Bail

If you are charged with an offence, police might:

• give you a Court Attendance Notice and not place you on bail (and you are free to leave)
• release you on bail
  
• refuse to give you bail.
  

If police don’t give you bail, they must take you to the Local Court as soon as possible (usually the same day or the next day) for a Court to decide whether you should be released on bail.

Bail is an agreement that you will attend court if you have been charged with one or more offences. This agreement means that you won’t be held in custody while the matter is in court. It may have one or more conditions that you must follow.

When the police release you on bail, you will get a number of documents:

If a Magistrate in the Local Court doesn’t give you bail, you can’t make a new application for bail in the Local Court unless there is a change in your circumstances.

If you don’t get bail in the Local Court, you can make an application to the Supreme Court.

People who don’t get bail have to stay in prison until their court case is finished.

If you plead guilty, the Court may give you bail in some circumstances.

If you plead guilty or are found guilty and will be sentenced to full time imprisonment, the Court must refuse bail unless there are exceptional circumstances.

A security requirement is a bail condition requiring you or another person to provide money or security as a guarantee that you will attend court. It is also referred to as bail money, or bail security. 

Most people on bail don’t need a security requirement.

If you are thinking of providing security to help someone get bail, you should get legal advice.

Sometimes the security requirement is only paid if the accused fails to appear at court when required, and other times it will need to be paid before the accused is released. 

If you are released on bail, there are some bail requirements. These are conditions you have to follow. A standard bail conditions is that you attend court at a particular time and date. Usually there will be other bail conditions, such as:

• living at a certain address
• reporting to police on a regular basis
  
• not contacting witnesses, particularly alleged victims
  
• not driving a motor vehicle (for alleged traffic offences)
  
• not drinking alcohol
  
• attending drug and alcohol courses
  
• attending rehabilitation or counselling courses
  
• attending medical appointments
  
• a curfew, that requires you to be at home during certain hours
  
• not going to certain places
  
• not contacting certain people, for example people involved in the offence
  
• surrendering your passport
• agreeing to pay money if you do not attend court.

If you want to change your bail conditions, you will need to make a Review of bail application. To do this, you will need to complete an application form and file it at the Local Court.

You can also get some of your bail conditions changed by the Registrar at the Court registry, if the prosecution agrees to the changes. 

Before making an application to vary your bail conditions, you should get legal advice.