Your rights when you are arrested

Attorney

You have the right to speak with an attorney-at-law to get advice on any matter relating to your arrest or charge. You also have the right to retain an attorney to defend you. A defendant should be allowed the ear­li­est op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­tain a lawyer to act on his or her be­half to pre­vent him or her from say­ing or do­ing any­thing against his or her in­ter­est.

Mag­is­trate

You have the right to be brought be­fore a magistrate or jus­tice of the peace as soon as possible af­ter you are charged.

Bail/Reasonable bail

If the offence is one for which bail may be grant­ed, you have the right to make an ap­pli­ca­tion for bail be­fore the mag­is­trate or jus­tice of the peace. You have the right to rea­son­able bail for bail­able of­fences and the right not to be re­fused bail with­out there be­ing a good rea­son.