Who needs a bail bondsman?

Many people that are arrested and booked require the services of a bail bondsman. When a judge sets the bail amount that is required in order for an individual to get out of jail, that bail amount is usually too high for people to pay on their own. However, when a defendant enlists the help of a bail bondsman, the defendant merely has to give the bondsman a ten percent (or less) down payment on the cost of the bail and the bail bondsman will fork over 100 percent of the bail amount to the court.

Here’s more detail about the process:
When a person is booked, the person will be held in jail until his or her trial unless a judge grants bail. If a judge grants bail, the judge is essentially saying that he believes the defendant will return to court in order to stand trial for a crime, but that he wants a guarantee. The bail is the guarantee. Basically, the bail is money that the court will hang onto until the trial. If the defendant shows up to trial, then the court will release the money back to the defendant or the bail bonding agency (whomever paid the bond in the first place). However, if the defendant fails to show up to court, then the court will keep the money that the bail bonding agency or defendant turned over.
As such, it is in the best interest of all interested parties that the defendant returns to court on the day of his or her trial.

When a bail bond is set, it is generally several thousand dollars, depending on the crime and the circumstances of the individual and the case. Because this bail is generally beyond financial reach for most people, they turn to the bail bonding agencies for help. The defendant (or loved ones of the defendant) will pay ten percent of the bail amount to the bail bonding agency. The defendant will never get this money back, even if he shows up to court and the court released 100 percent of the funds that the bail bonding agency put up. The down payment is a payment to the bonding agency for its services.

So, if a defendant has a bail set at $10,000, then he has to put up $1,000 for a bail bonding agency to fund the full bail bond in order to get him out of jail. Otherwise, if the defendant does not use a bail bonding agency, he will either sit in jail while he awaits his trial or he will have to fund the bail amount on his own.