Types of Bail

Two Types of Bail

In Australia, criminal lawyers will tell you that even if you’ve been charged with a criminal offence, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. You can usually be released on bail until the trial date is due. Of course, this will depend on the severity of the crime you’ve been charged with.

There are two types of bail –

  • Police bail. When the police charge a person with an offence, they have a pretty good idea of whether it is safe to be out on bail. If it is deemed that they won’t intimidate witnesses, destroy evidence or abscond so you can’t be found again, the police will grant them ‘police bail’. There are likely to be certain restrictions on what the person can do and where they can go, and a form must be signed agreeing to this to gain freedom until the trial date.

  • Court bail. If the police don’t set bail, the application can be made to the court for bail. The law states that a person must be taken before a court as soon as possible if police bail is refused. They will have to remain in custody until they can get to court and apply for court bail with their lawyer. When this happens, the court may give them bail or refuse it. To make this decision, the court will have to consider several things, such as whether the applicant is likely to abscond and not attend their court hearing, commit another offence, endanger anyone’s safety or obstruct the course of justice in any way.

They will also consider the applicant’s personal history in making the bail decision. This will be things such as their character and previous convictions, financial position and location of residence, previous bail history, if any, the nature of the current offence and the likelihood of a sentence.

Bail conditions are set to ensure the safety of other persons, so they usually apply certain restrictions, e.g., the person may not be allowed to go to a victim’s residence. If the bail conditions are broken, there will be a penalty, which will worsen things.

What if the court refuses bail? There is not much you can do unless there are new circumstances or facts to present. The only other thing to do is apply to the Supreme Court to reconsider the matter. However, a good lawyer will do their best to present the case for bail and may be successful because they know the law better and can speak more eloquently since they’ve been trained to do so.

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