2.2 Bail - Procedure Flashcards
What happens when police bail is refused?
The defendant will appear before the next Magistrates Court to apply for bail.
What happens at a bail hearing?
The court checks if the prosecutor objects to bail.
If not, bail is granted.
If the prosecutor objects, they will state objections including handing previous convictions to the court.
The defence argues for bail.
The court decides and gives reasons in accordance with Section 4 Bail Act 1976.
How do defendants go about getting bail in the Magistrates Court?
The defendant applies for bail. If bail is refused, then D can repeat the same application at the next hearing.
Thereafter, D has either to appeal the decision against granting bail to the Crown Court, or to find fresh points to make (eg by finding a surety which D didn’t have available before).
How do defendants go about getting bail in the Crown Court?
A defendant whose trial will be heard in the Crown Court has one attempt at bail at the first hearing in the magistrates’ court (unless charged with murder; the magistrates’ court has no jurisdiction to consider bail where a person is charged with murder).
They have a further application as of right in the Crown Court (Section 81 Senior Courts Act 1981).
How much notice does the Crown Court require for a bail application?
24 hours
How long must D wait to make a second bail application in the magistrates’ court?
One week
What is the consequence of D appealing to the Crown Court before she has exercised her right to make a second application in the magistrates’ court?
She loses her right to make a second application in the magistrates’ court.
Under what circumstances can the prosecution appeal a bail decision?
1.
P opposed bail originally;
2.
it is an imprisonable offence;
3.
P indicates orally that it will appeal while D is still in custody;
4.
P confirms intention to appeal in writing within 2 hours;
5.
appeal is heard within 48 hours excluding weekends;
6.
the appeal is heard by a Crown Court Judge or HC Judge if bail was granted in the Crown Court.
What happens when a custody time limit expires?
D is released unless the prosecutor applies to extend the time limits and can show:
- it has acted with ‘all due diligence and expedition’; and
- there is ‘good and sufficient cause’ to have D further remanded.
What is ‘first and onward remand’?
In the magistrates’ court, the first remand is always for eight days, so that D can be brought back for another bail application.
Onward remand is any further order of remand made after that. The second hearing is often video.
Subsequently there must be further hearings every 28 days until trial so that the court can ‘remand them onwards’. D need not attend these hearings.
Trial must be within 56 days (CTL).
