I’ve been arrested. How will bail be determined?

Bail is determined based upon two factors; flight risk and threat to the community. The judges look at a person’s ties to the community, in other words, do you live in the community, how long have you lived there? Does your family live there? Do you have family that works in the community, that owns property in the community? Are you employed? All of those things are involved in terms of the setting of bail, in terms of flight risk.

Danger to the community, the judge will look at the nature of the offense charge; were you charged with a property crime, are you charged with a violent felony where several people were injured. Also the judge will look at, in terms of the flight risk and also the danger to the community factor, your criminal history if you have a criminal record; that will be available to the court and the court will consider that.

Most people are entitled to bail even on serious charges and most people are granted bail. One of the factors which can be a great assistance to you is if you have the opportunity, and many times people don’t because things happen so quickly, but if you have the opportunity to have an attorney with you at your bond hearing; that can make a significant difference.

All people charged with the same offense are not granted the same bail. The bond amounts can be vastly different depending on how it’s presented to the court and sometimes just having an attorney gives the court assurances that you’re going to obey the conditions of bail and that you’re not a flight risk because you’ve taken the charge seriously enough that you have an attorney at your bail hearing.

Most people do not; most people just don’t have that luxury because they don’t have time to. They’re incarcerated and fortunately the bond hearing comes up quickly enough that many times they’re unable to get a lawyer there.

We cover bail hearings quite frequently. Sometimes people contact us even after hours if they do that we’re usually able to contact them back and we’re able to appear at their bond hearing which in those instances it’s usually first thing the next morning.