Bail Applications

Bail is the authority to be at liberty for an offence, often subject to certain conditions. If you are granted bail, it means you are released from detention until your criminal matter is finalised.

The new bail laws commenced on 20 May 2014 and brought about significant changes to the way bail applications are considered by the courts, introducing the concept of “bail concerns” and “show cause”.

Bail concerns are the matters that need to be taken into consideration by a bail authority when deciding whether there is an unacceptable risk. If there is deemed to be an unacceptable risk, the bail authority will then need to determine whether any bail conditions can mitigate that risk.

If you are charged with a more serious “show cause” offences, you will have the added threshold to show cause why your detention would be unjustified. You will need to satisfy the bail authority on the balance of probabilities that your detention is unjustified before the bail authority will proceed to determining the bail concerns and the unacceptable risk test.

A bail authority is the police and the courts.

There are three types of bail applications that our criminal lawyers can help you with:

• A release application (made by the accused);
• A detention application (made by the prosecution); and
• A variation application (made by any interested person).

If you or a friend or family member have been charged with an offence and are refused bail by the police, it is important that you contact one of our criminal lawyers immediately as it is best to make a bail application as soon as possible.