If You Bail Someone Out Of Jail, Are You Responsible For Them?
A bail bond is just assurance money that the court asks for in order to let them avoid jail time until their trial and offers proof that the defendant is coming back on time for their court hearing. So if the court says the bail is $5000, you will pay a bondsman a fee of 10%, or $500, to get your friend out of jail until their court hearing.
Someone who needs to pay a bail to get out of jail until their court date has 3 options…
- Pay the full bail amount
- Hire a bondsman and pay 10%
- Simply remain in jail
If you ended up signing the contract to pay a bondsman to get a friend or family member out of jail, what you are doing is agreeing to pay a non-refundable 10% of the entire bail bond in order to get them out of jail before their court date. However, if they do not show up for their court date, you will then be responsible for paying the full amount of the bail bond.
Are You Legally Responsible For Them?
It is not your legal responsibility to make sure your friend or family member makes their court date although if you put down bail money or co-signed on a bail agreement, you will want to make sure the person you are bailing out is someone who will actually make their court date and not run. If they do, you have committed no crime so you are not in any legal trouble, however the bail bonds company WILL be sending a bounty hunter after your friend or family member and WILL attempt to collect the money they lost through contacting you, your friends, family and workplace.
Bounty hunters have a high success rate of getting their money back.
