D Pros Bail Bonds, if you are having been looking at what a bail bonds is and how it works, here is a short walkthrough of the subject. This is a combination of the two words bail and bonds, though they can be used interchangeably.
Bail is an amount of amount to be paid before getting out of jail, before a court appearance to make sure a defendant appears in all stipulated dates announced by the courts. While the word, bonds comes from the financial world, it’s a form of agreement backed up by the law, in a simple language, it’s a form of indebtedness to the bond issuer.
Taking it together, bail bonds is a form of agreement backed up by law between a surety, defendants and a bail bonding company, making sure defendants shows up in all court appearance as specified by the rule of law.
Bail bonds has a long history from the Anglo-Saxon region in England, this can be traced back as far back from, 410-1066BC. It’s a means of peacefully resolving disputes, where the accused is mandated to provide a surety incase he/she absconds.
While this crude bail system, which doesn’t requires the exchange of money, the surety only must be able to show/admit he will pay up if the accused fled.
For centuries, friends and families are able to stand for an accused as surety, with increased civilization; at the beginning of the 19th century, people began to migrate to from cities to the urban and they are more on the move, which increased the difficulty to find a close relative for a bail out. Hence necessitated to find someone who will able to stand in gap, if anything goes wrong.
This birthed the appearance of the bail bondsmen, the first one opened in San Francisco, and began operation in 1898.
The united Sates, inherit this form of bail system from the English land, which they incorporates into their law. After independence, in 1776, most states in the US began to modify their laws to cater for the changing society.
Several amendments was passed into law, the notable ones includes the sixth amendment, which has a strong similarity to the 1679 Habeas Corpus Act. .This law states, an accused must be informed of the type and cause of accusation he is being arrested for. In addition, a suspect would be able to ask for a bail, if it’s a bailable offense.
It doesn’t take long before people arrested were being exploited by bondsmen, if someone is arrested, they usually will have to take a bail bonds from a bail bonds from bonding company/agent who will in turn provide the cash required by the court but with an interest attached.
And if the arrested couldn’t get the bonds returned, they can be returned to jail by the bondsmen. This brings about the 1966 law. This law put more emphasis on the guiltiness of the arrested, and probability of being able to appear in court.
The 1966 bail law reform is a complete overhaul of how the bail system prior to the time of its enactment, bridging the gap between how the poor receive court judgment compared to the rich.
This law also provides some sort of soft landing, peradventure the amount to be paid as bail couldn’t be provided in full. It lays more emphasis on the rule of law. However it still has its loopholes, criminals can still receive the same kind of bail treatment compared to other minor cases.
The 1984 came as an aid to the 1964 laws, tightening the loopholes, with more stringent rules on criminal related bail issues. The bail system since has began to receive other modifications close to what we have today. This defers from states to states.
Type of Bail
There are different types of bail bonds today, though the most common you are likely to be hearing of is the surety bonds and non-financial release, the surety bonds is the release on bail, lent to the accused by the bond agent. Going deeper to the types, below are worth mentioning;
Surety Bonds: This is a type of bonds to be shouldered by a third party and aggress to pay upfront for the bail. Most time, bondsmen provides this service by charging 10% of the of the bail amount, and will not refund the amount either the defendants appears in court or not. In 2012, most states began to be prohibit commercial surety bail bondsmen, but rather they can demand a certain amount of the bail which is to be given to the court. This putting surety on the bonds, and they guarantee to pay the forfeited bonds if the defendants do not appear in court as scheduled. They usually refund the amount paid to them by the defendants if they appear in all court appearances.
Recognizance (ROR); This type of bail is when an accused is released based on recognizance. He/she agrees with the court to comply with all judicial proceedings and will not be involved in any illegal/prohibited acts. Before this type of bail is granted, an amount of money is set by the court and paid if only the defendants do not comply with the court ruling, they are called, unsecured appearance bonds.
Unsecured bail: Though similar to ROR, but in this case, the accused must pay a certain an amount of money if the bail terms is breeched.
Percentage Bail: The accused is required to pay certain percentage of the bail amount deposited to the court clerk. Most times are 10% of the bail amounts.
Citation Release: Also called Cite Out, is a procedure of issuing citation by the arresting officers to the accused, informing the accused of the need to appear in court at an appointed time. This occurs immediately when an individual is arrested and no financial obligation is involved.
Property Bonds: This is a type of bonds, where the accused or a person acting on their behalf puts down a real estate property having a monetary close to the bail amount. If the defendant fails to be in court as stipulated for trial, the court can proceed with a foreclosure proceeding against the property and recover it.
Immigration bonds: This is usually used when an illegal immigrants is arrested. This handled by the federal laws and the accused deal directly with the Department of Homeland Security, Custom Enforcement or the Bureau of Immigration.
Cash Bonds: This is a type of bail that requires cash only as directed by the court. This usually requires the full payment of the bail amount until the issue is resolved in the court.
Combinations: This is a kind of combined bail type to get an arrestee out of jail. The court allows to post surety bonds, or cash with further conditions.
There are other types of bail, which includes, pretrial services, condition of releases and protective order. The bail system has undergone a lot of reforms with more fair and safer bails, if you will like to connect with a professional bail bondsman get in touch here, https://dprosbailbonds.com
