If you are arrested, you might have the opportunity to pay bail and leave jail until your trial date. However, this assumes that you have enough money at your disposal. Bail might be extremely expensive, especially if assault bail conditions are applied to it. The amount is decided in bail arguments, but the defendant can generally expect it to be a large amount of money.
If you don’t have the money to pay bail yourself, there are bail bond resources that can pay for you. But you need to know about bail bonds how does it work. Bail bond agencies loan you the money to pay your bail. Once you’ve returned for your trial and fulfilled your obligations, they get that money back. However, you are then charged a fee, often based on a percentage of the loan amount. So, while a bail bond will help you pay your bail, you will end up spending more money than someone who paid for themselves. You also need to make sure you know your responsibilities, both to the court and to the bail bond agencies. If you mess up, you might find yourself in more legal and financial trouble.
A full-service bail bond company can work with individuals to get their bond posted, so they do not need to stay in jail while awaiting trial. Recent studies show that over 50% of all men in the United States will be arrested at least once in their lifetime. Another study showed that one in three people will be arrested at least once before their 23rd birthday.
The Bureau of Justice shows the number of people who need money for bail has increased by more than 30% from 1990 to 2006. 2006 was the last year these types of statistics were released. However, it is likely they have increased even more since then.
Bail bond agencies post the bail amount for the client. In return, the client pays a nonrefundable fee of 10% of the total bail amount. When the individual shows up to court, the bail money is returned, and the bail bond agency keeps the 10% fee. According to one study, on any given day, 60% of the people in jail are simply awaiting trial; they have not been convicted.
While this might seem like a lot, for many it is reasonable considering the alternative is sitting in jail for an unknown period of time. A bail bond agency is often contacted by a family member of the individual in jail, and arrangements are set that way.
The bail bondsman takes a risk by posting bail since that amount is not returned if the individual skips on bail. However, for most, the consequences of skipping on bail are enough to ensure they show up to court when they are supposed to.
A bail bond company is one of those services that no one wants to need, but if you do have a need, there is no other place to go. Sometimes court dates can be scheduled months out from the arraignment, which is a long time to sit in jail if you don?t personally have the money to post bail. That is also time away from family and work, which means the potential of losing that source of income since there is no protection for jobs if you are in jail.
