Bail Bond Cost In California

14 May, 18

• in Bail Procedure

Every state in America is allowed to set up its own rules in terms of how a cash bond may be administered when a person is facing criminal charges. The idea behind bail money is that a person can pay the court a certain amount of money as a safeguard that they will make their scheduled appearances in court. It is a way of making a person have some skin in the game so to speak.

Most people do not have enough bail money just lying around when they are charged with a crime. That is why bail amounts California are so important for a person to research and understand before they are ever in a difficult situation. They need to know what it takes to hire a bail agent, and they need to know about bail amounts California as they relate to different charges.

The bail bonds process in California is pretty straightforward in a sense. It is set up so that a person may pay just ten percent of the total amount of bail money that is set up against their charge. In other words, if the judge decides that the amount of bail money that a person will have to put forward is $10,000, then they really only need to provide $1,000 in cash today to the bail bonds agent. At that point, the agent will put up the remaining money to get a person bailed out of jail.

One might stop to ponder how this would work in the long run for the bail agent. Why would that person ever agree to paying that kind of money to getting a person out of the predicament that they find themselves in? The answer is because the bail agent gets to keep the ten percent that is paid to them in cash upfront. The bail agent actually holds that money while the various court proceedings are going on. Then, when the court proceedings are over with, they pocket the money and move on with other clients and situations.

The bail bonds process in California is an all-cash type of business. When you hire a bail agent, you have to have a cash bond ready to go to provide to the court if you are hoping to get out. They do not accept any other type of payment. If you cannot come up with this, then you are simply not getting out of jail until either your trial date or until they decide that it is easier to release you than keep you.

Anyone who is facing a situation where they are in jail facing some charge should try to get in contact with a bail agent about bail terms as soon as possible. It usually does not take long for a judge to issue bail terms for the various people who are arrested throughout the day and night. Typically the person who is facing the charge will learn within hours if not within minutes after they are processed into the jail what their bail terms are going to be.

Judges set terms for bail bonds depending upon the severity of the crime committed as well as on their belief of the odds that the accused will try to flee. It is actually pretty interesting to see how one case can receive such different terms from another case entirely dependent upon how the judge feels about the accused that sits before them. They have to make those kind of calls all day long, so they get pretty good at it. Still, there are definitely differences on a case by case basis.

It is important to understand your rights and know a little about how the system will treat you before you ever face one of these situations. Hopefully, it never comes to that, but you never know how things will work out for you depending on the circumstances of your life. Be informed in order to avoid surprises.