Legal Points to Bail Bonds

In the United States, the Eighth amendment in the Constitution has guarantees to a reasonable bail as a right. This is closely followed by different states across the country where bail bonds are guaranteed as rights while going a little further to allow a court of law to let an accused on Recognizance terms. A good example is the California constitution that does this. The important part of all these is that before a person has been found guilty by due process of the law he or she is still innocent, which is a strong premise of the Criminal Justice process.

This should be the case whether the person has committed a severe crime or not. The weight of the evidence, number of witness who are sincere or obvious facts readily available does not affect the fact that the defendant is only presumed guilty only after a trial or after following a full process of criminal prosecution. This is the reason bail bonds are so important in every respect where criminal justice system is clear and developed.

 In many states, the premium rate of a bail bond that a bail agency charges is set by Insurance Company, with 10 percent being the average amount in most. This means that if the judge puts the bail at $30,000, the bail agent should charge the accused or the individual standing as the cosigner $3,000 to post the bond.  A bail agency takes up the first liability of the entire amount set by the court, in case a defendant does not make it to court for the trial.

After the defendant has been released from jail, the premium charged is considered as fully earned. On the other hand, an indemnitor or cosigner assumes the responsibility of paying a court the full amount of the bond in case the accused fails to materialize in court. There are some instances in bail bonds where the bail agent accepts cash payment initially thus reducing the entire premium amount followed by a split paid monthly through an agreed schedule that aims to end the payment without being to overwhelming for the client.

 Bail bonds also allow the consigner to provide other types of collaterals such as land or house. This also ensures that the defendant will appear in court while any extra charges, costs and expenses that might occur if accused fails to appear in court is paid by the cosigner in totality.