Placerville Bail Schedule (El Dorado County)

31 Dec, 14

• in Bail Schedule

No matter who a person is, everyone should know what a bail bond is, what “posting bail” means, and how it takes part in daily courtroom practices.

Hopefully, an individual won’t ever come to any kind of situation where he or she needs to post bail, but it’s better to understand the bail process beforehand in case it ever happens. Even if one is wrongfully accused of a crime, that individual may still have to pay bail.

What is Bail?

In many crimes, individuals are immediately sent to the jail house if there is reasonable proof that they are guilty of the crime and/or could potentially pursue further criminal activity if they are not incarcerated.

Whenever a person is put into jail for a crime, guilty or innocent, that person has the option to pay bail to get out of jail until their court hearing. Bail is, in its simplest form, a method of promise from the accused to the judge by which the accused says, “I will be at the court on the date of my trial.” The accused pays a certain amount of money, depending upon the severity of the crime, to get out of jail until the court hearing. Then, if they show up to court on the hearing date, that money which was paid in bail is refunded to them.

Most people aren’t willing to part with their money easily, but they are usually willing to give up their money temporarily in order to obtain freedom. However, the necessity of money is so great that it requires that the same individual return to court, usually whether they think they will be convicted or not. However, bail is not always an option for all crimes, and a judge has the right to deny bail for any crime if he believes the defendant may try to flee the state or country.

What is a Bail Schedule?

Every county has its own bail schedule, which dictates to a judge what the expected amount of bail should be for the correlating crime. Generally speaking, the more serious the crime the more hefty the bail. This is because the potential punishment for conviction in harsher criminal suits would make an individual more likely to try to flee the state or country. However, if the court has a larger amount of the defendant’s money, again, the defendant will be less likely to flee.

El Dorado has its own county-based bail schedule which outlines all potential crimes and their correlating bails. The top bail amount is $5 Million for possession of methamphetamine above 20 kilograms, and the lowest bail is set to $3,000 for disposal of waste at an unlawful facility. Bail is not allowed for sexual assault of a child under the age of 8, for inmates trying to create homemade weapons, or for most cases of repeat criminal offenders, among others
Consider reading about Oroville County bail schedule