I have always seen in movies how people bail each other out and I am always confused on the concept.
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Bail is a deposit of money to get somebody out of jail until they can go to trial. The money would be returned once they show up to trial. The idea is to encourage them to show up to trial, in order to get that money back. A lot of people think this is unfair because obviously rich people might not mind losing some money so they might not have the same incentive to show up for their trial, and poor people may be unable to raise money for bail so they could be stuck in jail for a long time awaiting trial even for crimes that would not normally carry a significant jail sentence – or they could incur costs related to borrowing bail money which they won’t get back, even if they show up to trial and even if they are found innocent of the crime they were accused of. However, especially in the United States, cash payments for bail are still pretty common.
Bail is an amount you pay to the court to help ensure you show up to your trial. Rather than wait in jail for your trial (which can take months) you let the court hold onto $X (set by a judge) as collateral. If you show up, you get the money back; if you don’t, you lose it.
Now, most folks don’t have that kind of cash lying around, so they can instead go to a bail bondsman. The bondsman will put the cash up on your behalf, but they charge you a fee (typically 10% of the amount) for the service.
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Bail is a circumstance where you’re not in custody but you have an obligation to go to court, or report to the police, and usually have some deprivation of liberty for that period. You’re free, but not completely free.
Usually people on bail have been charged with a crime, and have bail between their arrest and their trial, or are still subject to investigation and have pre-charge bail after being arrested
You might, as a condition of bail have to live at a specific address, surrender your passport, not contact certain people (witnesses), wear a GPS device, or deposit some cash as a bond, which you would get back when you show up for court.
Usually breaching bail conditions is a crime in itself
You’re arrested for a crime and charged, but your trial won’t be for months. Bail allows you to remain out of jail until your trial… it’s basically a deposit on you to appear. Bail is not always granted, since some criminals are too violent/dangerous or too high of a flight risk. But somebody charged is considered innocent until proven guilty, so its a way to prevent ruining somebody’s life (lose job, lose home, credit ruined, etc) for something they didn’t do/weren’t convicted of.
To add to the accurate and useful descriptions of bail here, note that the movie trope is *extremely misleading*. When a movie character gets caught breaking the law, the screenwriter wants there to be some kind of “punishment” but to not grind the movie to a halt with legal proceedings. It’s easier to replace all of that with a scene where the protagonist is sad because they’re in jail + a scene where someone more responsible has to post bail on the protagonist’s behalf, usually sparking some kind of dramatic conflict.
More often than not, the movie then proceeds as if nothing happened, even though in real life a person released on bail probably has another court appearance scheduled within the week and must adhere to pretty rigid restrictions on where they are allowed to travel. Even if the charges were false or destined to otherwise be dismissed, the actual legal system would come down hard on someone who was bailed out of jail, then carried on with the types of shenanigans that movie protagonists get up to.
This can create the impression in the audience that someone’s legal troubles are over as soon as they are “bailed out,” which implies a system where the court will drop charges in exchange for money. In turn, this may contribute to the widespread idea that rich people can simply pay to avoid legal repercussions. While there’s some truth to this, it’s not nearly as direct as simply handing over some money at the time of arrest.
What happens if they don’t show up for the trial? Does it just get forgotten about?
When you are arrested, but before you go to trial, you are typically held in a Jail Cell so you can’t pull a vanishing act on the legal system and they can keep you under 24/7 video surveillance in case you confess or something like that. It’s also when they will try and give you a plea deal where you just confess to the crime in exchange for a lighter sentence than if you go to court and are found guilty by evidence (they aren’t required to tell you how much evidence they have and will lie and say it’s rock solid even if it’s not to scare you. The prison system is so corrupt it would be hilarious if we didn’t have more people in prison than any other country on the planet. That’s not even per capita, that’s total prison population because there are 60k more people in the American prison system than the Chinese prison system)
Bail is an amount set by the court as a sort of deposit you can pay to get your freedom. If you pay $10,000 or whatever, you can spend the pre-trial time at home and free with restrictions about not being able to leave the city.
If you show up to all of your court dates, then you get the money back. If you miss even one court date, you don’t. If you go through a loan agency, you’re on the hook for the money if you miss a court date, plus a fee for the loan
Bail is money you can pay to get out of jail before your court date. If you don’t show up for your court date or try to leave the area (state/country), you can be arrested again (for skipping on bail), and you forfeit your bail money.
If you do show up to court and don’t cause issues, you get the bail money back.
This lets you continue working, settle any affairs if you believe you will go to jail, and meet with your lawyer.
Bounty hunters (or bail enforcement officers) often work for private companies called bail bondsmen, who lend money to people to use for bail (for a small fee) and the bounty hunters can be sent to ensure someone shows up for court and the bail bondsman can get their money back.
Bail is basically like a promise to come back to court. You pay money to get out of jail, and if you show up to your court date, you get the money back.
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