How Does a Bail Bond Work?
A bail bond is an insurance policy. We’re insurance agency and it is an insurance policy that guarantees to the court that a person will make will make all of his or her court appearances. So when bail somebody out of jail we don’t take money to the jail or to the court, we take an insurance policy to the court and that guarantee that we make to them is guaranteed by us making an agreement with the person that we’re getting out of jail…. and most of the time it’s with a co-signer… a third party that is going to help us guarantee that person will make it to court.
Question:
So with that said…. I’m arrested, I’m in the jail, I make the call… you know, “Greg Padilla Bail Bonds please bail me out.” If you could walk me through the steps of exactly what happens. We make the call… what do you do? what do I do? What does my family do?
When we receive a call, about 50% of the time, it’s from the person in jail.. or a family member from the outside. So we’ll just talk in general terms… say it’s a family member that’s calling us. They’re going to call us and talk to one of our staff members and find out where the person is in jail, if they may know the information on how much their bail is and when they were arrested. We’re going to call the jail and get that information. That way we’re talking about factual information. We’re not talking about “I think they’re arrested” or “I think this is how much their bail is” We’re going to get that information and not at that point, what we’re going to do first and foremost is explain how a bail bond Works. What is a bond is. And what they see, if they choose to do so in co-signing on the bond…what their responsibilities are are going to be. Because it does me no good to assume that they know how this whole process works. We want to explain to them the way we do it. Not how everybody else does it. The way we had Greg Padilla Bail Bonds do it. So, we’re going to explain it to them and once they have a full understanding then we’re going to start talking about the terms and conditions. How much the bail is, how much it’s going to cost, what their guarantee is going to be that this person is going to make it to court. We don’t get into the legal maneuvering of the criminal case… that’s not our job that’s for the attorney to do.
Question:
So then OK you establish their contact with the family and its to determine can they come up with the 10%, they pay you, then you call… who do you specifically do you talk to at the jail? What title does the person you talk to have?
When we’re ready to post bail bond throughout the state of California they’re mostly consistent in that we would go to a window at the jail that’s set aside for not only helping us but and also help with other things… we would go to that entity, we give them the bail bond and give them insurance policy, they review it and make sure all the information is correct and begin the process of releasing the person. As far as releasing people, each jail is different… some take one hour some take 15 minutes. Some take unfortunately 6, 8, 10 hours. Bigger counties can take a lot longer. But that’s who we deal with is the jail Personnel that accepts our bonds and processes them.
Question:
So typically, within one day you could figure on being bailed out of jail… within a day?
It’s going to be a lot quicker than that. When we receive the call, we can receive a call from somebody if they meet all the criteria that we need credits we can start the process without them even being at our office. We can go over and post the bond and get the ball rolling… that way when the family member or friend came to our office the person would already be processed and all their way out of jail. And then know when they get there we can do the paperwork and take the money and get them out of jail. And that can all be done sometimes within an hour . Sometimes within a couple 2 or 3 hours. It never would take a day to do to get somebody out of jail.
Question:
That’s really important information. When they are physically released from jail… I’m just trying to get a picture of exactly what happens. They come out with their stuff I would imagine that they took their clothes and you have paperwork sitting there waiting for them to sign… and then you collect your fee from the family or them or whatever. Or you get signatures from that person and the family?
Yeah, just like when I was talking about the family members… want we want them to understand what’s going on. We also, if we have not yet talked to the person that’s being released from jail, we definitely have to meet with them, go over what the bail bond is, how much it costs, who’s paying, and what the terms and conditions are. We need them to understand that they need to make all their court appearances and if they don’t make all their court appearances they and their family members or their friends are in jeopardy of losing their entire amount of the bail bond. So it’s very important and 100% necessary that we do meet with them and that they are going to sign documents and contracts with us, so that they guarantee their appearance in court and our ability to monitor them and to do what we need to do that they make all of their court dates
Perfect… thank you.