3. Go to your bail hearing

Correctional officers will take you from the police station or the jail to the courthouse for your bail hearing. You will be held in a cell at the courthouse until the officers bring you into the courtroom. While you’re in the cell at the courthouse, you will have a chance to speak with your lawyer or duty counsel.

If you have a surety, they may be required to testify in court. You may also choose to testify about your bail plan. This involves swearing an oath. When you swear an oath, you promise to tell the truth, and answer all of the questions that your lawyer and the Crown ask.

Your lawyer and the Crown may ask your surety to:

• give evidence about their personal background, and their relationship to you
• explain your bail plan, and how they will participate in supervising you
• explain what they understand their role and obligations are as a surety

If you’re testifying about your bail plan, the Crown is not allowed to ask you questions about your case, unless you start talking about your case first. 

At your bail hearing, the judge or justice of the peace will decide to:

• let you go back into the community and set the conditions of your release, or
• keep you in custody  while you wait for the outcome of your case

You will only be kept in custody if the judge or justice of the peace is concerned that:

• you may not go to court when required
• the public may not be safe with you out on bail, because of the likelihood you will commit another crime
• because of the circumstances of the offence, the public might lose confidence in the criminal justice system if you were given bail

Adjournments

Bail court is usually very busy. It is common for your bail hearing to be adjourned to another day because there is not enough time to hear all the cases that are in bail court every day.   

You might be brought to court for a bail hearing multiple days in a row and still not be “reached”. This means that you will have to continue waiting in custody until the court has time to hear your case. The maximum number of days a bail hearing can be adjourned without your agreement is 3 days.