What do they do with bail money?

Question

I was just wondering. When you bail someone out of jail what do they do with that money?

Answer 1

The cash will be held in a non-interest bearing account until the case is resolved (if paid directly to the courts).

Once the case has been adjudicated, the bond is returned (minus administrative fees and other costs as appropriate) or your property and assets are released from collateral holdings. If you've used a bondsman, the terms depend on the contract you signed with them.

Answer 2

In California the bail industry is closely regulated. The Dept. of Insurance sets guidelines for the purpose of bail. A bailbondsman HAS to charge his customer 10% of the bail amount. Some bondsman advertise 5 or 6% bail, they take that as a down payment and bail out the defendant. The remainder is payed in payments. The 10% fee is lost by the customer, that is the bailbondsman's profit. In addition to the 10% payed by the customer, it is customary for the bondsman to also collect some form of collateral to secure the bond. This is the ONLY thing that can be recouped by the customer.Collateral mostly consists of deeds to homes, but is not limited to deeds.Depending on the bond amount,pink slips to vehicles,computers,jewelry, or any possesion that has some significant worth can be held for collateral.
The bondsman acquires his bond from a surety company ortherwise known as an insurance company that underwrites the bonds. Part of the 10% the bondsman collects, pays for the bond. Just so you have an idea of what the bondsman pays, its approx 1% of the 10% collected by the bondsman.
Getting back to the collateral, if a defendant does not show up to court, the bondsman has 180 days to persuade the defendant to show up to cort, in this instance, the bond remains active. If the bondsman is unsuccessful in persuading the defendant to go back to court, the bondsman must apprehend the defendant and surrender him to county jail. Again, all within a 180 day time period. If any of the above scenarios transpire, the bondsman does not collect on the collateral. If for whatever reason the bondsman runs over the 180 day timeframe, the court will collect the full bond amount from the surety company, in turn the surety company will charge the bonds the full bond amount. Hence the collateral becomes very important. The bondsman then collects on the collateral to payoff the surety company. Bottom line, everybody gets paid and defendant now has a warrant out for his arrest. If the defendant does do everything he is supposed to do and goes to court everytime, the court will eventually exonerate the bond. The bondsman legally has 90 days to relinquish the collateral back to the customer.

There are two more options that are RARELY used. One option is to pay the whole bail amount to the law enforcement agency that the defendant is at. They in turn will forward the money over to the court. This money is placed in Trust. Same scenarios as above, defendant goes to court, customer gets ALL the the money back. Defendant doesnt go to court, the court takes the money out of trust and keeps it in addition to issuing an arrest warrant. The last option is to go in front of the court and provide real estate property with enough equity to total 3 times the bail amount. The court will then place liens on the property(ies). Same thing as above, defendant goes to court, customer gets the lins removed, defendant doesnt go to court, the court forecloses upon the homes.

Answer 3

Bail is a deposit paid to the court -- as a guarantee that the person will show up for trial. If they do show up, the bail is returned to them, minus any required payments or fines if they are found guilty.

A "bond" is different. The bond is paid to a bondsman, like making an insurance premium payment. The bondsman then guarantees the bail to the court. Just like any other payment for services, the bondsman keeps the bond payment regardless of what happens to the bail.

Answer 4

It depends. If you post the full amount of bail, it is returned to you when the defendant shows up for the trial. If you are only required to post a portion of the bail, they refund it if the defendant shows up for trial, minus a small commission. If the person skips bail, the government keeps the money. Each state has laws what the money is used for. In my city, the fines collected from people who don't show up for jury duty is used to pay for a continental breakfast for the people who do show up for jury duty.

Answer 5

If the defendant is incarcerated for civil contempt on failure to pay child support, the bail goes directly to his/her arrearages.

Answer 6

The money is returned unless the accused person fails to show up in court.