If you’ve ever been arrested, you understand that jail isn’t the place a person would like to be. Fortunately for you, you don’t have to stay in custody until your case is resolved. Instead, you can be released by posting bail and appear in court during court hearings. Unfortunately, sometimes the judge may set your bail amount too high and may not afford it. A bail bonds company can help you post your bail at an affordable price, usually 10% of the total bail amount. Mr Nice Guy Bail Bonds is a reliable bail bond company that will ensure your bail is posted on time so you can return to your normal life. If you’ve been arrested in Tuolumne County, reach out to our bail bondsmen to help secure your release on bail as soon as possible.
Defining Bail and Bail Bonds
Most people use bail and bail bonds interchangeably. However, these two terms don’t refer to the same thing. Bail means the total amount of money you need to deposit with the court to be released from custody after an arrest. Per the Eighth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, everyone has the legal right to make bail so they can return to their jobs and families as they await court appearance dates.
On the contrary, a bail bond (or simply a bond) is the legal contract binding you as the accused, a bail bonds company, and your co-signer. In the contract, a bail bonds agent, usually working for a bonds company, agrees to be responsible for the total bail amount if your co-signer promises that you will make all court appearances as required by the court. Additionally, the co-signer must agree to be fully responsible for the whole bail amount if you fail to appear in court.
The Bail Bond Process In Tuolumne County
For you to understand how bonds work, it is often ideal to start from the beginning. Following is a summary of the bonds process in Tuolumne County, beginning with a person’s arrest to their court responsibilities and bond exoneration.
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Arrest, Booking, Processing
When you’re arrested, the police will take you to jail or a police station. While there, you will be booked and processed. During the booking process, the officer who arrested you will generally:
- Note down your personal information, including name, age, date of birth, and physical characteristics.
- Take your photograph and fingerprints.
- Record the details concerning your supposed crime.
- Conduct a criminal background check.
- Conduct a health screening.
- Search upon your person and seize any personal effect such as a cell phone, purse, keys, or money (these will be returned to you on your release day).
- Put you in a local jail or police station holding cell.
Booking may take one hour or less to complete if the jail is not particularly busy, but it takes several hours otherwise. The arresting officer then submits the official arrest report to the DA’s office, and the DA decides whether to file charges or not. If the DA doesn’t file charges, you may be released as there may be no case to answer. If charges are filed but are only for a minor crime, the arresting officer may give you a written citation then release you after signing that citation promising to present yourself in court as required. This is known as release on your own recognizance or O.R release. But if your crime is a serious one, you may need to post bail to secure your release.
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Arraignment and O.R Release
Once booking and charge filing are over, arraignment comes next. Here, the judge will read you the formal charges and ask how you plead. If you are still in custody, the judge may order O.R release, set bail, and direct that you remain in custody until you pay the bail, or deny bail and order that you return to jail. The authorities’ primary concern is that you appear in court at the set dates. Therefore, if you’re released O.R or on bail and then fail to show up in court as scheduled, the judge may issue a warrant for your arrest.
Factors Contributing to Bail Denial in Tuolumne County
In many cases, defendants are eligible for bail. But in other situations, we mentioned that the judge could deny bail and the accused has to stay in jail until their case goes to trial. Here are reasons why you may be denied bail:
A Danger to the Community
Before granting you bail, the judge must assess how you will impact the public when you go back to the public. For example, if you’ve committed crimes like stalking, assault, or rape, the judge may consider you a danger to society, hence denying you bail. On the same note, if you inflicted injuries on another person and you were arrested, the judge perceives that you are likely to repeat your actions. Therefore, to prevent that from happening, they’ll ensure you remain locked up until your case is over.
You Were Out on Probation or Parole
Most judges don’t sympathize with repeat offenders. That’s because the court already gave them a chance to be back in the community through parole or probation, but they still broke the law. Judges usually see this as misuse of freedom granted, and they may decide to have them locked up until trial. Further, defendants with other ongoing criminal cases are highly likely to be denied bail than those who only have one case.
How Serious the Alleged Crime Is
If you’re accused of a severe crime such as murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, or rape, the judge is more likely to set your bail amount so high or deny it altogether. Because the criminal offenses carry harsh penalties, judges see that you may violate court orders and fail to attend trial if you’re released. If your bail amount is set too high, your lawyer may request a bail hearing where they will try convincing the judge to lower it.
High Flight Risk
If you have a history of failing to show up in court, the judge will believe that you’re likely to flee and abandon your case. Your attitude may also make the judge mistrust you, thus denying you bail.
How Bail Is Set
Each County in California has a frame of reference known as a bail schedule, which provides pre-determined bail amounts for different felonies and misdemeanors. Therefore when setting bail, judges refer to these schedules to determine the bail amount to impose. For example, the bail amount for various offenses per Tuolumne bail schedule include:
- Treason against the state— $500,000
- Dissuading a witness— $40,000
- Voluntary manslaughter— $100, 000
- Murder with special circumstances— no bail
- All other murder— $1,000,000
- Gross vehicular manslaughter— $50,000
- Involuntary manslaughter— $100,000
- Mayhem— $100,000
- Aggravated mayhem— $500,000
- Torture— $500,000
- Simple kidnapping— $100,000
- Assaulting a peace officer— $7,500
- Sexual battery— $20,000
- Rape in concert— $200,000
- Pimping— $50,000
After bail is set, you can post it to secure your release before your trial or choose to wait in jail until your trial date. It is unlikely that you would want to sit in jail awaiting your trial after the judge sets bail, so what do you do next?
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Calling a Tuolumne County Bail Bonds Agent to Help You Post the Bail
After the judge sets bail, your first step will undoubtedly be finding ways to raise the bail amount. If you have the bail amount in cash readily available, you can have someone deposit with the court right away, and you’ll be released. If you don’t have the cash, your first move should be to talk to a licensed bail bonds agent or have someone do it on your behalf. They’ll ask you few questions concerning you and your arrest, then the process officially begins. And since you will be in jail, you will have someone else (co-signer) handle the process on your behalf.
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Completing the Bail Bond Contract and Application
The bail bonds agent draws a bail bond contract and application using the details they gathered from you. It is not a long document and can quickly be filled through email or fax if your co-signer cannot meet with the agent in person.
Once the required paperwork is completed and payment is arranged, the bail bonds agent goes to the courthouse or jail where you are being held to deposit the bond, and you’ll be set free on bail. Bail can be posted at Tuolumne County jails 24/7. Therefore, regardless of when your co-signer starts the bond process, you won’t need to wait until business hours to be set free. It takes anywhere between thirty minutes and twelve hours to be set free once the agent has posted the bond based on the jail, its staff, and your circumstances.
The Cost of a Bonds
Bail amounts vary based on the severity and number of the criminal offenses a defendant is charged with. But, regardless of the bail amount, the cost of a bond is always 10 percent of the entire bail amount, which is non-refundable. Thus, if your bail amount is set at five hundred thousand dollars, the cost of the bond becomes fifty thousand dollars. However, some bail bond companies offer discounts to given clients. For instance, we may charge less than 10 percent for defendants who are:
- Government workers,
- Represented by lawyers,
- Union members, or
- United States military members
Additionally, most bail bond agents may also need you to provide collateral. Collateral is something valuable you give the bondsman to assure them you won’t skip bail. If you do, the bondsman is entitled to sell or keep the collateral. Collateral varies from one bail bonds agent to another. Larger companies don’t request it on bail amounts below $100,000.
Co-Signer Responsibilities
The person who signs the bond contract (known as the co-signer or Indemnitor) assumes the financial responsibility of ensuring you make all the court appearances as required. They have to check on you and ensure you show up in court. If you fail to present yourself in court, the bail bonds company will try finding you and collect from you first. If they cannot locate you, your Indemnitor will be responsible for repaying the agent the full face amount of bail, irrespective of what the cost might be. Due to this. It’s critical that as a co-signer, you bail out a person your trust completely.
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Exonerating Bail
Once you satisfy all the court-ordered conditions, the judge exonerates the bail. By this, it means the court doesn’t have any financial interests in you or your cosigner, and neither of you is financially liable for anything related to that specific case.
It’s worth noting that verdicts of innocence or guilt following a trial or case dismissal won’t have any impact on whether your bail is exonerated or not at the end of the case. What counts is that you show up in court at the set date and time.
Bail Conditions
If you are released O.R or on bail, the judge may impose various conditions. Your criminal defense attorney may also recommend given terms and conditions when convincing the judge to lower your bail amount. Prevalent terms and conditions for bail include:
- Placing you under house arrest through electronic monitoring or GPS tracking device
- Surrendering your passport and driver’s license
- Restricting travel
- Wearing SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) device
- Checking in an inpatient hospital
- Staying off alcohol, drugs, and other illegal substances
The conditions are limitless, but the judge cannot impose the ones that violate your constitutional rights. If you fail to comply with these terms and conditions, you may forfeit your bail amount. You may also be rearrested and taken back to custody to await your trial.
Other Ways to Post Bail In Tuolumne County
Apart from a bail bond, there are other ways through which you can post bail to secure your release. They include cash bail and property bond.
Cash Bail
To post cash bail, you must have the required bail amount in cash, which you would deposit with the court. Some courts agree to a credit card, cashier’s check, traveler’s check, personal check, or money order. Whereas cash bail is generally the quickest and easiest way of making bail, bail amounts are often set so high, making it highly unlikely that many people will have that much money readily available. For this reason, bail bonds are the most commonly used method of posting bail. The court will give you back your money when the case ends, provided you made all court appearances. But if you fail to appear in court as required, you may lose the cash bail to the court.
Property Bond
Rather than post cash bail or a bond, you could post your property as a bond. Here, you surrender your valuable property to the court as an assurance that you will make all court appearances. However, the property’s value must be at least two times the amount of bail. For example, if the bail amount is $50,000, the property value you will surrender must be at least $100,000. Also, the court must first appraise the property to accept it as a bond.
If you don’t make court appearances as required, the court will sell the property to recover the bail amount. Preparing a property bond and submitting a formal appraisal consumes much time. Consequently, this method of posting bail is rarely used in Tuolumne County. But if you don’t have the funds to pay a bondsman or make cash bail, this is another way of posting bail.
Jail Information:
Tuolumne County Jail
Phone: 209-216-4111
Tuolumne County Sherriff’s Office
Phone: 209-633-6600
Court Information:
Tuolumne County Superior Court
Phone: 209-533-5555
Sonora Courthouse
Find Competitive Bail Bond Services Near Me
Fast and confidential bail bond services are the characteristics you should consider when looking for a bail bonds company to bail you or your loved one out of jail. As much as several companies in Tuolumne County promise to deliver quick and confidential services, you may still find it challenging to know and choose the best that will meet your needs.
You should worry less because, at Mr Nice Guy Bail Bonds, we will give you precisely what you need in terms of professionalism and quality services. Even if you can’t afford to pay the premium, we may be able to give you a discount to make your process out of jail as affordable as possible. We also offer easy payment plans that are tailored to fit your budget. Our bail bond agents are highly experienced and available 24/7 to respond to your concerns and needs and bail you out within just a short period. Call us at 844-400-2245 to start processing your bail bond.
