Breaching Bail: The Consequences

• Author: Gary T Trotter
• Pages: 93-98

93

CHAPTER 9

Breaching Bail: The Consequences

1. INTRODUCTION

Breaching a bail order can be an event with potentially serious con-

sequences. If a bail order is breached, it may result in new criminal

charges being laid. A breach may also lead to an application by the

prosecutor to terminate or “revoke” the bail order that was breached.

Finally, if the bail order is in the form of a recognizance (discussed

in Chapter 5), the prosecutor may commence what are referred to as

forfeiture proceedings, which are designed to require t he accused per-

son and/or the surety(ies) to forfeit all or part of the money pledged

in support of release. Depending on the circumstances, any or all of

these consequences may occur if a bail order is breached.

But how often do any of these conseq uences really occur?

Nobody really knows. And it is a concern because judges

assess the risks of release based on certain assumptions

about how the system will respond to breaches on the

part of an accused person. at is, they operate on the

assumption that release orders will be enforced through

these mechanisms. If the assumption is misplaced

because the rate of enforcement is inadequate, release

decisions may turn out to be unnecessar ily risky. More

fundamentally, if enforcement is lax, and this becomes

well known in the population, then the motivation to

comply will surely decrease and the system will fall into

disrepute.