Do you get bail money back after your criminal case? That question is possibly the one that our clients most want to know before signing a contract. Here’s the answer to what you need to know about receiving your bail money when your case concludes.
3 Primary Ways of Making Bail
Once you learn how much money you’ll need to put up to get out of jail on bail, you’ll most likely have three primary choices for funding your bond. How you meet your bond requirement helps to determine how much money you’ll get back in the end. The three main methods of achieving your bond amount are
- Cash – If your bail amount is small enough, or you have access to sufficient cash reserves, you can pay for your bail in cash. As long as you make all required court appearances, you’ll receive the total amount of your bond when your case finishes.
Paying bail to get out of jail
- Bail collateral – Another method of meeting a required bail amount is to give the court temporary ownership of valuable property such as (1) your house, (2) title to a car, and (3) jewelry. The assessed value of the property must meet the dollar amount of your bail for the court to accept it as collateral. You’ll get all of your bail collateral back after your case as long as you show up for all of your court dates.
- Bail bondsman – The best thing about working with a licensed bail guarantor to pay for your bail is that you don’t need to have lots of money and property to live at home while your court case takes place. In return for paying a bail bond premium, a bail bonds company presents the court with the money for your bail.
Bail bond premium
A bail bond premium is a fee that you pay a bail bondsman for the service of posting your bail. The amount of money that you’ll pay depends on the percentage of the total bail amount charged by your bail bondsman. At Gibson Bail Bonds, for example, we typically bill between five and ten percent of the total bail amount.
Since the bail bond premium is the fee that you pay to the bail bonds company, you do not get it back when your case is over.
Lastly, the answer to the question of do you get bail money back is yes unless you don’t meet your obligation to show up in court. The way to make sure that you don’t lose your bail money is to show up to every single one of your required court appearances. Make sure that you ask your attorney ahead of time if you’re unsure if you need to appear for a court date. Never forget that you have control of whether or not you’ll see your bail money again.
Gibson Bail Bonds helps individuals make in the Harrisburg, PA area. Contact us at any time for help in going home to your loved ones as quickly as possible.
