I had a question about 'bail'. How does this system work? When you are arrested for something and get out on bail you pay most times a lot of money. But what if in the end the jury thinks you're unquilty...do you get you bail-out money back? Or is the money for the State? Please explain.

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

Thanks for the explanation, but one question remains:

You ALWAYS get your money back when you don't slip out before trial ends? Thus it doesn't make any difference when you are (in the end) proven quilty or not?

That's correct.


Don Cardi

Just to add to Don Cardi's excellent explanation:
If you are arrested for a crime in the US, our law requires that, within 24 hours, you must be "arraigned"--that is, brought before a judge. This is not a trial. The arresting officer and the prosecutor will explain the accusation against you. The judge's job is not to determine if you're innocent or guilty--his job is to schedule you for a trial and determine how much bail, if any, is needed. Often, if the crime is minor and you have no criminal record, the judge will let you "walk"--that is, leave the court without bail. If you fail to show up for the trial, he will issue a "bench warrant" for your arrest, and the police will come looking for you.
On the other hand, if the charge against you is serious, and you have a long record, the judge may deny you any bail at all. You will then be held in a jail until your trial is over. John Gotti was called the "Teflon Don" because he was found not guilty at all but one (the last one) of his criminal trials. What is often overlooked is that Gotti was at least twice held without bail until the trials were over--and he probably spent more than two years in jail even though he was acquitted.

everybody thanks for the explanation...it was just a thing that came up in my mind after seeing something with bail in a movie...

Sounds like you have first-hand knowledge of the system [/b][/quote]Well not PERSONAL first hand knowledge Part. Clean as a whislte here! However, I cannot say that for some of the people that were sometimes around me.

So through their experiences I became educated about these things. Let's just say that I was never the one who needed the bail money. But on several occassions I was the one elected to bring the bail money.


Don Cardi

Let me add some more information about the role of the bail bondsmen.

Usually, you can pay the bail bondsman 10% of the total amount as a fee, and the bondsman will then post the entire amount of the bail with the court.

When the trial ends, the bondsman gets back the money he put up, but you do not get back the fee from him.

After reading something about bail in our Dutch Law system I remembered this topic I started and read it for the second time.

Question for Plaw is: what's the use (for the bondsmen)of paying the bondsmen? For example I pay 10% to the bondsmen, and he pays the other 90% (total 100% for the court)...then I leave town...how does he get his 90% back then (assuming I didn't 'give' him my house)?

Did you ever see the movie Midnight Run?

Good movie, with DeNiro and Joe Pantoliano from The Sopranos as a bail bondsman

The bail bondsmen hires someone to find the fugitive. If he is found and returned to the jurisdiction of the court, the bondsman gets his money back.

The fact is, though, that most people do not jump bail, so the occasional loss that the bondsman suffers is more than offset by the profits.

Also, the bail bondsman is under no legal requirement to post bail for someone.

If he considers a person to be a "flight risk", he doesn't have to deal with him.

Thanks for the answer, now it's totally cleared up for me...and sure I'm going to watch that movie!