The Bail Glossary

• Author: Gary T Trotter
• Pages: 103-105

103

The Bail Glossary

Absconding: F leeing before trial or “skipping bail.”

Actus reus: e Latin expression for the criminal act requirement in

crimina l law. For example, one requirement of murder is causing the

death of a human being.

Burden of proof: is refers to who has the onus of proof in a legal pro-

ceeding. In other words, what side must convince the judge (or jury)

of the merits of its case.

Crown onu s: e situation that exi sts at a bail hearing when the pros-

ecutor must justify why the accu sed person should not be released

fr om cu stody.

Deposit: e requirement to provide cash “or other valuable” secur ity in

order to secure release on bail.

Duty counsel: Crim inal defence lawyers pa id by the government to be

in court and to oer free assist ance to those without lawyers. D uty

counsel conduct a lot of bail hearings a nd guilty pleas for people.

Sometimes, duty counsel wi ll be asked to take on more involved

roles, like defending an accu sed person at trial, but this is rare.

Estreatment: is is an ancient term of art t hat is sometimes used inter-

changeably with the term “forfeiture.” e two words do not mean

the same thing. Estreatment means to make a copy of the recogni-

zance and send it to the court that ha s jurisdiction to determine

whether the accused/surety(ies) should lose money because of a bail

breach.

Forfeitu re: is is the procedure to deter mine how much money (if any)

should be paid to the government by the accuse d/surety(ies).

Forum: e cou rt in which a certain event or process occurs.