As the title says, I’ve never comprehended how someone who has been charged with a serious crime can afford to pay a million $+ bond. Do they get that money back? Does it stay in the court? I just have no clue about what happens to all that dough.
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* If you are charged with a crime and have a court hearing scheduled, the judge may set bail.
* Bail is a sum of money or other collateral that is temporarily forfeited to the court to ensure you don’t flee. Usually there will be bail conditions, like being unable to leave the city/state/country, having to surrender your passport etc.
* If you are not permitted bail, or cannot/will not pay the bail amount, you will be kept in custody (usually in a correctional facility) until your court date.
* If you pay the bail you are free to go, until your next court date. Usually you would use this time to prepare your defence, make arrangements in case you are found guilty, spend time with family etc.
* As long as you follow the conditions of your bail (including showing up to court), the bail is refunded, minus any administrative fees.
* If you fail your bail conditions, the money/assets are kept by the court. Usually it goes to the government to do with as they wish.
* There may be several scenarios where bail should or must be granted, but the bail amount is at the discretion of the judge. An amount significantly higher than you can afford is basically the judge deliberately making bail impractical.
* A bail bondsman is someone that loans you cash for your bail if you can’t afford it. They charge a fee for this, usually a fixed percentage of the bail, which you will never get back even if the bail is refunded. It’s their cost of doing business and taking on risk.
* A bounty hunter is essentially a debt collector who works for a bail bondsman. If you flee, their job is to return you to the custody of the court. Courts usually have a grace period in which bail will be returned to the bondsman, but the terms of your bond contract will not require them to return your portion of the bail to you.
* Bounty hunters aren’t too different from private investigators; they are private citizens, in some jurisdictions they may be granted special legal privileges, but usually not the same liability protections as law enforcement.
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