What is a Bail Bondsman?
A bail bondsman is someone who can help you in times of need. When you find yourself being woken up by the phone ringing, on the other line is your family member or close friend saying they are in jail and needs your help, you can get them out by helping them post bail.
Posting Bail
Whenever someone is accused of a crime, they are provided an opportunity to be granted bail.
A bail is essentially an agreement between the court and a defendant. By posting a predetermined amount of money, the defendant would be set free from jail with the promise of coming into court on all scheduled proceedings. The money is then refunded to the defendant after the trial is over; minus some clerical charges. we are providing facility to posting bail in California.
The problem however, is the fact that bail can be quite expensive. The amount is set by a judge based on different factors. This includes the crime the defendant is being accused of, the history of the defendant in attending court hearings, and the risk he or she poses to the general public.
Statistics have shown that in California, the average amount for bail is at $50,000. This is very steep for a lot of people. This is where a bail bondsman can come in and help you out.
Bail Bondsman
A bail bondsman can be a single person or an entire company. Their nature is to act as a surety for bail. They would pledge money or property as bail to the court so that the defendant, the client of the bail bondsman, would appear in any and all proceedings. In other words, they would take care of the bail amount.
How this works is that you can contact a bail bondsman and request for the service. After filling the necessary paperwork, you would then pay 10% of the total bail amount. So if the amount is set at $50,000, you need to pay the bail bondsman $5,000 up front.
The remaining amount of the bail is then covered by collateral from you. The collateral can come in the form of real property, stocks, jewelry or any other property that has value.
If you do not have enough properties to cover the collateral, a family member or friend can actually help by becoming a co-signee to the bail bond.
A co-signee to a bail bond essentially ensures the bail bondsman that the defendant would indeed attend every hearing and they would post collateral on their behalf. Of course, the co-signee would also have certain rights such as being able to ask to cancel the bond if they feel that the defendant is at risk of fleeing.
For example, you are charged with a crime and bail is set at $50,000 by the court. You provide 10% of the amount to the bail bondsman along with your home as collateral and you are set free.
Now if you go through with all your appearances and the case is resolved, the bail bond would be dissolved no matter the resolution of the court. The collateral would be returned and that’s the end of that.
However, if you flee, the California bail bondsman would then take over the collateralized property as payment for the money they used to post bail on your behalf.
Finding a Bail Bondsman
If you are looking for a bail bondsman, you might want to give us a call. ABC Bonding has years of experience in providing surety bonds such as bail bonds in California, USA. Our people have the right knowledge and expertise when it comes to these cases. In order to help our clients make the right decisions, we offer consultations from start to finish. In fact, we have free consultations even before you become a client.
You might not be able to change what happened in the past, but you sure can make the right decisions moving forward. So if you are in need of a bail bondsman you can trust, send us a message or call us at (805) 544-1000 today.