Securing Bail Before You Even Know What The Judge Decreed: Why This Should Be Avoided
Posted on: 8 July 2019
When a family member or friend has been charged and arrested with a crime, your first impulse is "No! They didn't do it!" Your second impulse is to run out and see how many different ways you can get bail money so that you can bail out the friend/family member. You should avoid doing that until you hear what the judge has to say at the arraignment hearing.
Sometimes judges have really good days and do not intend to enforce the fullest extent of the law, which means that a lesser crime may not result in jail time until the hearing. Sometimes it means that the judge will grant bail allowances, but you do not know how much until they say so. Here are some other possible outcomes of a bail decree, and why jumping the gun to get bail money is a bad idea.
Jail with No Bail
If a judge decides at the arraignment that no bail will be allowed, then securing all of that money you just got for bail is a loss. Trying to pay it all back to all of the sources you used to get the bail money is going to be very difficult, especially if you took cash advances on credit cards or borrowed a personal loan with prepayment and repayment in full penalties. Instead, it is best to wait to hear what the judge has to say.
Cash Bond Only
Cash bonds are not as harsh as no bail because it means that the full bail amount has to be made in cash. Bail bonds agents may or may not touch this type of bail case since it could equal a major financial loss for them because they cannot recover the cash used to spring your friend/family member. The bond agent can sell off property you use to secure a bail bond to offset financial losses when somebody jumps bail, which is why the agent is less likely to take cash bond only cases. There are bond agents that will still take such cases, but they do it on a case-by-case basis.
Additionally, "cash bond only" often means that bail is set extremely high, something that might be impossible for you to secure even if you already ran through every possible resource to get bail money. You might have to sell your home just to get that kind of bail set by the judge! In that case, you went and got all of that bail money for possibly nothing, because it may not be enough.
In order to be ready to help your loved one, contact local bail bond services through a related site to understand your options.
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