People unfamiliar with the criminal
justice process are often confused about what to do when a judge sets
bail on a friend or family member, or even what the bail amounts mean.
What follows should be of some help in figuring it all out.
What is cash bail?
Cash bail is simply the amount of cash
that you must present to any jail in New
York City (24 hours a day) in order to obtain the release of the accused
while his case progresses. The good news is, that as long as the
accused makes all of his court appearances, you will get all (or nearly
all) of your money back. The city, never missing an opportunity to
capture some revenue, keeps a piece of the action. (The keeping of this
small percentage of the bail has actually been challenged in court, but
upheld by the United States Supreme Court).
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What is a bail bond?
A bail bond is a promise by a special
company like an insurance company to pay the city the amount of the bond
if the accused fails to come back to court. When a bail bond
company agrees to post a bond for an accused, they are agreeing to
guarantee his presence in court.
The good news with a bail bond is that
bail bond companies are often times willing to post substantial bail
bonds for people for far less than 100 % of the bond. In fact,
most bail bondsmen will write bonds for about 10% of the value of the
bond. For example, if the bond is written for $15,000, you could
probably find a bondsman who would only charge you about $1500.
They will typically require, however, that you post additional cash for
them to hold, and will require that a number of people guarantee to
reimburse them if the accused fails to return and they lose the bond
amount.
The bad news with a bail bond, is that,
unlike with cash bail, you will not get the money you put down back.
The money you give the bail bondsman is the fee he charges to write the
bond. You will get back any additional security the bondsman
requires, but that fee is gone forever.
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Where
can I find a New York Bail Bondsman?
You can find a licensed
New York City Bail Bondsman right now by visiting
the Affordable Bail Bonds website at
www.affordablebails.com . They can be
reached at 888- 932-2458.
Other New York Bail
Bondsmen can be found usually in offices nearby the local criminal
courthouses.
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How will I know what the bail is at
the arraignment?
Toward the end of the arraignment, after
the prosecutor and the defense lawyer have made their arguments, the
judge may say a few words and then finish with the phrase (or something
like it) "Bail is $2500 over $1500" or "$2500 A or B". This is the
most typical way of setting bail.
The two types of bail the judge is
referring to are the two most common forms of bail -- cash or insurance
company bail bond (or more simply bail bond).
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In what ways can bail be paid?
According to the
Department of
Corrections web site: the New York City Department of Corrections will
accept the following forms of cash bail:
- United States cash for the full
amount
- Cashier's/Tellers' checks, in any
amount not greater than the bail amount
- Bank money order, up to $1000
- Federal Express money order, up to
$1000
- U.S. Postal money order, up to
$1000
- Travelers Express Company money order,
up to $1000
- Western Union money order, up to
$1000
- Check issued by the city Finance
Administrator for a bail refund. (There is no $1000 maximum but
the check must not exceed the amount of the new bail.)
- Veterans Administration Check up to
$1000
- U.S. Government checks, up to
$1,000
- Cash in combination with any of the
above for the total amount of the bail
NOTE:
The $1000 limits noted above apply to an individual instrument only.
They are not meant to prohibit multiple instruments. For
example, the City will accept FIVE bank money orders for $1000 each in
payment for a $5000 bail. The total of the checks, however,
must not exceed the amount of the bail.
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Where can I post cash bail to
get someone out?
According to the
Department of
Corrections web site:
Checks or money orders meeting the
requirements listed above can be presented at any Department of
Corrections jail, regardless where the inmate is housed, provided they
are made out to the jail at which they are presented.
For example, bail can be posted at
Queens House of Detention for an inmate being housed at Rikers Island.
Only the jail named on the check/money
order can accept them in payment of the bail. Checks or money
orders made out to the Department of Correction or to a jail other than
the one at which they are presented will not be accepted.
The person posting bail must present
personal identification and must provide the New York State
Identification (NYSID) Number of the person to be bailed. (Be sure
to get this information from the attorney who handles the arraignment).
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What about putting up a piece of
property?
Another form of bail can involve
presenting a piece of property to the city. This form of bail
usually comes up in cases in which the bail is extraordinarily high.
Typically, it will not be initially set at the arraignment, but will be
requested by an attorney by way of writ or negotiation with the
prosecutor and consent of a judge.
The property will sometimes be required to
have double the equity of the amount of the bail. For example, if
the bail is $50,000, the property will have to have $100,000.
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What if the judge
sets cash only bail?
Judges usually set two forms of bail at
arraignment. There is some authority that judges are required to
set at least two forms of bail at arraignment, although many judges
these days disagree and will set CASH ONLY bail.
If the judge at arraignments sets CASH
ONLY bail, then the only way to bail out the accused is to post the full
amount of the bail with the city. If the judge sets CASH ONLY
bail, then you cannot go to a bail bondsman to get the accused out of
jail. Because the law is fairly clear that CASH ONLY bail is
usually improper, a lawyer can take a writ of habeas corpus and
essentially "appeal" the setting of only one form of bail. Writs
in these circumstances are often successful, but represent a delay of 1
to 3 days or more before they can be heard.
When judges set a bond amount as well as
a cash amount, you will often find that the bond amount is significantly
higher than the cash amount. That's because judges are aware of
how bail bonds work. They know that bail bondsmen will write bonds
for considerably less up front than the full amount of the bond.
Therefore, many judges will set the bond amount at a level where the
amount of the cash alternative will be about the amount a bail bondsman
would require anyway.
For example, if the cash bail amount is
$5000, the bond amount that would be set might be between $10,000 and
$15,000. Although the bond fee might be considerably less than
$5000, most bondsmen would probably want about $5000 in cash to hold
until the conclusion of the case.
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Should you bail someone out?
The first principle, before all others,
is that you probably ought to make bail or bond for someone you care
about who is in jail as soon as possible.
This may sound obvious, but there are
circumstances when friends and family members may be angry at the
accused for having gotten himself into a bad situation, probably against
the advice of friends or family to begin with. Occasionally
friends and family may be under the mistaken impression that delaying
the bail-out process will teach some kind of lesson.
Well-meaning frustrated parents often
fall into the trap of "It might wake him up to spend some time in jail".
Parents who want to teach with tough love are probably better off
bailing the child out and attempting just about anything else to teach
the child a lesson. Drive him up to the top of a tall mountain and
make him hike home with a 50 pound backpack. Jail
is a horrible brutal incredibly dangerous place.
General Guideline to govern this
situation: FEW LESSONS WORTH LEARNING WERE EVER
LEARNED IN JAIL.
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How much is bail
going to be?
This is a difficult question because the
amount of bail on a given case can vary widely from judge to judge or
depend simply on the judge's mood on a particular day.
Nevertheless, there are certain very broad, very general rules of thumb.
Please do not hold us to these estimates.
Please realize that we are attempting to help with information, not
guarantee particular outcomes in specific cases. If the bail in a
particular case varies significantly from the estimates that follow,
please do not take this to mean that the bail set was illegal,
excessive, too little, or evidence that the judge was wrong.
That being said, there are certain
general guidelines that can be expected.
Misdemeanor Case General Guidelines
Range = $0 - $5000 : With some
exceptions, first arrest misdemeanor cases can probably bet on a much
lower range with a fairly decent expectation of $0 or ROR. For
those with prior criminal histories, it is still possible to obtain ROR
but it becomes increasingly unlikely as the number of prior cases
increases. Bail beyond $5000 for a misdemeanor is extremely rare.
If you want to be prepared to make bail right at the arraignment
immediately, and you can afford it, you might want to have $1500 in cash
available (assuming you are comfortable carrying this amount of money in
court). That should be sufficient to handle most circumstances
where the charges are solely misdemeanors.
Felony Case General Guidelines
Felonies are more difficult to suggest
general guidelines because some felonies are far more serious than
others.
For the most serious felonies, (A
felonies) judges oftentimes refuse to set any bail at all.
This is called REMAND. Occasionally judges can be convinced to set
some bail on such cases, but it will be astonishingly high (for example,
$250,000). Most of the time, however, judges simply REMAND people
accused of A felonies.
Judges can occasionally be convinced to
release people charged with less serious felonies without any bail at
all or on what might be considered "misdemeanor" bail.
Robbery and Assault (felony) cases will
often generate bail in the range of $1500 - $25,000 or more depending on
the seriousness of the robbery, and the defendant's age and prior
criminal history.
Realize that anyone with a prior felony
criminal history who is charged with a new felony is almost certainly
going to have significant bail set (meaning a likely range of $3500 -
$25,000+)
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What is a
bail sufficiency hearing?
A bail sufficiency hearing or surety
hearing is something you might hear (typically in drug or fraud cases)
the judge say at the conclusion of the arraignment when he sets bail.
That will add an extra layer or two of
difficulty to getting the person out of jail. That means that
before the city will accept bail for the accused, there must be a
hearing (or the prosecutors must informally agree) to make sure that the
money being used has a legitimate source.
The idea of the bail sufficiency hearing
was developed to respond to the fear that large scale drug dealers would
simply use their illegal profits to obtain release from custody.
Of course the prosecutors have taken the bail sufficiency hearing and
bled its use into other areas and types of cases.
What will happen is that the person who
wants to make the bail will be required to show that the money came from
a legitimate source (for example, that he has a job, assets, and/or bank
accounts that would reasonably exist for someone engaged in a legitimate
activity). The person who shows up with a garbage bag full of
$100,000 cash who is unemployed and unable to explain how he got the
money is likely going to be out of luck at such a hearing. These
hearings are usually something that can be avoided after negotiations
with the prosecutor.
The real problem is that the bail
sufficiency hearing will delay the release process because the hearing
must be scheduled. The corrections department is supposed to
automatically produce the defendant to the courtroom as soon as the bail
is tentatively posted, but this is often a confused and frustrating
experience for the defendant, and the defendant's friends and family.
You are best off obtaining the assistance of a lawyer.
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