Understanding bail
Bail is a written agreement between defendants and the police or court. You can apply to change your bail conditions.
The purpose of bail is to make sure that you turn up to court when you are meant to and that you comply with the conditions in your order.
Some examples of conditions are:
- turning up to court
- reporting to a police stations on certain days or times
- having a curfew
- keeping away from certain people or places.
You need to show up to court on every court date. You can ask to be excused from attending some court dates if you have a lawyer who can request bail be continued for you.
What happens if I breach my bail?
If you breach any of the conditions of your bail, the police can arrest you and charge you with a new offence. This might mean you have to spend the night in custody or be placed on a new bail.
If the court refuses you bail, you will have to stay in custody until your next court date or until sentencing. You can talk to your lawyer about making another bail application, or about applying for bail at the Supreme Court if you are going to be refused for a long time.
If you breach your bail it gets harder to get bail the next time.
Changing your bail conditions
You should get legal advice if you want to change your bail conditions.
You have to go to court and complete an application form to ask a judicial officer to change your bail conditions. The judicial officer will ask the prosecutor for information to help make their decision. If you have a problem with your bail conditions you should tell your lawyer before you go to court.
Some bail conditions may be easier to change than others. For example:
- if your address has changed, or
- if you need to change the police station you report to or the days you report.
Other conditions might be harder to change, such as if you want to delete your curfew or change a condition that says you're not allowed to go near someone.
If you want to change your bail conditions, print out and complete the form for the Court to review a bail application, available on the Local Court Forms page.
Send this form or take it into the court registry at least 3 days before your next court date. Also give a copy of the form to the police prosecutors at least 3 days before your next court date. You can ask the court registry for the contact details of the police prosecutors, or get those details from the police station.
The information on this page is general information only. Different processes apply for cases in different jurisdictions.