Bail Act 2000

Court bail - Bail pending appeal against conviction or sentence

54: Granting of bail to appellant in custody or on home detention pending appeal to High Court, Court of Appeal, or Supreme Court

You could also call this:

"You can get bail while waiting for your appeal to be heard in a higher court."

You can get bail if you are in custody or on home detention and you are appealing a conviction or sentence to the High Court, Court of Appeal, or Supreme Court. You must be appealing against the conviction or sentence, or both, to one of these courts. If you are only in custody because of the conviction you are appealing, you can get bail at any time before your appeal is heard. If the Judge who made the original decision is not available, another Judge can decide if you get bail. You can also get bail from the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court if you are appealing to one of these courts. When you get bail, you must promise to go to court on the day of your appeal and any other day it is postponed to. If you get bail, some other rules apply to you, like the rules in section 31, sections 30 to 33, 35 to 39, and 54A. These rules also apply if you are refused bail or if a decision is made about your bail under section 33(1). Some other rules, like the ones in sections 42 and 43, apply if you get or are refused bail. You can also get bail if you are appealing on a question of law under subpart 8 of Part 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and your appeal is about your conviction. This means the same rules apply to you as they do to someone who is appealing a conviction or sentence.

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This page was last updated on 8 December 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM68995.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal help

53: Granting of bail to appellant in custody or on home detention pending appeal to District Court presided over by District Court Judge, or

"Getting bail while waiting for your appeal to be heard in the District Court"

54A: Appeal against entry by court of non-performance of condition of bail in court record, or

"Appealing a Court's Decision About Not Meeting Bail Conditions"

Part 3Court bail
Bail pending appeal against conviction or sentence

54Granting of bail to appellant in custody or on home detention pending appeal to High Court, Court of Appeal, or Supreme Court

This section applies if a person—
is in custody under a conviction or is subject to a sentence of home detention; and
is appealing against the conviction or sentence, or both, to the High Court, Court of Appeal, or Supreme Court (as the case requires).

If the appellant is in custody, or is subject to a sentence of home detention, only under the conviction to which the appeal relates, the appellant is bailable at any time before the hearing of the appeal—
at the discretion of the Judge who presided over the court whose determination is appealed against (if applicable); or
if that Judge is not available,—
1. if the decision was made by a District Court Judge, at the discretion of another District Court Judge; or
2. if the decision was made by a High Court Judge, at the discretion of another High Court Judge; or
at the discretion of the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court (in the case of an appeal to the Court of Appeal or to the Supreme Court).

Subject to the provisions of section 31 (as applied by subsection (4)), if an appellant is granted bail pending the determination of an appeal by the High Court, the appellant must be released on condition that the appellant attend personally at the High Court on the day on which the appeal is to be heard and on any day to which the hearing may from time to time be adjourned.
If an appellant is granted bail under this section, the provisions of sections 30 to 33, 35 to 39, and 54A, as far as they are applicable and with any necessary modifications, apply as if the appellant were a defendant remanded in custody who had been granted bail.
If an appellant is granted or refused bail under this section, or if any decision is made under section 33(1) (as applied by subsection (4)) in respect of any appellant, the provisions of sections 42 and 43, as far as they are applicable and with all necessary modifications, apply as if the appellant were a defendant who had been granted or, as the case may be, refused bail.
Section 53(6) applies for the purposes of this section.
If an appeal is filed on a question of law under subpart 8 of Part 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and the appeal relates to a person’s conviction, this section applies to the convicted person as it does to the appellant.

Notes

Section 54: replaced, on 14 November 2018, by section 97 of the Courts Matters Act 2018 (2018 No 50).