CA Bail Hearing

26 Jul, 16

• in Bail Procedure

If you’re placed under arrest in California, you’re taken to the jail where you’re processed.

Once processing is completed, you or your family will have the opportunity to call a bail bond agent to arrange for payment of a bail. We recommend that you do that right away.

What’s a bail bond?

Bail is a set sum of money that is required to be posted to obtain your release from custody. It’s not a fine. Payment of bail operates to secure your presence at future court proceedings in your case. The full amount of a bail bond most be posted. When you use the service of a bail bond agent, we agree to post the full amount of the bail bond on your behalf in return for a fee not to exceed 10 percent of the bail bond amount. That fee isn’t refundable.

How is the amount of bail determined?

Depending on the crime that you’re accused of, every county will refer to its bail bond schedule in determining the amount of a bail bond that’s required to be posted. The more serious that an offense is, the higher the bail bond amount will be on the bail bond schedule.

Bail bond hearings

If you don’t use the services of a bail bond agent, you’ll be taken before a judge for a bail bond hearing. That might not be for a few days though. In that hearing, you’ll have the opportunity ask the presiding judge to decrease the amount of bail. You’re also allowed to ask the judge to release you on your own recognizance without the necessity of paying any bail bond at all.

Bail reduction

In more serious cases, it’s unlikely that a judge is going to reduce your bail bond amount without you showing unusual circumstances or good cause. Good cause might be considered if you’ve never missed a court appearance in the past, and you haven’t committed any other offenses before this arrest. Unusual circumstances ordinarily turn on newly discovered evidence that tends to favor your innocence.

Release on your own recognizance

If you’re charged with a less serious offense, you might be released on your own recognizance without the necessity of paying a bail bond. Judges are granted broad discretion on this issue. You might be a suitable candidate for a recognizance bail bond if you’re not a threat to the public at large, and you’re likely to appear at all proceedings in your case in the future.

Conditions of bail bond

When arguing for a bail bond reduction or a recognizance bond, it’s not unusual for defense attorneys to offer your compliance with certain conditions. For example, a curfew or no contact with an alleged victim might be agreed upon. GPS tracking or alcohol consumption monitors might also be ordered.

Raising the amount of bail bond

A prosecutor might bring a motion to increase your bail bond. Facts previously unknown in a bail bond hearing can be raised in a hearing for an increase. If you’ve violated any conditions of your bond, a prosecutor can ask for an increase of your bond. A judge would be likely to grant request for an increase. In that case, you’re taken into custody again.

Whenever you’re in front of a judge for a bail bond hearing, your risk of incarceration increases, particularly if you’re already on probation or parole. You really want to avoid being in a courtroom unless something good is going to happen. Rather than waiting in jail for a bond hearing and probably losing your job, your risks are drastically reduced if you use our services immediately after an arrest. Once we’re involved, we usually have our clients processed out of custody in a matter of hours.

Our knowledgeable and experienced bail bond agents are available to speak with you or your family at any hour of any day. We’ll navigate you through each and every step of the bail bond process in English or Spanish. Call us right away after you or somebody close to you has been arrested.

Read About Posting Bail