Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

The New Year is only a few days old and already we are starting to see quite a few changes take place in the Maryland Bail Bonds industry. One of the more significant changes to occur is that Baltimore Bail Bondsmen are now allowed to charge a fee for posting cash only bails for their clients. Prior to this, bondsmen were not allowed to assist their clients with this leaving many people unable to post these cash only bonds.

When a bond is set at cash only one can only pay the bond with cash or a certified bank check made out to the District Court of Maryland. There is no opportunity for financing like you would have when posting a regular bail bond with a bondsman.

This is a statewide change that technically all Maryland bail bondsmen can offer to their clients. The fact of the matter is, however, that very few will offer this service to their clients. Big Boyz Bail Bonds is one of the very few that will service cash bails of any amount. You might be asking why so few bondsmen in Maryland would be willing to do this as an additional service.

The reason is simple. Posting a bail bond versus posting a cash only bond is quite different. When one posts a bail bond they are essentially insuring the courts that they will pay the total sum of the bail if the defendant fails to appear for court. This means that the bondsmen do not have to put up any "physical money" to the courts. When one posts a cash bond they are doing the exact opposite. Bail Bondsmen who post cash only bonds are literally withdrawing money in the form of a certified check to post your bond. And when the defendant appears for court and the case gets closed, the money is returned to the bondsman that put up the money

The truth of the matter is that 99% of the bail bondsmen in Maryland simply don't have the funds to be able to do this. In addition, if they had the funds, they wouldn't want to put up their own cash for someone they didn't know. So if you come across a friend or family member that needs assistance with a cash only bond, remember to call Big Boyz Bail Bonds.

Recently Big Boyz Bail Bonds was contacted in regards to a $35,000 bond for a defendant locked up in Baltimore City Central Booking. This at first glance seemed like any other bail that Big Boyz has done in the past; nothing at all was out of the norm.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds went to the defendant's mother's house and completed paperwork and accepted 1% down on the Baltimore city bail bond. On two different occasions Big Boyz Bail Bonds called down to Baltimore Central Booking to verify the bail information. On both instances, detainee information told us the bond was $35,000 at 100% with no detainers. This means a bail bondsman can post the bail with no trouble.

However, when our bail agent arrived at central booking to post the bail we were given different information. At this point central booking told us the bail had a cash stipulation. The cash stipulation said that the first $5,000 of the $35,000 bond had to be paid in cash only! No corporate surety (bail bondsman), and no property was allowed to be posted for the cash portion of the bond. As you can see from the diagram above the bond was initially $100,000 and was reduced to $35,000 at bail review. However, the judge at bail review added this cash stipulation in the bond to make it more difficult for the defendant to get released.

Without much hesitation, Big Boyz Bail Bonds decided to lay out the cash for the defendant. Big Boyz Bail Bonds put up $5,000 cash out of their own pockets to help release this defendant from custody. Most might be asking, is this legal? The answer is, yes. As long as we do not accept a fee for posting the cash portion of the bond there is no problem, and the courts make us sign an affidavit swearing to this fact.

Now how many of your "ma and pa" bail bonds companies are going to lay out $5,000 from their own pockets for one of their clients. Big Boyz Bail Bonds does this with no problem at all and are ready and willing to do it again and again for their clients. Baltimore city judges are simply trying to weed out our services because they don't believe in our purpose. So this blog post is not only an intriguing story, but says something interesting about what is happening in Baltimore City bail world.

Lately, there has been a significant increase in bails that include both Corporate Surety (bail bonds) and Cash in Baltimore City. With the bail bonds market being in the state that it is, bondsmen are able to finance a higher percentage of the bond fee, and thus take a lesser percentage as a down payment. For some unknwon reason, Baltimore City judges take this personally. In today's society when virtually everything is financed, why is it such a bad thing for a bail bonds company to finance one's freedom?

At Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore, we are widely known for accepting 1% down, even no money down in order to post bails. Big Boyz sets up payments to allow the defendant to get released, get back to work, hire an attorney, and get back on their feet in an affordable fashion. So why is Baltimore City making non-yet-convicted-defendants scratch and claw to come up with more and more money to get released on bail.

As spoken about in previous blog posts on the purpose of bail in Maryland, the bail bondsmen's purpose is to insure the defendants appearance in court. As long as a bondsmen is taking on this responsiblity, and takes the liability for the bond if forfeited, then what is the problem? What does it matter how much the defendants family or friends paid in order to get the defendant released?

In order to prevent defendants from getting released on short money bails, Baltimore City judges are hiding cash stipluations within the bonds they set. For example, a judge might set a bond at $25,000, but say the first $2,500 has to be paid in cash. Essentially this means the defendant's family has to pay the 10% of the bond to the courts, and still must post $22,500 with a bail bondsman.

Ultimately, judges are deeming people guilty before they even go to trial. This is in many ways "un-American" as we are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Now I can of course understand a serious repeat offender with numerous felony convictions and bond forfeitures to have a corporate bond with cash stipulations. But these bonds are being handed down on anyone no matter the person or charge. The mere fact that they still keep corporate bonds along with cash shows that the Baltimore City criminal system needs bail bondsmen.

If families only paid bails in cash to the courts, no one would have any significant incentive to look for them if they failed to appear for court.

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.