When a family member, friend, or love one happens to get arrested and taken to jail for whatever reason, most people take immediate action to restore their person of interest freedom as soon as possible. Believe it or not in over 89% of these cases, the person arrested is given the ability to hire a Bail Bondsman for pennies on the dollar to assist them in getting that person out of jail. In other words, some time (typically in 2 to 4 hours) after the person is arrested they will be booked and depending on the reason they were arrested a bail bond amount is set. This is where the over 89% of cases comes into play. For example, if the bond was set at $5,000 this is usually a Surety bond meaning a bondsman could be hired to post the $5,000 bond at a cost of 10% to 20% of the total set bond amount depending on which State you are in. So instead of paying $5,000 cash plus the jail filing fee’s they can hire a bondsman for $1,000 to $1,500 plus the very small jail filing fees. Sadly enough, 100’s of consumers having a love one arrested are NOT aware of the availability of a Bail Agent and how the Bondsman can save them $100’s and a lot of times $1,000’s of dollars to achieve the same goal which is to restore their love ones freedom ASAP.
A bondsman is very similar to and essentially the same as your neighborhood Auto or Property Insurance Agency only a bondsman has arresting authority given to them by State Law. That’s why you have heard a “Surety Agent” or a “Surety” comes from the word “Insurance”. The Surety is guaranteeing or insuring something which in this case is the Appearance of the person in jail custody at each and every future Court hearing related to the so called offense they were arrested for. Even though Bail Bondsman are subject to high regulation by government, the consumer must be careful in the selection of the bail agency to assist them in bailing their love one out of jail. When choosing a bail agency be sure that the agency and more importantly the specific agent you are dealing with comes of honest, experienced and know legible about the bail business. Even though some these screening requirements are hard to measure you have to attempt to feel for this through every second you on are the phone with any particular agent you call and discuss your bail needs. Listen for direct and complete answers. However, the real important item to immediately look for is with direct respect to pricing and total cash out of pocket. If the bond is equal to or greater than $5,000 and you are not providing some type of property called Collateral, then you should not pay no more than $500 to $750 again depending on which State you are in and what they set the premium maximum percentage. Just be aware that when you need a surety bond that a licensed Bondsman by LAW can NOT charge you more than the maximum percentage set by law which is typically 10% (Colorado law is up to 15%). Bondsman caught charging higher that State Law could be prosecuted, have their license revoked and jailed for such a violation.