BAIL BONDS IN ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted....

The concept of bail, while as old as the English common law itself, has not always held the same status as it holds today. In fact, the English common law held that admission to bail was a matter of discretion for the court, not one of right for the individual. Abuses of this judicial discretion in England led to a ban against excessive bail in the English Bill of Rights of 1689. This prohibition was the direct forerunner of the provision in the Eighth Amendment that "excessive bail shall not be required."

Bail is basic to the system of individual protection set up by the U. S. Constitution. Without bail, a person could be held indefinitely, until it is convenient to release him. Bail bolsters what the U. S. Supreme Court has called a traditional right to freedom before conviction. It also permits the unhampered preparation of a defense and serves to prevent the infliction of punishment prior to conviction. Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved, the presumption of innocence -- which every defendant retains until proven guilty -- would lose its meaning.
 

Bail Defined:

Bail is the amount of money required by the court to release a defendant from custody and to guarantee his/her appearance in court. Bail can range anywhere from $50 for a simple misdemeanor to more than $1 million for serious felonies. The amount of bail is usually determined by a document called a “bail schedule.”  A bail schedule lays out the bail for thousands of crimes from fishing without a license to aggravated assault to credit card fraud.  Click here to see an example of the Orange County Bail Schedule.  Despite having a set schedule, judges have a great deal of leeway in setting the amount of bail, so every case is different.

In all cases either cash or a Bail Bond (a financial guarantee) must be given to the court for security. When bail is set high, most will chose to rely on a Bail Bond Agency instead of trying to raise the cash for the full bail amount themselves. Once a bail bond is posted and the defendant is released, the Bail Bond Agency then becomes responsible for that defendants' appearance in court.  If the defendant fails to appear when required the court will "forfeit" the bail bond and demand payment from the bail bond agency. The agency, in turn, will do what is necessary to return the defendant to custody and recover their costs.

The Bail Process: