Important Things To Consider Before Connecting With A Bail Bondsman
It is uncommon for common people to know the process of bail bonds until they or their close acquaintances gets arrested. When a friend or a family member is arrested, your immediate concern and priority are to get bail, to secure temporary release from custody.
Bail bond agents play an important role in the criminal justice system, where they work to complete the necessary bonding paperwork, pay the bail amount to release the arrestee from the police custody. They collaborate with law enforcement agencies and assist the arrestee to get their lives back on track.
Bail Bond Process
The judge determines the appropriate bail amount to release the suspect based on the severity of the crime committed. The arrestee has two options; one is either to pay full bail amount stipulated by the court or take the assistance of bail bondsman by paying just 10% of the bail amount to secure his release from custody. As the second choice is more affordable, the popular choice of defendants is to take the service of a bail bondsman. It becomes the responsibility of the bail bondsman to ensure that the accused must turn up in court for every scheduled appearance and not skip bail.
How To Find A Trusted Bail Agent?
To secure the release of the arrestee, you cannot just rely on just a blind search on the internet to find a bail bondsman of repute but have to look for certain important questions that will help them to select right agent for their case.
The consumer needs to check whether the bail agent has a physical office and need to avoid those agents who just hang in front of the jail. The agent needs to be a professional in the trade, look clean and dress appropriately. It is better for the defendant to choose agents by taking recommendations from someone they trust or know in advance. As there are many chances of bad agents taking advantage of their client’s distress situation. The defendants need to be aware whether the bail agent selected has a current bail license, which can be conveniently checked at the concerned state’s department website or through websites of regulatory authorities associated with the state. Another way of checking the credentials of the bail bondsman is to look in for the customer rating on their websites, as many bad agents do not provide such an option for the customers.
Accepted Collaterals
Different bonding office adopts different standards while accepting bail collaterals from their clients, but generally, they take assets such as real estate, cars, stocks, bonds, jewelry, bank accounts, credit cards or personal credit. Bail bondsman needs to educate the bail process to the clients and also has to offer lots of counseling to their client’s family to comfort them to face the stressful situations. It becomes the role of bail bondsman to track down the suspect, in case the accused fails to appear before the judiciary system.
