Bail is basically money that you must deposit with the court in which your criminal case exists if you want to remain free from jail while your court case is ongoing. After you are arrested, a magistrate or judge will set a bail bond amount for your particular case. Due to the large number of inmates that the Shelby County Jail and other city jails within Shelby County process, it often takes several hours for a magistrate or judge to set a bail bond amount on a new inmate.
The purpose of bail is to insure that a defendant appears for all of his or her set court appearances on a criminal case. A bail bond amount can range anywhere from $100 on a misdemeanor charge to hundreds of thousands of dollars on a felony charge. In order for a defendant to remain free from jail while he or she waits for his case to come to a conclusion, this money must be deposited with the courts by someone on the defendant’s behalf. As long as the defendant goes to all of his or her court dates, the bail money is returned to the person who paid it after the case comes to a conclusion. In this situation, this cash bail bond money is returned whether the defendant is found guilty or not.
Most of us do not have the financial resources to deposit such large amounts of bail money with the court. Fortunately, a bail bond company can help a defendant get out of jail while awaiting trial without having to deposit such large amounts of bail money with the court. A bail bond company charges certain non-refundable fees to perform this service.
Watch this video FAQ to learn about the bonding process