When somebody uses a bond company to bail themselves out related to a criminal case in Los Angeles if they don't pay the whole premium upfront, and they choose to make payments which a lot of payments will allow them to do. Then they fail to make their payments or violate the agreement with the bail bond company in some material way; the bond company can then say, if you're not going to pay what you promised to pay — if you're not going to correct whatever it is that you did wrong regarding our agreement with you — then we're now going to go to court and ask the Judge to revoke your bond. .
What they do is they will go into court either on the court day — which is the typical time to do it because the defendant's going to be there — or they'll go at a different time and explain to the Judge that they're no longer going to be responsible for that particular bond.
The defendant then has a choice at that time to get another bond company to assume the bail, or what I've done in some cases is we argue for the defendant to be released on their own recognizance, which means they are released based on their promise to appear in court when required, without having to pay a bail amount.
Hopefully, by that point, they've made a number of court appearances and haven't picked up any new cases; it doesn't look like they're going to get any jail time on the pending criminal case. This is all a scenario where we would have a chance to try to get you released on your recognizance. Then, you don't need bail.
You Made a Deal With The Bail Bond Company
The bottom line is that the bond company — when they post bail for you — is basically getting you out of custody in order for you to deal with your case. So, another thing I see happen is the case will get dismissed and the people think since it got dismissed, I don't have to pay the bail. But the point is, the bail bond company got you out. That was their job. They did their job.
You agreed by signing an agreement to pay their bond. So, if you don't pay the full bond, they can sue you civilly. This means they can take you to civil court to recover the unpaid amount. If the case isn't filed, they couldn't do anything against you criminally because the criminal court wouldn't have any jurisdiction over you if no case was filed against you in the criminal court in Los Angeles.
But suppose a case is filed, and you need to do what you're supposed to relate to the bond company. In that case, they can go in and have the bond revoked, and if you don't have another bond company to assume it or your lawyer can't get you released on your recognizance, then what's going to end up happening is you're going to be taken into custody by the Judge. The Judge is going to say, I'm not going to get involved with whatever agreement you have with the bond company. I need somebody to secure this bond.
Posting a Bond
So, the last way that you could secure the bond if the bail bond company no longer wishes to work with you and you can't get released on your recognizance is actually posting the bond. Posting a bond means you or someone on your behalf pays the full bail amount to the court or jail. Let's say, for example, you have a $20,000.00 bond. You couldn't get the OR release.
The bond company revoked the bond. You could then actually post the full $20,000.00, and then you would get out. You would get your $20,000.00 back at the end of the case once the bond is exonerated by the court. The money goes back within a few weeks to whoever posted the bond.
Suppose you have a bond situation related to a criminal case in Los Angeles. In that case, you definitely should coordinate dealing with that through your attorney because your attorney is going to know the ins and outs of the situation regarding your bail bond. Your attorney can even call the bond company and try to negotiate and work with them on your behalf because attorneys obviously have connections with bond companies because sometimes, they have to deal with them in order to get their clients out of custody.
I deal with bond companies all the time. I know how the bail bond system works. I know what it takes when you're in a tough situation and the bond company is attempting to revoke your bond to try and come up with some alternate solution — either by working with the bond company in some way — or coming up with another way which I mentioned to try and guard your ability to remain out of custody and deal with your case from the street versus being in custody which makes it much more difficult to defend your case. So, if you have a bond situation with a bail bond company and you need help, give me a call. I'm more than happy to help you out.
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