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Criminal Defense Articles

• OVERVIEW OF NEW JERSEY'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA/POT LAW
• CRIMINAL LAWYER IN BERGEN AND PASSAIC COUNTIES: BAIL FORFEITURE AND THE BAIL REMITTITUR GUIDELINES
• CRIMINAL LAWYER IN BERGEN AND PASSAIC COUNTIES: BAIL FORFEITURE AND THE BAIL REMITTUR GUIDELINES
• CRIMINAL LAW IN BERGEN AND PASSAIC COUNTIES: THE DYING DECLARATION EXCEPTION TO THE HEARSAY RULE

The Right to Bail in Jersey: Bail Options and Other Related Issues (3 of 4)

B. Bail Source Hearing

Certain first and second degree offenses have been identified as “bail restricted” crimes. In those instances where a person is accused of a “bail restricted” crime, as well as certain other first and second degree drug and racketeering offenses, the accused, or the people who are posting bail on the accused’s behalf, must fill out a Bail Source Inquiry Questionnaire, which discloses, among other things, the identity of the people responsible for posting bail, the type of security offered and the source of the money or property used to post the bail. Notably, this responsibility pertains to professional bail bondsman as well.

The principal purpose of this law is to allow the government to determine whether money used to secure the release of the accused was the produce of illicit criminal activity and whether the accused will maintain his/her responsibility to appear at each procedural event required by the court.

Once the questionnaire is submitted, the government can request a hearing. The hearing must be held within three business days after the bail is posted or offered for posting. At this hearing, a trial judge will have to determine, among other things, the reliability of the person posting the bail, the value and sufficiency of the security offered to secure the bail, the relationship of the person posting the bail and the accused’s interest in insuring that the bail is not forfeited and whether the bail was acquired from criminal or unlawful conduct.

In order for accused to be released, the judge will have to endorse the existence of each of the factual propositions recited above in favor of the accused. Notably, neither the statute nor the court rule that controls this hearing identifies which side (i.e. the government or the accused) has the burden of proving these factual elements. The rule does provide, however, that in order for the state to obtain a bail source hearing, it must establish a “reasonable and well grounded basis to warrant an inquiry” where the accused is not charged with a bail restricted crime.


Frank T. Luciano, Esq., is a trial lawyer in Bergen County, Passaic County, Hudson County and Morris County with over thirty years of experience in the defense of criminal prosecutions with special emphasis in drug crimes and drunk driving (DWI/DUI) offenses.

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