The Bail Bond Group FAQ
At The Bail Bond Group, we can answer any questions regarding the bail process, bail bond fees, bail bond responsibilities or anything else regarding bail bonds. We understand that posting bail is something that most people have not done, and it can be a scary process if it is indeed your first time doing so. Our team is incredibly friendly and very knowledgeable about the bail bond process and we will gladly assist you with complete discretion. The following are some of the most frequently asked bail bond questions, but should you have any others regarding bail, bail bonds and the bail bond services that we provide throughout Tennessee, then please don't hesitate to give us a call. We would be more than happy to answer your questions
Q. What is bail?
A. Bail is the right to be released from jail prior to being convicted of a crime. It is a sort of insurance that ensures the court the defendant will appear at future hearings after being released from jail.
Q. What is a bail bond?
A. Instead of having to pay the full bail amount to have your loved one released you can use a bail bond agency to provide the court with a bond that guarantees full payment of the bail amount if the defendant does not appear in court.
Q. Do I need collateral to post bail?
A. Most of the time collateral is not needed in order to post bail. However, it may be based on certain circumstances. Contact us to find out more about using collateral to post bail.
Q. Who is the indemnitor?
A. The person paying the bail bond fee and signing the bail bond is known as the indemnitor. This person assumes financial responsibility for the actions of defendant, meaning they may need to pay the full bail amount if the person does not show up for court, as well as other associated fees.
Q. What is the bond premium?
A. The full bail amount is set by the court, whereas the bond premium is the percentage of that amount that is owed to the bail agency for posting bail using a bail bond. This number is generally quite low and may vary slightly on a case-by-case basis, but is often around 10 percent of the total bail amount.
Q. How long does it take to be released after posting a bond?
A. Depending on how busy the jail is that the defendant is at they could be released anywhere between 1 to 12 hours or more.
When you need to post bail, please get in touch with The Bail Bond Group. We offer fast and professional bail bond services 24 hours a day. Call us at (833) 781-8760 to begin the bail process right away.
1. Appearance Bonds
2. Cash Bonds/Surety Liable Bonds
3. Circuit Court Bonds
4. Collateral Bonds
5. Conditional Bonds
6. Criminal Court Bonds
7. Federal Bonds
8. General Sessions Bonds
9. Holds
10. Immigration Bonds
11. Juvenile Bonds
12. No Bond
13. O.R. Bond (Own Recognizance)
14. Out of State Bonds
15. Professional Bail Bond Company
16. Property Bonds
17. Purge
18. Signature Bonds
19. Surety Bonds
1. Appearance Bond
The most common type of bond is an Appearance Bond. This type bond is a situation that a bail bondsman can help you whereas it is posted to secure the “Appearance” of the individual in court to face the charge that is presented against them. For example,
let’s say a person is driving, they are seen crossing the center line of the road by a police officer, the officer pulls the person over, determines it could be due to alcohol consumption, and the officer gives a field sobriety test. Then let’s say the person fails the test, the officer arrests the individual, takes them to the jail, where they are booked. Then suppose the magistrate sets the bail bond at $3,000.00, gives the individual a court date to come back and answer the charges against them. At this time the individual is charged with a crime and has a choice, they can wait in jail until the court date, or post the $3,000.00 appearance bond. If they choose to post the Appearance Bond, they can do so by giving their own $3,000.00 to the court to secure their release, or they can pay a bondsman a small fee to be able to use the bail bond company’s $3,000.00 which they will in turn hand over to the court for the individual’s release. When the person shows for all of their court dates and gets the case against them settled and over with, then then the bail bond company’s money is returned back to their general fund account with the court, and then the bail bond company is free to use that money once again to assist someone else. If the individual decided that they were not going to make an appearance for their set court date to answer the charges set against them, then an FTA or, Failure to Appear charge is also issued against them. Other rules and laws apply as well, but that’s the short version.
2. Cash Bonds / Surety Liable
This type of bond is not as common as an Appearance Bond, but does exist in Hamilton County, TN as well as other counties in the state. This type of bond is not to secure the appearance of a person on their scheduled court date, instead it is to secure the payment or financial responsibility of something that the individual owes the courts. Some examples of this could be past fines, court costs, or any type of retribution owed to the state which has gone unpaid. With this type of bond you will not find it easy to get a bonding company to help you with it and here’s why- because all an individual has to do is NOT pay their debt, and guess who would then have to? Yep, the bonding company does! In addition to that, this type of bond usually has a “Cash Bond” associated with it. What’s a “Cash Bond” you ask? Let’s say you owe $1,500.00 in fines and you don’t get them paid on time. Let’s say you forget all about it until you are pulled over for speeding and the officer sees that you have unpaid fines and places you under arrest. You go to jail and they give you the following choices to secure your release: use your own money to post a cash bond of $1,500 (they keep it and pay your fines, but you still have to show up for the court date) or you can post a Surety Liable bond, for $20,000.00, which is much higher than just paying your fines. Either way you will pay your fines with this type of bond as it is a method the court can use to secure the debt which is owed.
3. Circuit Court Bond
This type of bond is used to describe the bond by which court it originated from. Other than the name, the function can be the same as any of the bonds described.
4. Collateral Bonds
Collateral, which is additional money or items of value, can be required by a bail bondsman on any and all bonds they post for you. This is at the complete discretion of the bail bondsman. Normally, the amount or item’s value must be comparable with risk involved of posting your bond for you. If the bail bondsman determines or feels like the bond is more of a risk to the bail bond company, he or she can ask for collateral. The collateral is returned to the owner once the bail bond company is relieved of the bond. However, if the person fails to show for their appointed court date, the collateral may be lost and become the property of the bonding company.
5. Conditional Bonds
Conditions can be placed on a bond by either the courts or the bondsman, again associated with the risk involved of posting the individual’s. While there are no certain set of conditions, a condition can range from drug tests to ankle bracelets.
6. Criminal Court Bonds
This type of bond is used to describe the bond by which court it originated from. Other than the name, the function can be the same as any of the bonds described.
7. Federal Bonds
A Federal Bond is an Appearance Bond, and it only differs by the name and the agency. These can be posted by bondsman on your behalf, and in some cases can only be made as a cash bond.
8. General Sessions Bonds
This bond term is used to describe the bond by which court it originated from. Other than the name, the function can be the same as any of the bonds described.
9. Holds
There are several types of holds that can be placed. For instance, there are different agencies that place holds for a variety of reasons such as immigration holds, holds from other counties, and federal holds just to mention a few. The most common is when a person has outstanding warrants from other counties. It could be a matter that can be resolved easily, or it could be something more difficult and time consuming. For example, let’s say you didn’t pay fines for something in Bradley County, TN , your bond was $1,000.00 in Bradley. Then let’s say that you just forgot about paying the fines and now a few years have passed. Now let’s say you get pulled over for something, say, in Hamilton county TN. Let’s say it’s a simple possession charge and while the officer has you in custody, it’s discovered that you have an active warrant in Bradley County, TN for that old charge with fines that you never settled. The officer books you into the Hamilton County, TN jail and completes the process on you for this new charge and you end up with a $3,000.00 Appearance Bond out of Hamilton County jail. The jail contacts Bradley County jail and Bradley County jail says “We want them brought here after they get released from Hamilton County jail” A “Hold” is then placed on you, and you now have a few choices. Once choice is that you can post bond in Hamilton County by posting the $3,000.00 yourself with your own money, or you can use the bail bond company’s money for a small fee. Then, guess what?……you’re not released right away from Hamilton County, you must wait to be picked up by Bradley County jail personnel (could be days/hours) and when you finally do get to Bradley County jail, let’s suppose you now have an additional $1,000.00 bond. The same choices as you had above apply here- you can call your bail bondsman and pay the bail bond company a fee to use their money, or you can use your own money to post bond, and now you get released from jail.
10. Immigration Bonds
There is probably a lot to say about this type of bail bond, but in TN we bondsman do not see this type. For additional information on this, we suggest looking up some articles which deal with the subject on the worldwide web.
11. Juvenile Bonds
Juvenile Bonds are usually appearance bonds, and they differ only in that the parent or guardian must also sign the bond agreement as well as be present at the time the Juvenile is released.
12. No Bond
This means there is not a bond to post for you. Usually, it is in effect until the next court hearing. The presiding Magistrate considers many things before deciding on a “No Bond”. Some possible reasons that a Magistrate might consider a No Bond might be things like, a probation violation, parole violation, and special conditions on a previous charge, or even a violent crime and many other factors. There are possible solutions for this problem, but a bail bondsman cannot help you with this one. You can get an attorney to work on this and see if the “No Bond” can be lifted, but while in place the “No Bond” will prevent the release of the individual.
13. O.R. Bond (Own Recognizance)
This is the cheapest type of bond because it’s free! It simply means the court is trusting you to appear in person for your scheduled court date and therefore no money is required for you to be released.
14. Out Of State Bond
This term is used when the individual who’s in jail lives out of the state that has arrested them. For example they live in GA, but got arrested in TN. This is an “Out of State Bond.” It can also be issued if at the time of arrest the ID of the individual shows another state because they could have possibly just moved and haven’t yet updated their ID. This type of bond can be a problem and it really just depends on a few factors like the distance, the bond amount, and quality of the co-signer as well as other factors which have to be considered.
15. Professional Bail Bond Company
When a county permits, a Professional Bail Bond Company is described as a company that is self- insured, backed by cash with no insurance company involved. Usually, it works something like this: a $100,000.00 CD is placed in an account with the court as collateral with the court. The court grants a multiple, usually x 10, giving the bonding company $1,000,000.00 worth of room to make bonds on individuals in need. If a bond is forfeited then the bond amount is subtracted from that CD. So let’s say an individual uses a Bail Bond Company’s money to post a $5,000.00 bond for them. Let’s suppose then the individual doesn’t show for court to answer their charges. The court grants the Bail Bond company time to find the defendant, and let’s say they do not find him. It would be at this time that the court takes the $5,000.00 from the Bail Bond Company’s CD $100,000.00, leaving the Bail Bond Company a balance of $95,000.00 and this also reduces the Bail Bond Company’s capacity to only $950,000.00 worth of room to make bonds instead of $1,000,000.00.
16. Property Bonds
When allowed by the court, a Property Bond can be made by providing proof of ownership of a property which is of greater value than the bond. Any loans on the property are considered against the value, and it should be noted you can lose the property if the bond is forfeited due to the individual missing their appointed court date.
17. Purge
A purge is not a bond, but is similar. A “Purge” is usually when a person owes money of some kind, and generally it is a child support case. The purge amount is to be paid in cash to the Child Support Agency, and once it is paid the individual can be released. A purge cannot be satisfied with a bail bond.
18. Signature Bonds
This term is used in place of a few terms by people, the meaning is interchangeable, as it can mean get out of jail with just a signature. This could be in the form of an OR Bond, or a financed bond through a Bail Bond company.
19. Surety Bonds
This is a bond made by Bail Bond companies that are backed by Insurance companies, or “Surety.” However, the term is used interchangeably and can also refer to any Appearance Bond.
Can a bonding company surrender my bond for any reason?
What reasons can they surrender my bond?
Can my cosigner surrender my bond?
Can my bond be surrendered for non-payment?
Question: What does “Miranda rights” mean?
Answer: The wording used when a person is read the Miranda Warning, also known as being ‘Mirandized,’ is clear and direct:
More can be found here:
http://www.mirandawarning.org/whatareyourmirandarights.html
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