Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

Big Boyz Bail Bonds posted a $500,000 bond in Baltimore City last night for a defendant who had been forced to sit and wait 11 days for his bail review hearing. Due to the record snow fall that hit Baltimore City this winter so many court cases and bail review hearings were forced to be put on hold.

When the defendant went in front of the district court commissioner in Baltimore City for his initial bail hearing he was denied bail. Fortunately for the defendant, his family was able to retain the service of a qualified private attorney. The result of his bond review hearing was a $500,000 bond.

Most bondsmen in Maryland have difficulties getting a bond of this magnitude posted. Many bondsmen don't even have the ability to post a bail of this size. Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to give the family member signing for this bond an approval within 30 minutes of completing the bail application.

Needless to say, Big Boyz couldn't have made it any easier for the family and the defendant to get released on the half-a-million-dollar bond. Many bondsmen require that 3-6 people sign on a bail or this size, but Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to execute the bond with just 1 person signing for the bail.

If you discover that one of your close friends or family members is detained on a bail of this size or close to it, contact us and we will be happy to work with you to get the person released as quickly as possible.

When a defendant gets arrested in Maryland and given a bail by a district court commissioner, they have the right to go to a bail review hearing the following business day. With the heavy snow storms that have engulfed the State of Maryland the last few days, inmates bail review hearings have been put on hold.

In many cases, the bond will get reduced at a bail review hearing particularly if the defendant doesn't have much of a prior criminal history. At the same token, the bail could get increased all the same so many people have been given extended time to try and come up with additional money in order to post bond prior to their bail review hearing.

Recently, The Baltimore Sun wrote a great article in regards to this problem that we are having currently in our criminal justice system. In addition to the bail review hearings being delayed, trials for cases are being postponed and one might have to wait many more months for a new trial date.

The storm has put a lot of our clients on edge wondering when the courts will be open next and if their court date is still on schedule. Of course if one of our clients out on bond fails to appear for court due to inclement weather they will be held accountable and a bench warrant can be issued for their arrest. So we have had many phone calls from our clients during this storm asking about the status of their trials.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds never closed during the duration of the record snow storm that took place. Even though many court commissioners were closed which made it virtually impossible to post bails we were here to help with your situation.

When one gets arrested in Baltimore County they are eventually transported to the Baltimore County Detention Center located at 720 Bosley Avenue in Towson Maryland. It is here that they will be held in a facility that has a release policy like no other detention center in Maryland.

The Baltimore County Detention Center is the only Detention Center in Maryland that has a cut-off for when they can accept releases for bail bonds. Every day this cut-off is at 8pm. In other words, if a Baltimore County Bail Bondsman does not have the bail posted and the release handed into the detention center by 8pm sharp then the defendant will have to wait until the following morning to be released.

It is important to understand that a bail bondsman can post a bail in Baltimore County 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The only restriction here is in the specific time period the jail is willing to accept the release. For example, if someone comes in to post a bail for Baltimore County at 9pm (after the cut-off) we will have to explain to the family that the bail will be posted immediately but the release will have to wait until the following morning at 8am. This can be a very frustrating fact for a family member or friend who is eager to get somebody released on bail.

In addition to the cut-off, it is one of the few places in Maryland that requires the bail bondsman to hand-deliver the release to the detention center. Fortunately, the court house where we post the bail is only a few blocks away from the Baltimore County Detention Center. But still, this has caused bail bondsmen's fair share of close calls as to whether they get the release handed in on time or not. If a bail bondsman gets the release at 8:01pm they are not going to accept the release.

So when contacting a Baltimore County Bail Bondsman concerning a bail for Baltimore County keep this info in mind if you expect to get your loved one released within the same day.

Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore Maryland was able to successfully post bond for a defendant held on $200,000 bond in Dorchester County detention center. The most significant factor about this particular bond is that it was posted for a mere 1% of the bail bond as a down-payment. To make matters more beneficial for our client, she did not have to travel to Baltimore from her home in Dorchester County to complete any paperwork. Information for the bail was taken over the telephone and signatures were obtained via fax.

In talking with the defendant's mother (who signed for the bail bond) it was clear that she did her research in evaluating all of her options available to her for getting her son released from custody. Rather than calling a bail bondsman initially for information she contacted the courts to find out what her options were. The courts explained to her that she had the option to use Maryland Real Estate, Cash, or a Bail Bondsman. This person had Maryland Real Estate, but did not have enough equity in the eyes of the court systems to secure the bail with her property.

Eventually she contacted our 24-hour Maryland Bail Bonds office for additional information about posting the bail bond. Rightfully so, she had a lot of questions due to her lack of experience in dealing with this particular type of situation. Since she never had to use a bail bonds service before, she inquired in great detail about her responsibilities as the signer for the bail bond.

When a family member or friend gets arrested it is important to not act too hastily or irrationally. It is important to act as this person did and do research into all of your possible options. Certainly when choosing a bail bondsman in Maryland there is literally hundreds if not thousands of options. It is important when contacting a Maryland Bail Bonds company to ask all the questions necessary. They do not teach bail bonds in school systems so don't feel like any question is a stupid question. As long as you are contacting a legitimate-licensed-bail-bondsman you will obtain 100% accurate answers to your questions.

One of the toughest tasks for bail bondsmen in Maryland is helping clients who reside out of state. The reason for this is quite simple, any time you are dealing with clients who don't live in state you are taking on a much higher level of risk. Most bail bondsmen in Maryland will not even consider a bail with out of state ties to it. If you are looking to get someone released from custody in the state of Maryland and you live out of state, look no further than Big Boyz Bail Bonds. Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to successfully execute a bond for a family who all reside in the state of North Carolina.

The situation for the family in North Carolina was quite intriguing. The defendant was originally arrested in Virginia when pulled over for speeding. During the routine traffic stop, the officer ran her name and discovered she had an arrest warrant from 2005. She was held in Virginia for almost 10 days and then extradited to Baltimore County to be served on the warrant. We were contacted by the family who spent a lot of time contacting other bail bondsmen in the area who were unable to service their bail due to the North Carolina information.

A licensed bail agent was dispatched to meet the family at the Baltimore County Circuit Court to do paperwork and post the bail. The family was unaware that the warrant was issued and had they been they would have turned their family member into authorities. The defendant originally lived in Maryland when the charge originated but soon after re-located to North Carolina to attend school and be closer to home. After speaking with the defendant after her release she informed us that to her knowledge she had already been to court for this particular charge. According to court records she did appear for a court date and the charges were dismissed. But she was unaware that she had this charge still pending to go to court.

The defendant retained criminal defense attorney Brian G. Thompson of Silverman Thompson Slutkin and White. Anytime an out of state defendant retains a local attorney it certainly makes the bail bondsman feel a little more comfortable about taking on the liability. It will probably be at least 3-4 months before this defendant must return to Maryland to appear for court so until then we will be sure to stay in touch with our defendant, and make sure she and her family is aware of her court date.

Maryland Bail Bonds Company Big Boyz Bail Bonds takes numerous calls daily from people wanting to check if they or one of their friends or family members has a warrant. Many people think that bail bondsmen in Maryland have the same system to check warrants as the police do. This is not the case.

In truth, bail bondsmen in Maryland can only see certain types of warrants. We can see warrants for failure to appear (FTA) and violation of probation (VOP). When an FTA or a VOP occurs at the district court level, often times a preset bail will be set. These are the warrants that we can see for our clients. If an FTA of VOP occurs at the circuit court level the preset bails cannot be verified. The defendant must be served on the circuit court warrant and appear before a judge.

Many people call inquiring about arrest warrants which are much different than the previously mentioned types of warrants. In today's world it is rather simple for someone to go and get an arrest warrant out against somebody. All you need is a police report number, general information about the person you're trying to get detained, and venture to the commissioner's office to fill out the necessary paperwork. These warrants are kept from the public. Commissioner's decide whether to issue the warrant or not; and if they do, they give the information to an officer to attempt to locate the defendant and make the arrest.

Next time you want to contact a bail bonds service that provides warrant checks keep in mind the warrants we can actually see. If you try to contact your local police department or precinct they are going to tell you to come in no matter what so they can make the arrest if you do in fact have a warrant.

Very few bondsmen in Maryland will actually perform warrant checks for their clients because most work off their cell-phones in their vehicles and are sleeping when you need them for something. If you want detailed information concerning a possible warrant it makes sense to contact a reputable bail bonds company such as Big Boyz Bail Bonds. We always have multiple employees in an office by a phone and a computer to look into a situation.

Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore was contacted by a defendant in regards to needing transportation to court. We posted a $10,000 bond for the defendant in Baltimore County back in April of this year and she was finally due for court here in October. This defendant was considered a "high-risk" bond for us because on her commitment papers she used an address in Beaumont Texas.

Her court date was set for 8:30am so we had her at the Towson District Court House in Baltimore County by 8am. She was one of the first citizens to enter the courtroom that day and was very appreciative of this service. She successfully utilized our fundamental purpose as a bail bonds company in Maryland, which is insuring the defendant's appearance for court.

We urge more defendants out on bail to call their bail bondsman if they are having difficulties making it to court. One of the most common excuses this day in age for a Failure to Appear (FTA) is lack of transportation. We hear stories all the time about the bus showing up late, or their car broke down, and nobody ever thinks to call their bondsmen who bailed them out.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds is ready and available with agents standing by to provide this service to our clients in need. If your bail bondsman is unwilling to provide this service for you then they are not a quality bail bonds service and should not be in the business at all. Most people have the misconception that our sole duty is to release the defendant from custody. In reality, our responsibilities go far beyond just bringing someone back home.

Unfortunately for this particular defendant we took to court, she was re-arrested while in court because there was an arrest warrant for her. They took her into custody and issued her a $20,000 bond. Big Boyz Bail Bonds is ready and eager to post this bond for her because she has a great understanding of our purpose and the importance of appearing for court and "facing the music."

The Carroll County Detention Center is located in City of Westminster fifteen minuets from the Owings Mills/ Reisterstown area. When picking up a family member when bail is paid, the address to come to is 100 North Court Street directly across from the Carroll County District Court.

After the Defendants bail has been paid if he/she is already upstairs the typical wait time is around two hours for their release. The defendant will be released from the same area where they allow visitations. If you're lucky and the defendant is in the Central Booking area the wait time is only five to ten minutes and he/she will get released from the bottom area of the detention center.

Overall, the employees in the detention center are very nice to deal with and will answer any question you have. If you feel you have a question regarding picking an inmate up or posting a bail bond in Carroll County, please contact us any time. We are available to post bails in Carroll County 24 hours a day. 410-857-9440.

Carroll County release process can take longer on the weekends than the weekdays. On the weekends, the Carroll County Commissioners are on call. This means when your Carroll County Bail Bondsman arrives and the Commissioner is out of the office, the commissioner must be paged to come and process the bail. The commissioner has up to one hour to come to the detention center once being paged. After arriving the usual wait time is an extra five to ten minuets for them to get logged in to their systems. This is largely due to the fact that there is not a very high volume of crime in Carroll County.

Many people that are attempting to bail out one of their family members or friends want to know if the defendant incarcerated has any outstanding warrants or detainers. You might now be asking, what is a warrant or detainer? Most simply, a warrant is another charge that the defendant could have that has not been settled in court or could possibly hold the person in custody. A detainer is a warrant that can be placed upon the defendant and make it so the defendant gets transferred to the location the detainer is for.

Regularly, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore helps people deal with these situations. Good bail bondsmen in Maryland will call down to the detention centers the defendant is being held in to verify their bail information. This will usually give the bondsmen a good idea if there is anything else outstanding that could possibly hold the defendant in custody. It is not always a 100% guarantee however that the information we get from the detention center is correct. Warrants can pop up at any moment and there is no way any bondsmen can get 100% accurate information.

In some instances a detainer may have a pre-set bail for a failure-to-appear for court (FTA) or a violation of probation (VOP). If there is a pre-set bail for a detainer a family can pay that in advance and when the defendant gets transferred to the location the detainer is for, Big Boyz Bail Bonds can post the bail. In some instances a detainer can be pre-set at "no bail" which means the defendant would not be able to get out on bail once the detainer has been served on the defendant. In most cases it does not make sense to post a bail while somebody has a detainer unless they plan on paying the bail for the detainer as well.

However, we have had cases where a family will post a bail, while knowing about a detainer with no bail simply to get the person re-located to a different facility. Most people who have been through the system once or twice before would rather sit in Baltimore County detention center versus Baltimore City Central Booking if they had the choice for example. So they may want to post the bail in Baltimore City so they would be transferred to Baltimore County to be served with their detainer.

This very rarely occurs but the benefit of posting a bond in these circumstances speeds up the process of getting a court date.

As has been mentioned many times before in our Maryland Bail Bonds Blog, the primary purpose of bail in the state of Maryland is to guarantee the defendants appearance in court. If a bail bondsman does not perform this duty then they are failing at their service to the state.

Something that can make it difficult to appear for court is if you have multiple violations in multiple jurisdictions. If you fall under this category it can be difficult to keep tabs on the dates and times of your multiple court dates. It is important as a defendant out on multiple bonds to stay in contact with their bail bondsman on a regular basis. Court dates are subject to change, and people are subject to move and never change their address with the courts. This is a recipe for disaster as bench warrants are inevitable in these circumstances.

Recently, Big Boyz Bail Bonds had a similar situation in that we had a client locked up in Baltimore County on four separate bonds. They were all for failing to appear in court and each charge had a different address location on his paperwork. In addition, each charge was for a different location. So the defendant was locked up in Baltimore County but was served on charges based out of Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County. This defendant had a lot on his plate to say the least.

Since all of the bails were served on the defendant in the county we were able to post all four bails in the same location. Many people might think that since they were bailed out of one location, they will appear for court in that same location. This is not the case! The defendant will still get four court dates for four different locations.

When the defendant reported to our bail bonds office to sign paperwork for his bail we made sure to break this down for him so he fully understood the situation he was facing. We will also be calling him in the days leading up to each one of his court dates as a reminder. And as an additional service we would even provide transportation to court if he needed us in an emergenc

Many people call Big Boyz Bail Bonds to inquire about how to become a licensed bail bondsman in the state of Maryland. Most think that you need some sort of prior police training or have some prior education in criminal justice. Neither of this is true. In fact, you might be surprised as to finding out what exactly is needed to become a licensed bail bondsman in the state of Maryland.

Because bail bondsmen in Maryland powers of attorney or surety agents and backed by insurance companies it is required by law to obtain a Property & Casualty insurance license. To obtain this certification contact your local insurance company and see if they offer a class. The insurance company that Big Boyz Bail Bonds has used in the past for licensing its employees is Nationwide Insurance.

Once you have completed the course you are required to take a state exam. There is a fee for every time the test is taken and you can attempt the test as many times as you want; however, there is a waiting period between each attempt. After you have passed the Maryland State Property and Casualty insurance exam you can sign on with a Maryland Bail Bonds company.

As you study for the insurance exam you will be surprised to find out how little Bail Bonds is mentioned. In your text book there might be half of a page to a page dedicated to Bail Bonds. When I took the test I don't even think they asked a single question pertaining to bail bonds at all.

The good thing about the process is once you pass you don't have to worry about remembering a single thing from your studies. You can forget about it for 2 years until you are required to take a continuing education course renewing your Property & Casualty insurance license.

One of the things that Big Boyz Bail Bonds will stress to all of their clients that they bail out of Baltimore County is to show up at least 30 minutes before their hearing. We know that people don't always miss court on purpose; but rather, they miss court for unforeseen life occurrences. If you're catching the bus to court, the bus might not be on time. Or you might run into some unexpected traffic. There are a multitude of reasons one can be late for court or fail to appear for court all together.

If you are not present when your name is called in a Baltimore County court room they will immediately issue a bench warrant for your arrest. All it takes is to walk into the court room a few minutes late and the court bailiff will take you into custody. Baltimore County District Court stresses punctuality more than any other court in Maryland.

I once witnessed a district court judge in Catonsville issue a $50,000 bail for walking into his courtroom just 5 minutes late and the defendant had no history of failing to appear. In addition to issuing a $50,000 bail the judge said, "If I'm expected to be here on time for somebody else's issue then they better be here on time as well." This is extreme and judges in Baltimore County, for the most part, have little sympathy for excuses.

The only excuses that Baltimore County judges may accept is if you or a close family member was sick or dying in a hospital and you came with the hospital records to prove it. Even this might not excuse you from a bench warrant though. This seems outrageous but it truthfully is the way it is in Baltimore County.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds makes courtesy calls to our clients a few days prior to their court dates reminding them of their court location, time, and room number. And whenever we call for a Baltimore County case we make sure to tell the defendant to appear ON TIME! If you are out on bail and curious about your court date, time and location, please give us a call at 410-534-6070 (24 hour bail bonds service) and we will be happy to look it up for you.

Many people have probably heard the term appeal bond before but few seem to fully understand its function and purpose in the bail bonds world. For those that are unfamiliar, an appeal bond is a bond that is granted by a judge when a defendant has been found guilty of a charge. Keep in mind, when someone is found guilty it is not their right to be issued an appeal bond. It is at the discretion of the judge to allow for an appeal bond to be posted or not.

Appeal bonds are relatively common in Baltimore County, and Big Boyz Bail Bonds services this type of bond on a regular basis. Posting an appeal bond has a much different process than posting a regular bail bond. In order to post an appeal bond, someone must pay an $80 fee to a Baltimore County clerk located at either court house (Towson, Essex, or Catonsville). Once the fee has been posted with the courts, the appeal bond can be posted by a bail bondsman only during regular court hours (8:30am-4pm). Rather than posting the bond with a district court commissioner, we post the bond directly with a clerk and it is typically a pretty quick process.

Many people confuse the purpose of an appeal bond and believe that they can just post the appeal bond, instead of serving the jail sentence issued by the judge. This is not the case. The purpose of the appeal bond is to give you a second chance. If you were unhappy with the initial verdict, or the way your attorney handled the case, you get the opportunity to re-try the case in front of a different judge and with a more qualified attorney.

Recently, Big Boyz posted an appeal bond for a client that was sentenced to just 10 days in jail. She was issued a $3,000 appeal bond which her family member paid the filing fee and posted the bond with our company. Now that the defendant is released on this bond she will be issued a new court date and the opportunity to rid her record from a guilty conviction.

Next time you go to court and you are facing a possible jail sentence, and are eventually sentenced, contact your attorney about requesting an appeal bond. And if you have any further questions about posting an appeal bond, please contact us at any time.
410-534-6070.

This evening I was sent an email with a link to an interesting video on youtube in regards to bail bonds. This video speaks about a county known as Tarrant County, in Texas, that was experimenting with a new Pre Trial Release program that would allow accused criminal defendants the opportunity to pay 3% of their bail to the state instead of 10% to a bail bondsman. This new experimental system of course has guidelines in regards to who was eligible for this program. And it is drastically different then the Maryland Pre Trial Release program.

This Pre Trial Release program would essentially allow defendants to be released on cheaper bail in the hopes that they would return for court. Of course if the person was released on one of these 3% Pre Trial Release bonds there would be no liable party to care enough to hunt down the fugitive. The way the program was originally intended was to allow for non serious crime defendants, with clean records the opportunity to post these bonds.

To be eligible for this program the video mentions that the defendant must have

1. No History of Bond Forfeitures


2. No Previous Felonies


3. No 1st Degree Felony Charges

The interesting thing about this is that Judges, in this county, still have the opportunity to make certain exceptions to this policy at their own discretion. The video discusses specific situations where a defendant violated at least one of the guidelines and was still given the opportunity to pay 3% to the state for release. This creates a major problem because when the person fails to appear for court, who will care enough to look for them?

This is an example of why Baltimore Bail Bondsmen such as the ones that work for Big Boyz Bail Bonds are so important here in Maryland. If Maryland were to adopt a program similar to this there would certainly be a larger amount of fugitives on the run for longer periods of time. With Bondsmen being responsible for the bond it gives them reason to bring the defendant back into custody. Please watch the video to learn more about this wild program that should certainly never come to mention here in Baltimore Maryland.

Recently, Baltimore City Central Booking and intake center changed its procedures as far as processing an inmate for release. The changes revolve around the records department literally closing its doors from 12:30am until 7:30am. Prior to this change, the records department used to be open 24 hours a day except on Sundays when they would shut down at midnight.

This change directly affects the Baltimore City bail bondsmen, as well as the families that are trying to get their loved ones released from custody. Basically, when the records department shuts down inside the jail there is nobody physically in the building to accept a release. This is a problem because with nobody to process the release, it delays the defendant from walking out the door.

The funny thing about all this is that bail bondsmen can still post their bails 24/7 inside Baltimore city central booking. The reason that we can post a bail anytime is because a district court commissioner remains inside the jail even though the records department is shut down. What this means, is that when a bail bondsman has a bail to post in the middle of the night we can physically post the bail; but we have to come back after 7:30am to hand the release to somebody from the records department.

This is an unfortunate change because it significantly delays the inmate from getting released. What makes this change even more discouraging is that sometimes when we go to drop a release off when records opens, they will tell us they don't have the defendants paperwork ready to accept the release. If the records department doesn't have paperwork for the defendant then they cannot process the release!

Big Boyz Bail Bonds tries to handle this change as best as physically possible. If someone wants to do a Baltimore city bail at 3am that's not a problem, we will post it immediately. Then when we return to the jail at 7:30am to hand the release in and they say the paperwork is not ready we will check back every half hour to see if the release is ready to be handed in. Once the jail has both the release and the defendant's paperwork, they take on average between 4 and 6 hours to release the defendant from custody.