Bail hearing
When and where bail hearings happen
If you are arrested and detained by police during the night or on a weekend, you may be released on bail<p><span lang="EN-US">An order made by a judicial justice or a judge releasing an accused person from jail until their trial and requiring them to obey certain conditions (rules) and return to court on a specific date. The legal term for bail is “judicial interim release”.</span><span> </span></p> by a judicial justice at the Justice Centre after a hearing conducted by telephone or video conference.
If you have been arrested and kept in custody by a police officer or judicial justice, you will appear before a judge in Provincial Court as soon as possible for a bail hearing. A bail hearing can also be called a “show cause” or “judicial interim release<p><span lang="EN-US">Release from custody of a person charged with a crime while they are waiting for their trial or appeal. The release order may require the defendant to obey certain conditions (rules) and return to court on a specific date. The legal term for “bail”.</span><span> </span></p>” hearing. You may have your own lawyer or a Legal Aid duty counsel<p><span lang="EN-US">A lawyer paid by Legal Aid BC who can provide free legal advice and representation at a first court appearance and at a bail hearing, but not usually at trial.</span><span> </span></p> to speak for you at a bail hearing that day, or you may agree to put off your bail hearing and remain in jail in order to get your own lawyer privately or through Legal Aid.
Bail hearings are now conducted:
Remotely in the Northern, Interior and Island Regions
In hybrid bail courtrooms in the Vancouver and Fraser Regions
The Court’s CRIM 05 Practice Direction explains how bail applications work in the various regions.
CRIM 05 Hearing of Bail Applications
What happens at a bail hearing
At a bail hearing, the Crown counsel<p>Independent lawyers with the federal or provincial prosecution service. Crown counsel do not represent the government, police or victim of crime. Rather, they perform their function on behalf of the public. Crown counsel may also be referred to as Crown, Crown prosecutors or prosecutors.</p> will tell the court the allegations against you and any criminal record<p><span lang="EN-US">A list of a person’s convictions for criminal offences and the sentences they received. Criminal records are kept in central computer systems most police agencies across Canada can access.</span><span> </span></p> you may have. Your defence lawyer, if you have one, will tell the court about your background, roots in the community (home, family, work or school, etc.), and anything else that might help the court decide whether you should be granted bail.
If you are granted bail and released, your matter will be adjourned to an initial appearance<p>Sometimes called a first appearance. When an accused person attends court and a judicial case manager, justice of the peace, or judge tells them what offence or offences they are charged with.</p> at a later date. If you are not released, you will be held in jail (“remanded<p><span lang="EN-US">“Remanded in custody” means being held in custody until the next court date. “Remand” can also mean to postpone (adjourn) a criminal case to another date. </span><span> </span></p> in custody”) until your next court date. The Court tries to provide the earliest trial dates possible for people held in custody.
The law that applies to bail hearings
At a bail hearing a judicial justice or judge must decide whether it is necessary to keep you in jail, or whether you can be released, either with or without rules for your conduct (“conditions”). The judge or justice must follow the law set out in section 515 of the Criminal Code<p><span lang="EN-US">Criminal Code of Canada (CCC)</span><span lang="EN-US"> is the federal law that applies across Canada and sets out criminal offences, sentences and how a criminal case proceeds. A judge must follow the law in the </span><span lang="EN-US">Criminal Code</span><span lang="EN-US">.</span><span> </span></p>.
In most cases, people charged with criminal offences have the right to be released unless the Crown counsel establishes that they should be kept in jail until their trial. This reflects the presumption that an accused person is innocent until they are proven guilty<p><span lang="EN-US">When a person admits (pleads guilty) or is found by the judge or judicial justice (found guilty) to have committed the crimes they are charged with.</span><span> </span></p>. Also, section 11(e) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees that any person charged with an offence is not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause.
The Criminal Code and interpretations of it by the Supreme Court of Canada say that priority must be given to the release of accused persons at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous (difficult) conditions appropriate.
When deciding whether detention or conditions are required, judges and judicial justices will:
Look at the chance that you will not show up for your next court date
Consider whether you are likely to commit further crimes if you are released or if you are dangerous to the public
Not give you bail in some cases if they believe that granting it would cause people to lose faith in the administration of justice
Bail conditions
If the Crown counsel does not establish that you should be kept in jail until your trial, you must be released on a bail order called a “release order”, until your next court date.
Conditions (rules) may only be added to the release order if the Crown counsel shows they are justified and why any less onerous form of release would be inadequate. A bail order might:
Require you to promise to pay a certain amount of money
Require someone to deposit money with the court (post bail)
Require someone to sign as a surety<p><span lang="EN-US">Someone who promises to pay money if an accused released on bail does not obey their bail conditions or fails to attend court.</span><span> </span></p> (a person who guarantees your good behaviour) and pay the amount set as bail if you fail to attend court or disobey the bail order
Require you to obey rules like a curfew, a restriction on areas you can enter or who you can contact, or where you must live, such as at a substance abuse treatment centre
The Criminal Code also requires that a judge or justice must give particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal accused persons and accused who belong to a vulnerable population that is overrepresented in the criminal justice system and that is disadvantaged in obtaining release.