It happens all the time with domestic violence allegations. The police bail you out of the police station but instead of going home and continuing with your life you find you are controlled by bail conditions that prevent you returning home or even talking to your family. You need to vary bail conditions.
Your world is turned upside down and your wife and children are being made victims by the police action. The conditions cannot be explained as the bail form the police gave you probably does not give you the reasons for the bail conditions.
You can do something about this. There are two stages to cover to vary bail condition.
First stage is to write to the police station setting out the reasons why they should vary bail conditions – usually to take off the conditions but sometimes to suggest alternatives that are workable. This letter needs to be drafted carefully as it is likely to be the main document to put before a court in due course when you ask them to vary bail conditions.
When asking the police to consider your application to vary bail conditions there is no point in giving them more than a few hours to respond. Unfortunately a response is often not forthcoming but if you do get a response it will usually be a refusal of the request so you have to be ready to move on to the next stage.
When preparing the letter to the police it is wise to prepare the application to the court which you need to submit later the same day. The Court will list the application for a hearing to vary bail conditions in open court within 5 working days. Often the court lists it so that you can give the police notice of a day or two. The letter to the police is usually sent by me to accompany the formal court application. The court therefore gives some notice of the grounds for your application to vary bail conditions. This is why the letter to the police has to be drafted with care and thoroughness.
We are used to dealing with these matters. The advantage of taking these steps is that you end up in court with the CPS prosecuting and with Magistrates or a District Judge who will look more closely at the reasons that might exist to keep conditions but they will understand the full picture and react properly.
What you need to do is contact me without delay so that we can get on with this. Bear in mind that even if the next date to return to the police station is less than 4 weeks away it does not mean the conditions will be lifted then. Bail might be extended to require you to come back to the police station in another 4 weeks or you might be charged and bailed to attend court in anything up to another 6 weeks time.
Contact Dennis Clarke to discuss your case. Speed of contact is very important.
Clarke Kiernan LLP, Bail variation solicitors,
1 Lamberts Yard, Tonbridge, TN9 1ER
Phone: 01732360999, Fax: 01732353835, Dennis Clarke, Map South East, Map Wales