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Using a bail bond service to post bail is recommended if you lack the financial resources to post your bail. However, you must be willing and ready to honor the terms and conditions of the bail bond service. Reliable bail bondsmen communicate these conditions beforehand and include them in the agreement that you sign to start the bail process. Failure to honor these conditions may result in severe consequences. You can be re-arrested, lose the valuable asset used as collateral, and lose the support of the bail bondsman. It is helpful to understand all the bail skip consequences Santa Ana as you engage a bail bondsman.
Bail Bondsman’s Expectations After Posting Bail
If you are eligible for pretrial release in California and do not have the money to post bail, you can engage the help of a bail bondsman. Bail bondsmen post bail on behalf of their clients, hoping that they will receive a full refund after the case. They do this for a small fee, which you pay as a premium at the start of the process. The premium is usually non-refundable, as it is also the fee for bail bond service. Once you pay the premium and provide the bail bondsman with the necessary information, they process your release.
Courts grant bail on the condition that you will appear in court for all scheduled hearings regarding your case. This ensures a smooth continuity of your case. Courts are also able to determine cases within reasonable times, as required by the law. However, some defendants skip bail and fail to appear when expected in court. This is a serious mistake that carries severe legal consequences. The judge will issue a bench warrant for your arrest, and the court can forfeit your bail. This translates to a significant loss for you.
When a bail bondsman helps you with bail, they also give you conditions by which you must abide. The greatest of these conditions is to ensure you appear in court as expected. Failure to appear affects your bail bondsmen since they lose the money used to secure your release. Thus, the bail bondsman will also take action against you.
A reliable bail bondsman will explain all bail skip consequences Santa Ana at the start of the process, to ensure you understand what is at stake in case you fail to appear.
Actions Bail Bondsmen Take When They Cannot Find a Defendant
Failure to appear is a serious matter, even for a bail bondsman. Remember that a bail bondsman guarantees your court appearances by paying your full bail to the court. They do this, hoping to receive a full refund after your case. When you fail to appear, the bail bondman risks losing all that money to the court through bail forfeiture. However, they can protect themselves by taking the following actions:
Informing the Court of Your Disappearance
When you skip bail, the court must be notified immediately after it happens. This way, it can take immediate action to ensure you are arrested and apprehended in court before too much time is lost. Once your bail bondsman learns about your disappearance, they will inform the court immediately. The judge will respond by issuing a bench warrant for your arrest. This gives the police the right to arrest you wherever and whenever they find you.
Hiring Bounty Hunters
A bail bondsman has the right to hire bounty hunters to find you once you skip bail. Remember that this is important in reducing their risk of incurring a significant financial loss after helping you with bail. Generally, bounty hunters are people who track down and capture individuals for a bounty or monetary reward. They are fugitive recovery agents, meaning that they find fugitives who have skipped bail and return them to the police.
Although the police and bounty hunters work independently, they will likely find you faster because they are working on the same mission. Thus, chances of being found are usually very high, as well as chances of facing serious bail skip consequences Santa Ana.
Seeking Reimbursement
Once you are found, the bail bondsman will take action against you to ensure you reimburse them for the full amount they used to guarantee your court appearances. The bail bondsman can come after you or your bail bond cosigner to recover their money. If you provide collateral for their services, the bail bondsman can start the liquidation process to raise the money. This can be a huge loss for your family, especially if the asset is valuable and significant to you.
If you did not provide collateral for the bail bond service, the bail bondsman can file a civil lawsuit against you to recover the full bail amount and unpaid fees. This is an additional legal matter you will have to deal with.
Other Bail Skip Consequences Santa Ana
Remember that the court will also take action against you for skipping bail. In addition to issuing a bench warrant for your arrest, the judge may deny you bail after your re-arrest. This means you will remain in jail until your case is concluded.
The prosecutor may also file additional criminal charges against you for failure to appear. Remember that failure to appear is a criminal offense, punishable by time in jail or a court fine. The types of charges you will face, and the penalties, will depend on your underlying charges. If you are found guilty of the underlying charges, you will likely face harsher penalties for failure to appear.
Failure to appear can also affect how the court will treat you in the future when granting you bail for another arrest.
Find a Trustworthy Bail Bondsman Near Me
Bail bondsmen help a lot when you are eligible for bail but cannot afford to bail yourself out. However, their services come with strict conditions by which you must abide. The main condition is attending court hearings on all scheduled dates.
We explain bail skip consequences Santa Ana before signing you up for our services at Future Bail Bonds. We do this to ensure you understand our expectations as we help you with bail. These consequences include the actions we take against you and legal consequences from the court. Call us at 714-515-5154 to learn more about our services and expectations.
