WHAT IS BAIL ?
We can help you obtain a bail bond. Call Samuel Spital and Associates for a referral for a family member or friend who is in custody to obtain bail and get him or her immediately released.
Bail allows you to be released from jail, unless you receive an O.R. (release on your own recognizance -payment is waived on the condition you promise to appear in court). In general, defendants released on "O.R. status" have strong ties to the community, making them unlikely to flee. Factors that may convince a judge to grant an O.R. release include the following:
- You have little or no past criminal record, or any previous criminal problems you had were minor and occurred many years earlier.
- You have other family members (most likely parents, a spouse or children) living in the community.
- You have resided in the community for many years.
- You have a job.
- You have been charged with previous crimes, but have always appeared as required (in other words, there have been no prior arrest warrants or "failures to appear").
You may either pay the bail amount with a cashier's check, credit card, or cash equivalent (real estate). In the alternative, you can use a bail bondsman who works with a surety company to provide a bond (insurance) to the court that will guarantee you will make your future court appearances.
If you appear in court at the proper time, the court refunds the bail (be sure to discuss the details with your bail bondsman). If you do not show up, the court keeps the bail and issues a warrant for your arrest. We handle many cases involving arrest warrants and clients retain our services to go to court to have the warrant recalled, discharged, or released.
Under the California Penal Code, the bail amount must be stated in a court order or on the arrest warrant. There are published or standard bail schedules for most jails for each alleged violation. You can usually buy a bail bond for between 8% - 10% of the amount of your bail; this premium is the bond seller's fee for taking the risk you do not appear in court. A bail bond may cost you more in the long run. If you pay the full amount of the bail with cash or the equivalent, you will get that money back (less a small administrative fee) as long as you make your scheduled court appearances. On the other hand, the 8%-10% premium you pay to a bail bondsman is not refundable. In addition, some bail bondsmen may also require "collateral." This means you (or the person who pays for your bail bond) must give the bail bondsman a financial interest in some of your valuable property. The bail bondsman can cash-in this interest if you fail to appear in court.
As your San Diego Bail Attorneys, we represent clients at bail hearings, seeking releases without posting bail (O.R.) and/or we will file a written motion and go to court to obtain a bail reduction consistent with our client's ability to pay, likelihood of appearances at court hearings and the seriousness of the alleged crime. In federal court, a person taken to jail must be brought "without unnecessary delay before the nearest available . . . magistrate." In state court proceedings, you can be brought to court for a bail hearing within 48 hours (not counting weekends and holidays) of the time of your booking.
There are restrictions on how high bail can be set. The Eighth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution requires that bail not be excessive. This means bail should not be used to raise money for the government or to punish a person for being "suspected" of committing a crime. The purpose of bail is to give an arrested person their freedom until convicted of a crime, and the amount of bail must be no more than is reasonably necessary to keep a person from fleeing before their case is over.
Some judges allow and/or set a high bail in particular types of cases (such as those involving drug sales or rape) to keep a suspect in jail until the trial is over. This is often referred to as bail set for "preventative detention," and it is thought by some to violate the Constitution, even though this practice has continued in many courts. While past results cannot be used to predict a future outcome, we have obtained a bail reduction from approximately one million dollars to only ten thousand dollars.