Bail Bonds: Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Bail bonds are the enforcers of the constitution. Our founding fathers ensured that we have the right to be treated as equal citizens until proven guilty. But society, and often our own justice system, views defendants as “guilty until proven innocent.”

Bail Lets You Keep Your Innocence

In America, you are innocent until proven guilty. Bail is offered to keep this stance. But other countries, such as Italy, have a completely different attitude towards the accused. While Italy does follow the “innocent until proven guilty” theory, they do not offer bail. Instead, they’re allowed to hold accused (without charging them) for up to a year. They don’t treat the accused as innocents.

Even in America, you can quickly be labeled as guilty even before your picture is taken. What’s worse is if you can’t make bail, … Read More »

Don’t Let the Government Take Away Your Right to a Bail Bond

The very government that arrested you and now holds you in their zero-star hotel wants 100% control of your bail options. They expect to accomplish this by continuing to demonize and attempt legislation against the bail bond industry. Despite the effectiveness of the system, it faces harsh criticism from attorneys to judges who seem to be offended that someone let the bail bond industry into their elite members-only club of highly educated professionals who hold the reigns of justice.

Dave’ story:

Dave wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He worked hard but because he was always helping his kids, never seemed to have two dimes to rub together. He was arrested on a failure to appear charge that he forgot about. The bail was $5,000. There was no way … Read More »

Five Ways to Keep Your Loved One from Jumping Bail

You just posted bond to have your loved one bailed out of jail. It was your money; part of your retirement, your emergency money, money you didn’t want to spend—except love won out. Your money was a nonrefundable fee for the bond. You may have also put up significant collateral, like your house, to guarantee the bail bond if your loved one decides to skip bail.

Now that you have laid it all on the line, how can you be sure they won’t break your heart and jump bail? Well, you know them better than we do. What have they done in the past? Have they broken your trust before? Without the proper understanding of what’s before them they might think that jumping bail is an option. Here is how you … Read More »

Top 5 Questionable Bail Standards

Did you ever wonder why bail was as expensive as it is? Aren’t some of the laws (and the subsequent bail) a little ridiculous? Bail is meant to keep the defendant either in jail or in town until trail. The 2013 California uniform bail schedule reveals a few interesting facts. Some of the bail prices make you wonder how they rate their crimes.

1) “Marijuana, possession to sell” has a bail of $20,000. If you have over 25 pounds of the stuff, $50,000 is your ticket price. 50 pounds of marijuana will ensure a $100,000 bail. However, the bail price doesn’t seem sufficient. If they were dealing with a serious drug dealer with that many pounds of marijuana, it’s likely that he will have enough to bail himself out with his previous earnings. (At most $600 … Read More »

Ten Steps Before you Make Bail

Crime shows have always been popular entertainment. Even the old Andy Griffith Show had a theme centered on the hometown sheriff and his jail. Now we have CSI Miami, Las Vegas, and New York and multiple other crime-investigation/courtroom dramas that are on every night of the week. Every now and again, the topic of making bail comes up. Even though you might not think that making bail will ever apply to you, you might want to know the steps you will go through if it does. (Just a hint: No matter who you are it could easily come up.)

#1

The first thing that usually happens is a police officer places you under arrest. It doesn’t matter what it is for. It might be a DUI or some incident you forgot about like failing to show … Read More »

Bail Bond Agents in California: Not-So-Secret Agents

The morphing of the English language to be less gender specific somehow hasn’t changed the word bondsman to bondsperson in common vernacular. Consequently, to be politically correct you might want to refer to a bondsperson by their proper title, “Bail Bond Agent.”

An Agent of What?

A bail bond agent isn’t James Bond; it’s not that kind of agent. A bail bond agent is more like an insurance agent. They represent a surety company that guarantees your bail should you decide to do something we don’t recommend like make a run for it. As an agent of the surety company, they are able to sign the bond that signifies to the court that they will cover your bail. So, if your bail is $10,000, your bail bond agent will want you to assure them that you … Read More »

Why You Don’t Want to Spend a Week in Jail

Overworked individuals, type-A personalities, and even workaholics often express that a week in jail would be a welcome reprieve from their daily stress. Those fortunate few, who actually get their wish, invariably change their minds within a few minutes.

If you happen to be one of those who feel this way, let me give you a few reasons why you should always pay the bond and make bail before you even try this bad idea. For brevity’s sake, let’s skip over some of the details so we can highlight just the good stuff.

Let’s assume you get arrested on a minor charge. The arresting officer will place you in handcuffs and take you to the county facility. Don’t bother complaining about the handcuffs crushing your wrists, the officer will tell you they are … Read More »

Remember your 1st grade class photo? Some one in that picture is in jail.

It isn’t who you think either. It’s not the bully who shoved you down in recess, or even the kid with anger issues. No. It’s that shy girl, Nancy, who was so petite and pretty that even the boys afraid of girl fleas would stare at her during reading time. Yeah, she grew up to be gorgeous, smart, popular, and in jail.

What did she do? Rob a bank? Stab her boyfriend? Hardly. She is still shy and even nice—but she broke the law. It might be that Nancy borrowed two or three Percocet from her roommate without asking, or it could be that a friend hid a pound of weed under the seat of her car. It might be, that she ordered some pretty flowers from the … Read More »

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