Having a loved one or friend go to jail is never a pleasant experience. Fortunately, you can often get them out by paying a specified fee. When the court sets a certain amount of bail, it can be paid directly to the court or you can use a bondsman. If you choose to use a bondsman, you will probably pay between 10 to 20 percent of the actual fee required by the court to release your acquaintance. The other portion of the bail bond will be secured by using collateral.
Case Status
Once the money is paid, you will have to wait for a final outcome in the case, which will end with the case being dropped or with a guilty verdict. If the individual that you bailed out is found guilty, the money you spent to get them out will be used for court fees. If this occurs, you won’t get any of your money refunded back to you.
Reviewing Your Options
If the status of the case comes back and your acquaintance has all charges dropped, you will be able to get your money back if you took the option to directly pay the court. However, if you didn’t have the required amount of cash to pay the court and you used a bail bondsman, you will not be able to get back the cash that you paid them. The job of a bail bondsman is to act as surety. The bondsman will be liable for the full amount of bail if the defendant fails to appear in court.
If the defendant is not found guilty, you will not get a refund back from a bail bondsman if you decided to use that option. The bondsman took a risk when posting a bail bond for your acquaintance. They keep the portion of cash that you paid them for the services that they provided.
Getting A Refund
Court cases can take an extended period of time to be completed. If your acquaintance is involved in a case that is complicated, the case may take over a year to go to trial and end. It’s important for you to stay abreast of the current status of the case and make sure that you keep your contact information up-to-date with the court or bail bond company. If you chose to pay the cash bond directly to the court, you want to make sure that you receive cash back once the case has been completed.
Typically, it will take two weeks or more for you to receive a refund check from the court if the case ends with a non-guilty outcome. If you still haven’t received a refund check from the court after six weeks, you should contact them and inquire about your money.
Many cases are handled by the court system on a daily basis. It’s important for you to have the correct information regarding the case that you are inquiring about. It’s best to make note of the case number in the early stages of the process so that you can identify the case once the process has been finalized.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!