The purpose of the bail system is to guarantee the appearance of a criminal defendant in court.
To fully understand the system, it is important that you understand the bail bonds process:
- The Court sets a bail amount
- A bail bondsman pays this amount to the court
- If the defendant shows up to all their court dates, then the bail bondsman gets his money back
Most people hear about bail on the news when someone gets arrested. We hear things like, “So-and-so was released on X thousand dollars bail and will return to court at a later date.”
But what does bail really mean? To answer that question here is a good overview of what bail is, how bail bonds work, and what bail bondsmen do:
Bail Background
If you are ever arrested on suspicion of a crime, you will be taken to jail for booking. During this process, you will have your mug shot taken, you will be fingerprinted and you will be asked for a statement. Before your court trial date arrives, you’ll have two options:
- Remain in jail until your court date
- Post bail so that you can be released
What Bail Is?
Bail is a way for the court to increase the chances that you’ll actually return for your court date. When the court takes your bail money, it’s like they’re taking a hostage from you, which you’ll only get back if you arrive in court at a later date.
Since bail amounts are typically relatively large (they wouldn’t be compelling if there wasn’t enough money on the line), most people have to rely on Bail Bondsmen to front the money for them, giving it to the court on their behalf.
In that case, bail is a financial agreement that a bail bonds company makes for you with the criminal court in order to get you released from jail while you await your trial date.
The court sets the bail amount and the bail bond company pays the bail on your behalf with cash, assets, or a bond.
A bond is a surety that the full bail amount will be paid, kind of like an official IOU, and while some courts require the full amount to be paid up front, others will accept as little as a 10% cash down payment to secure your release.
The trick here is that after the bail agency posts bail on your behalf, they are the ones who become financially responsible for ensuring that you arrive for your day in court.
If you fail to show up for your appearance, it’s highly likely that the bail bonds agency will hire a bounty hunter to track you down and bring you back, as that’s the only way they’ll be able to get back the money they spent posting your bail.
What is a Bail Bondsman?
A Bail Bondsman is the person who posts bail on your behalf.
Typically, bail bondsmen work for a bail bonding company, but there are also independent operators who handle everything on their own.
The way that bail bondsmen make money is by charging you a fee for fronting the money used to post your bail. That fee is usually something like 10% of the amount of money required to post your bail, and is a fee that is not refundable, even if the case gets thrown out after you post bail.
Most times, bail bondsmen will take out a security against any assets you have in order to cover the cost of your bail. If you don’t have enough assets to cover bail, then the bondsman may need to take out securities against anyone who can help vouch for you (think of them like cosigners on a loan), including your friends and family.
When the bail bondsman takes out their security against your assets, he or she will typically require you to pay 10% of the total in cash in addition to the mortgage on a person’s home that would equal the full amount of the bail money owed.
If you don’t arrive in court on your specified date, the bail bondsman will probably hire a bounty hunter to track you down, but he or she will also have the right to sue you for the money handed over to the court to post your bail.
Your bail bondsman or bail bonds company is also likely to claim any assets that you or the individuals who helped vouch for listed when you signed the original contract with them.
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