Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

Recently, I sat down to post a bail with a district court commissioner in Anne Arundel County. It was relatively late at night and I was the only one there so we had a brief conversation about the bails that were being set in this particular county. I had been noticing a lot of bails that get set at insanely high amounts upon the defendants initial bail hearing with the district court commissioner. In addition, I noticed that if the defendant was unable to post the initial bail, when they went to bail review the following business day a large majority of them were reduced significantly.

As I sat with the district court commissioner of Anne Arundel County I asked her as to why this was such a frequent occurrence. She explained to me that so many commissioners have seemed to lose their grasp on what the primary purpose of bail is. For those that don't know, the primary purpose of bail is to INSURE THE DEFENDANTS APPEARANCE IN COURT. The commissioner further expressed that we are currently in a recession, very few people at all can make bails such as $100,000 and up.

When a commissioner sets bond they take into consideration risk of flight and danger to public safety. They also delve into the defendants history and see if he or she has similar charges. Too many commissioners however have not been mindful of the amounts they are setting in regards to insuring the defendants appearance in court. Of course some people do warrant very high bails, but $150,000 for driving on a suspended license is a tad bit outrageous even if the defendant has had a couple similar prior cases.

My conversation with the district court commissioner was very helpful in dealing with future clients trying to post bails in Anne Arundel County. Just recently we had a family call us for a $150,000 bail for a Maryland DUI case. The defendant was not from Maryland and had only been living in this state for only about 1 month. So certainly there was a lot of flight risk element to this person's bail.

I told the family that this was common for an Anne Arundel County commissioner to do for a bail like this. I explained that part of what the commissioners do is implement a shock factor to the defendant to really send a message. The family was not prepared to post a bail of this magnitude and I told them to just be patient and wait for bail review and the bail would be dropped back down to "reality." Sure enough, the following day, the bail was dropped down to $20,000.

It seems that in Anne Arundel County a large majority of bails that get set at insane amounts at the initial appearance for the most part get reduced by a district court judge. So keep this in mind if a family member or friend gets locked up and you are shocked at the initial bail amount. Go to bail review and get your bail brought back down to reality!

One of the main things my father always said to me and some of my friends growing up was: "If you're going to get arrested, dont get arrested in Baltimore City." There are countless horror stories of inmates being detained in the infamous Baltimore City Central Booking and Intake center that one could blog about. This entry will focus specifically on the booking process itself as one could literally be detained for a 24-48 hour period from the time the arrest occurs to the time they are bailed out and released from the facility.

Whenever we begin the process for a Baltimore City bail with our clients we try to stress the incredibly slow process that is involved. Typically a good bail bonds service wants to provide a very quick release for its customers to try and separate their good service from the rest of the competition. Unfortunately Baltimore City slows that process down for everybody.

Just last night at around 11pm we had a customer come in wanting to post a $50,000 bail for her nephew locked up in Baltimore City Central Booking. She filled out our application, put her deposit down, and was shortly after approved by our insurance company to go ahead and write the bail. Well our company would have loved to send one of our licensed bail agents to the jail to post it but we were halted by "the process"

Anywhere else in the state of Maryland, once an inmate has seen the commissioner for there initial bail hearing there case becomes active and there bail can be posted. In Baltimore City the inmate's information has to be entered in the jail's system before it can be posted by a bail bondsman.

So our $50,000 bail was locked up around 2am yesterday morning and didn't see the commissioner and receive an ID# until about 15 hours later. So, the bail has been paid with our bail bonds company and we are calling the jail every 30 minutes to see if the inmate has been "put into the system." Still nothing, and now our $50,000 bail is slated to go to a bail review hearing in front of a district court judge where the bail can be raised, lowered, or remain the same.

Well the inmate ended up going to bail review and the judge increased the bail to $150,000. The family could not afford to post a bail this high so they were refunded there deposit, and unable to get there loved one released from jail. The family was initially upset with the company and claimed we sat on the bail, but again we further explained to them the nightmare that is Baltimore City and they understood.

It is really ridiculous that one can get arrested, see a commissioner to receive a bail and then the following day go in front of a judge for bail review never having any opportunity to post a bail. There are a lot of factors that play into the slow process of this particular jail, the primary reason however is due to the really high volume of arrests that get made in Baltimore City which is far more than any other area in the state of Maryland.