Sorry if this has been asked before, but I searched for this question in the archives but I didn’t find anything.
I understand the difference between bail and bail bonds; if someone’s bail is set at $100,000 they can be released by paying a $10,000 bond (10% of bail), bondsman is good for the rest in case they flee, bondsman keeps the $10,000 as a fee, etc.
What I don’t understand is how the media uses it in print and on television news. There’s an article in our local paper today that states that a couple of people are in jail and are “being held on a $503,000 bond.” Does that mean that their BAIL is $5,030,000? I’ve also seen/heard stories where a person’s “bail is set at $50,000” which one would assume means they can get a $5,000 bond and be released from jail until their court date.
Are these two words interchangeable in certain scenarios, or is the media using them incorrectly?
Bail is the amount of money you need to put up, in one way or another, to be released from a custodial commitment before trial. I.e., the judge wants some of your money to be held as security that you won’t blow off the court case. It’s your money; you get it back when you appear and your case is disposed of.
Other people than yourself can post bail for you, and they then hold the receipt and get back the bail money.
A bond, in this usage, is a document which commits to perform an act pursuant to law (statutory provision or court order) by being secured by some form of illiquid security to be forfeited on the failure to perform said act.
One form of bond is a bail bond – i.e., a commitment to cause someone incarcerated before trial to be released on bail, on penalty of forfeiture of something for non-appearance. “Putting up the deed to your house” for bail is an example of such a bond.
A bail bondsman is someone who posts bail bonds for people professionally. He does not trot down to the jail with $5,000, $10,000 or $100,000 every time someone needs release on bail. Rather, he has money in C.D.'s, investment accounts, etc., which are documented to the Sheriff/jailor/whoever, and pledges a bond against them for your bail. He does this for a fee customarily set at 10% of your stated bail, which is non-refundable.
In other words, called on to post bail of $1,000, you have the choice of:
Put up $1,000 cash bail. You get it back after trial (or other disposition of the case).
Post a bond acceptable to the court which guarantees your appearance on penalty of forfeiture of something worth $1,000 or more on the open market.
Pay a bail bondsman $100. He then posts bond for you in $1,000, and keeps the $100. He has some means of guaranteeing your appearance built into the agreement, short of bringing in Dog the Bounty Hunter, but I’m not sure what that might be.
Yes. Well, if you paid your whole bail in cash, then once you have showed up for trial, then the money is yours. It is not meant to be a penalty, but simply an assurance that you will show for trial.
Now, some jurisdictions allow your bail to be used for any fine that you may incur as a result of your conviction. So, if you posted $50,000 bail, and you are sentenced to a year in jail and a $25,000 fine, you may just get a check for $25k with a note saying that your fine has been satisfied…
The bail is a surety to ensure your appearance at the trial. If you showed up at the trial, you get your bail money back. (If you went thru a bail bondsman, then they keep their 10-20% fee.) Of course, your lawyer probably takes it all anyway.
But if the trial is more than a one-day affair, then when the court is in recess, are you still either ‘out on bail’ or in jail? Otherwise, you could take the bail back on the first day of the trial and then skip out before sentencing.
The media tends to be somewhat careless in their usage. While it is correct to say that a suspect is being held in lieu of a bond (or bail) of whatever amount, they shouldn’t say that someone is held on a bond of the amount. If they are being held either they could raise the bail, or the court refused to allow it–either way there’s no bond.
On a slightly different, but related note, usually when you receive a traffic ticket and elect to pay the fine, it will usually be shown as a bail amount. In a strictly legal sense, I suppose that if you pay the “bail” and then don’t go to trial, it is the same thing as if you had skipped out and forfeited your bail. However, in this case they won’t send the bounty hunters out after you.
Well, although IANAL and most emphatically IANAUL (Utah Lawyer, not Urban Legend! – just typing the metes-and-bounds description for one parcel in Logan cured me of any interest in Utah law), I suspect that might be Utah-specific. In both New York and North Carolina, a fine to be paid with a guilty plea by mail is specifically shown as a fine (in NC, plus court costs, owing to a peculiarity in NC law) that you may opt to pay in lieu of your right to appear and contest the charge/plea bargain/seek the court’s mercy for extenuating circumstances.
– just typing the metes-and-bounds description for one parcel in Logan cured me of any interest in Utah law), I suspect that might be Utah-specific. In both New York and North Carolina, a fine to be paid with a guilty plea by mail is specifically shown as a fine (in NC, plus court costs, owing to a peculiarity in NC law) that you may opt to pay in lieu of your right to appear and contest the charge/plea bargain/seek the court’s mercy for extenuating circumstances.