Our client, a young man with no criminal record, came to our firm having spent four and a half months in custody for false domestic violence allegations. He had previously been represented by counsel, who unsuccessfully applied for bail before another Magistrate. That Magistrate had even refused to release the client on home detention bail, being the strictest possible bail condition available to the court.

Upon the client transferring to James Jackson Criminal Defence, we rapidly obtained and reviewed the previous bail application transcript. It was apparent that the Magistrate made a number of errors, but also that previous counsel had not presented a sufficiently detailed bail application.

James Jackson quickly filed a further bail application, seeking to present further information that was omitted from the previous bail application. The application also challenged the previous Magistrate’s finding that our client was a “Schedule II” offender, meaning he had to show “exceptional reasons” to be released.

The court on hearing our submissions agreed that the client was not “Schedule II”, and that the previous Magistrate had erred. Further, the detailed new information that was provided persuaded the court to release our client on normal bail conditions, without even requiring that he be subject to home detention.

This was an excellent outcome for the client, who now gets to spend Christmas with his family, and otherwise would have had a lengthy wait of over a year in custody until his trial on the charges.