Most of us have heard about people being released on bail in the news. But not all of us know exactly how these bail bonds work. The basic idea behind bail is that if someone is arrested, another person can post a bond to release the arrested person on the condition that he returns to court for his case hearing. While this is the basic idea, there are many things that go into the entire bail bond process.
Bail is a fixed amount of insurance money that the arrested person has to pay to the court. It is basically a financial arrangement that a person will make on behalf of the arrested person. The person acting on behalf of the defendant will make arrangements with the court for the arrested person to be released from jail pending trial in exchange for money or collateral, which may be cash, assets, or a bond. The court sets the monetary value of the bond, but in most cases, the arrested person or the defendant cannot pay the cash and this is where the bond comes into play. A bond is basically a bond between the court and the arrested person that secures a defendant’s release from jail as he returns to court without the need to keep him in custody all the time.
Many people today hire bail bond agents or agencies to handle everything related to the bail process. Today, there are several 24 hour bail bond services that can help defendants with their bail process 24 hours a day. The bail bondsman charges a fee for the release of a suspect on bail, the bail bondsman charges a fee of approximately 10% of the amount of money that is required to post the bond. If the defendant does not have enough assets to secure a bond, then the bail bondsman may take securities against people who are willing to help, such as family and friends.
Bail bondsmen usually obtain the necessary information from the defendant’s contact person, including the full name of the person in jail, the jail they are in, their booking number, charges, etc. The process of rescuing someone can be very quick or take several hours and depends on the circumstances and the charges against the defendant. After the person has been released, it is the responsibility of the bail bondsman to appear at all court proceedings and to ensure that he complies with the conditions set by the court.
If the defendant fails to appear at the court proceedings, the bail agent must pay the full amount of the bail to the court. If this happens or if the defendant violates the bail conditions, the bail agent will locate the defendant and take him or her back to jail. The bail money that the agent pays to the court is recovered by the agent by claiming the property that was owned by the defendant or by those people who signed a contract to help the defendant financially.