one or more conditions that you must follow
If you have been refused bail, you can apply to the Supreme Court to give you bail.
There may be certain conditions imposed with the bail but the requirement is that you attend your next court date.
You can only ask for bail again if:
- You were not legally represented the first time you asked for bail;
- There has been a change of circumstances;
- You have new information to tell the court;
- 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.
