Bail money is basically collateral. It is posted to make sure that someone arrested and going to trial does NOT leave town before the trial ends.

So if your bail is set at $500,000 and you post this kind of bail and if you skip town before your trial is over, you lose the money and you are also a wanted fugitive.

If you post bail and do not slip out, and your trial ends, you, or whomever posted the bail for you get's their money back.

Then there are more complex situations for getting bail. If one does not have that kind of money, they have several choices.

They can either spend the time during their trial in jail, so obviously there would be no bail money at risk.
Or, if they don't have the money but own a home, they can go to a bail bondsman and use thier home for collateral against the money that the bondsman puts up in their name.

If they skip town, or jump bail as it is commonly reffered to, the bail bondsman loses his money, but now he owns the home, so this is how he can recover his losses. And the person who jumped bail is still a wanted criminal.


Don Cardi