If you’ve been contacted by police for any reason and asked to attend at a police station, it is important that you speak with an experienced Criminal Defence Lawyer so that you understand your rights. Specific advice will depend on the circumstances of the call. In appropriate cases, we may be able to contact the police on your behalf in order to obtain additional information. If you have been told that you are to be charged with a criminal offence, we may be able to inquire about whether or not you will be held for a bail hearing, allowing you some time to prepare in advance. It may also be possible to arrange a specific time for you to turn yourself in so as to minimize the chance that you do not spend the night in a jail cell after not making it to bail court in time. Even if you feel that you have not done anything wrong, it is very important to consult with a lawyer before making any statements to the police.
Should the police decide to hold someone for a bail hearing upon arrest, they are required to bring the person before the court within 24 hours. During this time period, every minute counts. Depending on the allegation and the individual’s history with the criminal justice system (if any) a surety may be required in order to secure the individual’s release. In any case, developing a detailed “release plan” is essential to giving the individual the best chance at being released and minimizing the strictness of the conditions imposed by the court. Bail court can be extremely busy and there can also be delays in the police bringing the individual to court. While those things are largely out of your control, taking immediate steps to put a bail plan in place is essential to ensuring that everything is ready to go when they are brought into court. Delays in this process can result in the bail hearing being adjourned to the following day and the arrested individual staying the night in jail.
While just about anybody can act as a surety, there are a number of characteristics that make a good surety. Before proposing a surety as part of a release plan, an experienced Criminal Defence Lawyer will interview the individual in detail in order to identify any red flags. In general, it is preferable that the surety have a reasonably close relationship with the accused. For this reason, sureties are often family members but they need not be. In appropriate cases, it may be advisable to propose an individual who is able to have the accused live with them and who is able to have regular contact with them. This is especially the case for serious offences where strict conditions are likely to be imposed. It is also preferable that the proposed surety not have previous criminal convictions. Again, individuals with criminal records are not automatically excluded. Depending on the nature of the conviction and how dated it is, it may be appropriate to proceed with a surety who doesn’t have a clear record. This is a judgment call best made with the assistance of experienced counsel.
Unlike in the United States, “cash bails” are rare in Canada. More typically, the accused and their surety are required to pledge an amount of money that they are at risk of forfeiting if the accused is proven to have breached their bail terms while the bail is in force. The amount of money to propose to the court as a “pledge amount” depends on a number of factors and is not determined exclusively by the seriousness of the offence. In general, there is a legal principle that individuals should not be denied bail for financial reasons only. The pledge amount is meant to be an amount that is significant to the people pledging it as it decreases the chances that the accused will disobey their bail.
When someone is charged with a criminal offence, the police have the discretion to hold them for a bail hearing or release them on something called a “promise to appear”, which sets out the date of the first court appearance. In either case, assuming the individual isn’t detained after a bail hearing, there will likely be conditions that must be complied with. These conditions remain in place for the entire period the charges remain before the court. They can sometimes be quire onerous, including a requirement to remain in your residence. They can also sometimes last a long time, years even, should your matter proceed to trial. However, in appropriate circumstances it may be possible to change or remove one or another of the conditions, either with the consent of the Crown Attorney or by application to a Judge. An experienced Criminal Defence Lawyer can assist in this area by advising what kind of requests are likely to succeed and advocating effectively on your behalf to try to put those changes in place.