If you are facing charges against you and have been given the chance of staying out of prison on bail while you wait for your trial, there may still be an obstacle to face. You may not have the money to pay your way out of prison. That is the time when you will need the services of a bail bondsman.
First let us make clear what bail is and how the bail amount is decided. The judge or the magistrate of the court have the prerogative to set the payment amount. They decide, based on a number of things, how much money you may pay. They consider things like your past criminal record, the chances of your skipping bail, the chances of you being a threat to public safety.
This payment is not a punishment. It is to ensure that you turn up at court for your hearings. Once you pay the court the money, you can get it all back if you turn up regularly at your court hearings. So the amount set is usually high enough for you to attend court to get it back, and low enough for you to be able to pay. But what if you don’t have the resources to pay the money?
Here is what a bail bondsman will do for you. You will have to pay him a premium for his services. This will be a certain percent (usually 10-15 % in state courts depending on where you are and 15% in a Federal Court) of the bail money. Then he will pay the court the total amount for you, claiming you to have no ‘flight risk’.
What this means is that the agent takes responsibility for ensuring that you will not forfeit the jail bond and abscond from your hearings. He is of course taking a big risk, because there is a chance that you may. In that case the court will not pay back the money that the agent has paid. So to ensure that he doesn’t lose money in such a situation, the agent will need you to provide an indemnitor.
An indemnitor may be a family member or a friend who takes the responsibility of making sure that all the jail bond premiums are paid. In case the defendant skips bail, he will be responsible for paying the bail amount to the agent. So you should be careful when you assign someone as an indemnitor for your bail bond. There are number of bail bondsmen in Georgetown, TX who can advise you on your predicament. You can hire their services, get an early release from jail and spend time with your family while you wait for your trial.
