Bail revocation applications
VLA will generally grant legal assistance to a person to respond to an application for revocation of bail in the Children’s Court, Magistrates’ Court, the County Court or the Supreme Court if there is a reasonable basis to oppose the application.
“Reasonable basis” means that an application to revoke bail should be opposed, taking into account the grounds on which the application is brought, any new charges and the personal circumstances of the respondent (including consideration of factors in sections 3AAAA and 3AAA of the Bail Act and whether a person is likely to spend longer on remand if bail is revoked than they would receive as sentence of imprisonment for the underlying offending).
VLA considers that there is always a reasonable basis to oppose an application to revoke bail where the respondent is a child and/or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. Further VLA considers that there is always a reasonable basis to oppose an application to revoke bail where the application is brought only on the belief that a person is likely to commit a further offence or the belief that a person is likely to breach a condition of bail.
Where there is both an application for bail in relation to new charges and a bail revocation application, for funding purposes the revocation application is treated as part of the bail application on new charges and does not attract a separate grant of assistance or fee.
The bail guideline and the Magistrates’ Court guidelines for summary crime matters set out in 1.1, 1.2 and 2 have separate requirements. A person may qualify for funding under the bail guideline but then not go on to qualify for funding under guidelines 1.1, 1.2 or 2 because they are not likely to receive a sentence of immediate imprisonment. This is particularly the case where a person held in custody on relatively minor charges is released following a successful bail application.
Updated