How Do Bail Bonds Work?

This is a bail related question we answered on Yahoo! Answers.  Our reply was chosen as Best Answer by the asker.

Question: My son is in jail in Kansas and I am in Oregon. His bail is $100,000 – I have to come up with $10,000 to get him out.  Is this right? Also, according to what I’ve read online, I would be responsible for him to go to court, how do I do this with us living in different states?  I have never had to do this before and would like to know how this works.

Answer:  First you should know that bail varies state to state. Although, all states with bail are very similar.

If your son’s bail is set at $100,000, then you would pay a $10,000 fee for a bail bond to get him out of jail.  The bail bond money is a non-refundable fee. In order for you to get your money back, you would take the full bail amount of $100,000 to the court or jail. Upon completion of his case, the money would be returned to you, potentially less court fees.

You are correct; you are responsible to make sure he goes to all of his scheduled court appearances. If he does not show up to court, you have a window of time to get him back into court or pay $100,000.

As a California bondsman, I deal with out of state families on a regular basis. For the most part, the person bailing the defendant out of jail knows them well enough to trust that the individual will go to court as promised. I have seen some cases where the parents chose to stay with the defendant for the duration of the court proceedings to ensure they went to court. In other case,s they have made arrangements for the defendant to go “home” with them and returned for all scheduled court dates.

I hope this was helpful to you. Good luck with this case.

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