Responsible for a Bail Bonds in Los Angeles county Budget? 10 Terrible Ways to Spend Your Money
What Is a Bail Bond?
A bail bond is an settlement by a criminal defendant to look for trial or pay a sum of cash set by the court docket. The bail bond is cosigned by a bail bondsman, who fees the defendant a charge in return for guaranteeing the cost. The bail bond is a kind of surety bond.
The commercial bail bond system exists only within the United States and the Philippines. In other nations, bail could entail a set of restrictions and circumstances positioned on criminal defendants in return for his or her release until their trial dates.
Key Takeaways
·A bail bond cosigned by a bail bondsmen is posted by a defendant in lieu of full fee of the bail set by the court docket.
·The bail bond serves as surety that the defendant will seem for trial.
·Judges sometimes have vast latitude in setting bail amounts.
·Bail bondsmen generally cost 10% of the bail quantity up entrance in return for their service and may charge extra charges. Some states have put a cap of 8% on the quantity charged.
·The bail system is extensively viewed as discriminatory to low-income defendant and contributing to the mass-incarceration of younger African-American males.
How a Bail Bond Works
A person who is charged with a crime is usually given a bail listening to earlier than a choose. The quantity of the bail is at the judge's discretion. A choose could deny bail altogether or set it at an astronomical degree if the defendant is charged with a violent crime or appears likely to be a flight threat.
Judges usually have large latitude in setting bail amounts, and typical amounts fluctuate by jurisdiction. A defendant charged with a nonviolent misdemeanor might see bail set at $500. Felony crime expenses have correspondingly high Additional reading bail, with $20,000 or extra not unusual.
The business bail bond system exists only within the United States and the Philippines.
As soon as the amount of the bail is set, the defendant's selections are to stay in jail until the charges are resolved at trial, to rearrange for a bail bond, or to pay the bail quantity in full till the case is resolved. Within the final instance, courts in some jurisdictions accept title to a home or different collateral of value in lieu of cash.
Bail bondsmen, additionally referred to as bail bond agents, present written agreements to legal courts to pay the bail in full if the defendants whose appearances they guarantee fail to appear on their trial dates.
Bail bondsmen typically cost 10% of the bail amount up entrance in return for his or her service and should charge further charges. Some states have put a cap of eight% on the quantity charged.
The agent might also require a press release of creditworthiness or may demand that the defendant turn over collateral within the type of property or securities. Bail bondsmen typically settle for most property of value, including vehicles, jewelry, and houses in addition to stocks and bonds.
Once the bail or bail bond is delivered, the defendant is launched until trial.
The Disadvantages of the Bail Bond System
The bail bond system has turn out to be a part of the bigger debate over mass incarceration, especially of younger African-American males, in the U.S.
The bail bond system is taken into account by many even within the legal occupation to be discriminatory, because it requires low-income defendants to remain in jail or scrape collectively a 10% money charge and the rest of the bail-in collateral—even earlier than they stand trial for any crime. PrisonPolicy.org says that about 536,000 individuals are being held in jails in the U.S. as a result of they can't afford bail or a bail bondsman's providers.
4 states together with Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin have outlawed bail bondsmen and as an alternative require a 10% deposit on the bail quantity to be lodged with the courtroom. In 2018, California voted to eliminate money bail requirements from its court docket system.