CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYERS

Posts Tagged ‘bail application’

Under Australian law, bail is the legal mechanism where a person who is arrested for a criminal offence can be released pending their trial, rather than being held in custody throughout its entire duration. Once the accused has been arrested and charged with a crime, the police will consider whether it is appropriate to release them on bail, and if so what bail conditions should be imposed. Bail can be obtained from the police after initial arrest, as well as from a Magistrate in the Local Court, a judge in the District Court, or a Justice in the Supreme Court. Research from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicates that defendants are most likely to be granted bail in the Local Court. In 2007, 7.6% of defendants appearing in NSW Local Courts for any offence were refused bail, and 47.6% were refused bail in the Higher Courts, though both these figures have trended upwards in recent years. The purpose of this article is to help inform people unfamiliar with the legal system about the criteria that are taken into account by NSW courts when they are considering bail applications. Read the rest of this entry »