Do I have to deposit cash to get bail?

In most cases, you do not have to give a cash deposit in addition to the money your surety has promised to pay to the court.

Your surety is required to “pledge” a certain amount of money to the court. In most cases, this means your surety promises to pay the court money if you do not follow your bail conditions. This pledge is usually called the “quantum of the bail”, or the amount of the bail.

But the court may ask you for a cash deposit if:

• you live more than 200 km from where you're in custody
• you're not normally a resident of Ontario

In these cases, you might have to deposit cash with the court before you're allowed to leave on bail.  This means you will have to either hire a lawyer to deposit funds on your behalf or ask duty counsel to make arrangements with your surety or a friend or family member to deposit funds on your behalf. You will not be released from custody until the cash is deposited with the court.

When your case is resolved, you will get your cash deposit back if you did not breach any of your bail conditions while you were out on bail.