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. This means that 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 fairly good idea whether or not it is safe for them 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 in order to gain freedom until the trial date.