Changing your bail conditions
If you can’t follow the conditions of your bail, it is important that you ask the police or the court to change them. If you break the conditions (even just once) before they are changed, you could be arrested and fined or sent to prison. If you have a lawyer, you should talk to them first.
They will help you apply to change your conditions. If you do not have a lawyer, do the following steps (Standard page lightbox).
Custody
While you are waiting for the courts to decide whether you are guilty or not, (Inpage lightbox with heading) you will either be held in prison (also known as in custody - Inpage lightbox, no heading) or allowed to live in the community. If you are allowed to wait in the community this usually means you are on bail. If you are not sure if you are on bail, you should get legal advice (Container lightbox)
You must follow all the conditions you have been given until they have been changed. This means, for example, that if your boss asks you to work past your curfew, you can’t do it until the court has agreed to change your curfew (Image lightbox).
If you decide to represent yourself in court, we strongly recommend that you still get legal advice and discuss your case with a qualified lawyer.
Being ‘taken into custody’ or ‘held in custody’ means that you are locked up by the police, for example in a prison, a remand centre, or a watch house.
Guilty or not
If you go to court because you have been accused of committing a crime, the judge will ask you how you ‘plead’. This means they are asking you whether you committed the crime or not.
