What Is a Surety Bond?
When a person is arrested by the police, it does not necessarily mean that he or she has to languish in jail until the final verdict has been handed down. A suspect can temporarily regain his or her freedom while the trial is proceeding until the verdict, by posting a bail.
Suspects can be released through bails which serve as a guarantee that they will appear in all the appointed court dates and will not run away and hide.
For suspects, posting bail offers several advantages. First, if the suspect is innocent, he does not have to be locked up and can thus maintain a sense of normalcy in his or her daily life. Posting bail also gives suspects ample time to make the necessary arrangements for their personal and professional dealings.
Posting bail also benefits the local government by freeing up jail space, which in turn allows authorities to cut associated expenses.
There are five kinds of bails including cash, release on citation, release on own personal recognizance, property bond and surety bail bond. What is a surety bond? Here’s a brief glimpse at this ty
pe of bail.
In some circumstances, a suspect may not be able to pay for bail in cash. In such cases, the suspect may enlist the help of friends or relatives to contact a bail bondsman who works for an insurance company that specializes in bail bonds.
Essentially, the bail bondsman and the surety company he works for will provide for the bail of the suspect. In exchange for this, the bail agent will collect 10 percent of the bail paid in behalf of the suspect. Furthermore, in order to protect the interests of the bondsman, he may ask for a collateral from the suspect or from the friend or relative who contacted him.
With the addition of a third party into the mix, the friend or relative, the bondsman gets some sort of guarantee that the suspect will appear in court.
Should the suspect jump bail, the burden of paying the bond falls on the bondsman. In some cases, the bail agent may enlist the help of a bounty hunter to find the suspect.
In short, the suspect becomes the responsibility of the bail agent because of his stake on the suspect’s attendance on his court hearings.
If you have to deal with a bondsman, make sure to ask him about all the charges involved. It is worthwhile to have the bondsman itemize all of these. For your part, make sure that you get receipts as well as copies of pertinent documents.
