15 Things Your Boss Wishes You Knew About Bail Bonds Los Angeles county
What Is a Bail Bond?
A bail bond is an agreement by a legal defendant to seem for trial or pay a sum of money set by the court. The bail bond is cosigned by a bail bondsman, who costs the defendant a fee in return for guaranteeing the payment. The bail bond is a sort of surety bond.
The industrial bail bond system exists solely within the United States and the Philippines. In other nations, bail may entail a set of restrictions and conditions positioned on prison defendants in return for his or her release until their trial dates.
Key Takeaways
·A bail bond cosigned by a bail bondsmen is posted by a defendant in lieu of full payment of the bail set by the court.
·The bail bond serves as surety that the defendant will seem for trial.
·Judges usually have large latitude in setting bail amounts.
·Bail bondsmen generally charge 10% of the bail quantity up entrance in return for his or her service and should charge additional charges. Some states have put a cap of eight% on the amount charged.
·The bail system is widely viewed as discriminatory to low-earnings defendant and contributing to the mass-incarceration of younger African-American males.
How a Bail Bond Works
A person who is charged with a crime is typically given a bail listening to earlier than a decide. The amount of the bail is at the choose's discretion. A decide might deny bail altogether or set it at an astronomical level if the defendant is charged with a violent crime or appears prone to be a flight danger.
Judges usually have broad latitude in setting bail amounts, and typical quantities range by jurisdiction. A defendant charged with a nonviolent misdemeanor might see bail set at $500. Felony crime costs have correspondingly high bail, with $20,000 or extra not unusual.
The commercial bail bond system exists only within the United States and the Philippines.
As soon as the amount of the bail is set, the defendant's selections are to stay in jail until the charges are resolved at trial, to rearrange for a bail bond, or to pay the bail quantity in full until the case is resolved. In the final occasion, courts in some jurisdictions accept title to a home or different collateral of worth in lieu of cash.
Bail bondsmen, additionally known as bail bond agents, provide written agreements to prison courts to pay the bail in full if the defendants whose appearances they assure fail to seem on their trial dates.
Bail bondsmen generally cost 10% of the bail quantity up front in return for their service and will charge additional charges. Some states have put a cap of eight% on the amount charged.
The agent can also require a statement of creditworthiness or could demand that Check out the post right here the defendant turn over collateral in the type of property or securities. Bail bondsmen usually accept most property of worth, together with cars, jewelry, and homes as well as stocks and bonds.
As soon as the bail or bail bond is delivered, the defendant is released until trial.
The Disadvantages of the Bail Bond System
The bail bond system has change into a part of the larger debate over mass incarceration, particularly of younger African-American men, within the U.S.
The bail bond system is taken into account by many even in the legal occupation to be discriminatory, as it requires low-income defendants to remain in jail or scrape together a 10% money payment and the rest of the bail-in collateral—even earlier than they stand trial for any crime. PrisonPolicy.org says that about 536,000 individuals are being held in jails in the U.S. as a result of they can't afford bail or a bail bondsman's services.
4 states including Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin have outlawed bail bondsmen and instead require a ten% deposit on the bail amount to be lodged with the court docket. In 2018, California voted to remove cash bail necessities from its courtroom system.