Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

This is a question that really phases most all families when immersed in the bail posting process. There are countless factors that one must take into consideration when considering posting a bail or taking advantage of the prisoners right for his or her bail to be reconsidered by a judge. In many respects bail review is a gamble, yet it can also be used to the defendants advantage if gone about the right way.

The last thing a family member or friend wants to see is a loved one have to spend a night in jail. All too often people act too hastily when one gets incarcerated and will in many cases do just about anything to get them released on bail. It is important to try and look at the situation concerning bail from multiple perspectives and think carefully before acting irrationally.

Bail review is one of the few rights an inmate obtains when being arrested. If a bail is set and the defendant does not post the bail before the next business day they are entitled to go in front of a district court judge to have there bail reviewed. At bail review one of three things can occur. Either the bail can be raised, lowered, or stay the same.

A bail review judge reviews bail under two main factors: the defendants potential risk of flight, and there danger to themselves, an individual, or to the public at large. Keeping these factors in mind we can make intelligent decisions on our course of action. It is important to remember that every case is different, there is no set formula, we look at every case on an individual basis.

Just this past weekend we had a lady contact us at our Maryland Bail Bonds office about her husband locked up in Anne Arundel County Detention Center. The bond was set at a ridiculous figure of $255,305! This is an astronomically high bail. We spent a lot of time back and forth with her on the phone as she tried to raise the money to pay this bail. I said, "ma'am, your husband has not been locked up in a decade, the charges appear to be bogus, let him go to bail review and the bail will most likely get brought back down to reality."

Sure enough, her husband went to bail review Monday morning and the judge reduced his bail significantly to $20,000. Now we had a reasonable bail that she could afford and was able to post the bail with no problem. The toughest part for the lady was the fact that her husband was arrested over the weekend so he was forced to spend a couple nights in jail; but in the end it saved her a lot of money and only had to sacrifice a few days in jail for the same result.

Lately, there has been a significant increase in the amount of cash bails that have been getting set in Baltimore City. A lot of people call Big Boyz Bail Bonds to inquire about posting these cash bails. Technically, a bail bondsman cannot post these bails and charge a fee to do so. When a district court commissioner or a judge makes a bail a "cash only bond" it means exactly that, only cash can be put up for the bond. No corporate surety (a bail bondsman) or property can be posted.

So this begs the questions: Why set a bond at cash only? Why has there been so many more cash bails being set in Baltimore City. There are many reasons as to why this is occurring, but primary reason is to make it more difficult for the defendant to get released. In many respects, bail bondsmen make the bail posting process very simple and affordable. Bail Bondsmen can take low percentages down for down payments and finance the balance at no interest. When a bond is set at cash, there is no financing available, either the cash gets paid, or the defendant doesn't get released.

In Baltimore City there are at least a couple judges that do not believe in Bail Bondsmen and there function to society. Because of this, they change every bail to whatever the 10% of the bail is and make it set at 100% cash. For example, if you were given a $10,000 bail, the judge would re-set the bond to $1,000 at 100% cash. This obviously makes it very difficult to make the bond and most people cannot afford a lot of the cash bonds that are getting posted in Baltimore City.

Essentially what the judges are doing, in many respects, is assuming guilt prior to the defendant's trial and hence punishing the defendant for it. In addition, they are not taking into consideration, the primary purpose of bail, which is to insure the defendant's appearance in court. In all honesty, who is going to go after a person who forfeits on a cash bond? When a bail bondsman posts a bail they sign a bond stating they are indebted to the courts in the full amount of the bond. That's why there are bounty hunters, because there is real money at stake.