What is bail?

Bail, in one paragraph

After an arrest, a judge or a bail schedule sets an amount that has to be secured before the person can be released. The amount is the court's way of making sure they come back for their dates. Pay it in full in cash and the court holds the money until the case is finished. Most families cannot put that amount on a table at 3 a.m., which is where a bond comes in.

What a bail bond does

A bail bond is a promise we make to the court on the defendant's behalf. We take responsibility for the full bond amount, the court accepts our bond instead of your cash, and the person goes home. In exchange you pay us a fee, which is a percentage of the bond amount and is regulated in Alabama. That fee is what we earn for taking the risk. It is not held by the court and it is not refunded when the case ends, which is the part people are most often surprised by, so we say it early.

Who signs, and what they take on

Somebody besides the defendant usually signs as the indemnitor, most often a parent, a spouse or an employer. That signature means you are on the hook for the defendant showing up. If they appear at every date, the bond is exonerated at the end of the case and nothing further is owed. If they stop appearing, the court can call the bond, and the indemnitor is responsible for it. We read that section with you rather than sliding it across a desk.

How long a release takes

Once we post, the timing belongs to the jail. Booking, headcounts and shift changes all affect it, so a release can be an hour or most of a night at the same facility. We tell you what we are seeing that night instead of promising a number we do not control.

If the amount seems wrong

Bond amounts can be argued in court, and that is a lawyer's job, not ours. If that is the road you are on, we will say so plainly. What we can tell you on the phone is what the bond currently is, what the fee would be, and what we would need from you.