What Is a Bail Bond?
If you or a loved one has been charged with a criminal offense, in most cases you are allowed to post bail. Posting bail means a dollar amount was set that a judge determined you would have to pay if you would like to be released from incarceration while you await trial. This bail amount is a dollar figure a judge determined would be a sufficient amount of money that would assure you would appear in court.
How a judge would come to the bail amount are usually four factors.
First, the crime you committed plays a big role in how much to charge a person to post bail.
Second, do you have a history of offenses? If you do, this could also determine the amount of bail.
The third factor would be if you already have any warrants for your arrest. This can also determine what a judge will do for bail.
And finally, are you a flight risk? In other words, is your crime so serious, that a court would have to worry if you would appear in court or not. The higher the flight risk, the higher the bail amount, if any.
Now a bail bond is simply a contract between you and a bail bonds company. A bail bonds company would put up the full amount, while you or your loved one would put down 10%, which would be the fee for the bail bondsman.
A person may have to put up collateral depending on how high the bail is, such as a house. This helps assure the bail company of covering the money they put up for bail. This also ensures a person would appear in court.
If a person does not appear in court, this would be referred to as skipping bail. At this point, the bail company would hire a person known as a bounty hunter to track a person down to get them to appear in court.