What Happens If You Bail Someone Out Of Jail?
When you bail someone out of jail, are you responsible for them? What is bail exactly?
Bail is money given to a court to get someone out of jail until their court date. Bail money is returned and refunded once the person shows up to their court date.
It is a financial guarantee made for the court – assuring that a person who has been charged for a crime will return to court if released on such basis.
Bail Bond Options
In the scenario that you or someone else has been released on bail, the following 3 options are applicable:
- The person can pay the bail on his or her own
- The person can choose to remain in jail
- The person can simply hire a bail bondsman to help pay the bail on their behalf
How Do Bail Fees Work?
The court may say that in order to allow someone to stay out of jail until their court date, the amount is $10,000. Most people can’t afford that right out of pocket, so they hire a Bail Bondsman, who then pays the whole bail amount and charges a percentage fee of the actual bail amount, usually around 10%.
So if the bail bond is $10,000, it would cost $1,000 to a bail bondsman to pay the bail.
In case you have bailed someone else out of jail, it’s either you have paid the whole bail fee on your own to the jail agency to cover the bail amount, or you have reached out to a bail bondsman to have them pay the bail fee on your behalf.
If you have chosen the option of a bail bondsman, the agency will usually require that you pay them the bail fee upfront and afterwards the amount won’t be paid back to you, irrespective of whether or not the offender returns to court as necessary. The Bondsman keeps it as their fee.
What Happens if the Bailed Person Doesn’t Appear in Court?
In the event that the defendant fails to show up in court, you will simply lose the money you paid for their bail if you paid the full bail on your own without a bondsman.
On the other hand, if a bail bondsman was hired to pay the bail on your behalf and the person doesn’t return to court at stated time, the bondsman will lose the bail amount they paid.
You are responsible for the person you bail out of jail and it is up to them to make it to court on time.
If the person doesn’t show up and you bailed them out using a bondsman, the bondsman WILL be coming after you to get the amount they lost.
