We are Police Bail Lawyers we specialize in doing bail applications in the greater Cape Town, we can help, just Call 072 604 5324 for All hours bail at police stations

Are you in dire need to get someone out of jail? Our police bail lawyers can assist with your bail application. We can assist you in obtaining bail for yourself, a family member or friend any time after hours at police stations across the peninsula.

Kindly call us at the abovementioned emergency number and we will get right on it.

"24 hours – all year after hours bail applications – simply call our bail lawyers on 072 604 5324 "

In simple terms, police bail is when bail is set by a police officer after a person has been arrested. The police officer will fill in the neccesarry forms which ends in the police completing a form known as a 496. In this form 496 the police officer will set an amount of bail to be paid by the accused person upon which he is then released on an amount of bail. Usually this amount is not high.

The person will then be warned to appear at court on a given day and time set in the form 496. If the person fails to appear at court on the given date and time then a warrant for his arrest will be issued and he will be brought back to court after having been arrested.

Police bail can onnly be given after arrest but before the accused has appeared at court. Once he accused has appeared at court he can only be granted bail by the court.

There is a process followed by the police and investigation officer to determine if someone will be released on police bail. Also the charge the person is arrested on will influence if police bail can be granted on the particular charge concerned.

Not every charge is ellegible for police bail. Bail can be granted by police officers, Prosecutors and then the court. They have different levels of authority for the charges they can give bail for.

- A Court can give bail on any charge in any of the schedules. - A Police officer can only give bail on Offences listed in Schedule 2 - A Prosecutor Can only give bail on Offences listed in Schedule 7

Another part of the process to determine the release on police bail has to do with the bail profile of the accused person and the information contained therein. There is a legion of factors that determine the bail profile and a whole list of questions needs to be completed in order to determine if the accused is a suitable candidate or not.

A accused person has to be found to be a suitable candidate for police bail with a favourable bail profile otherwise police officer will simply not set bail.

A Bail attorney is intergral to every part of the process in the determination whether the accused person will be released on bail.

Starting with the charge. The charges are not set in stone. Once a docket is opened the police investigator can be approached and the matter can be discussed by your lawyer. On showing good cause and reason through the lawyer to the police, the charge may be changed for a more favorable charge favoring the release of the accused person on police bail. The charges must not simply just be accepted on the say to of the police and the complainant.

After consultation with the accused we have often found the charges to be excessive for what really transpired and once we show good cause to the investigation officer the charges were changed to a charge for which police bail was possible.

The bail profile information is also not set in stone. There could be a whole host of issues found with the bail profile of the accused. To us one example, there could be an issue with a verifiable fixed adress where the accused resides. It is common sense that the police will not release a person if they have no idea where they can find this person later.

If this were to be an issue in the bail profile preventing the release of the accused the investigation officer is willing to reconsider the situation upon the showing of proof that the accused indeed has a fixed verifiable adress where he stays.

It is not possible in this article to cover all the issues which could be found in the bail profile as they are many and we will require a book to show them all. These mere serve as examples.

We have found on numerous occasions that the police were not even considering the release of a person on a 496. Once we consulted with the accused and deliberated with the police we managed to have the accused released on a 496 by the investigation officer.