What is bail? Am I a flight risk? How important are ties to the community? Bail is cash, a bond, or property that an arrested person gives to a court to ensure that he or she will appear in court when ordered to do so.
Transcript
>> Givelle Lamano: What is bail and how does it work? Essentially, when somebody is arrested for a crime, they can post a bail amount so that they can have their freedom while their criminal case is pending. There are two ways to post bail.
>> Givelle Lamano: Either number one, you post the entire bail amount on your own or number two, you hire a bail bondsman and pay them a percentage at which you don't get back at the end of your case. So if your bail is 100,000, you can either pay the 100,000 in full and get it back at the end of your case, or you can pay 7 to 10% of that, which is 7,000 to 10,000, to a bail bondsman and not get that back.
>> Givelle Lamano: Another consideration with bail is something known as a bail hearing. This is an opportunity for your defense attorney to ask the judge to lower your bail amount or to release you without bail. There are two considerations in a bail hearing.
>> Givelle Lamano: Number one, whether or not you are a flight risk, and number two, whether or not you have ties to the community. Flight risk essentially means that you're likely to leave the country to avoid your criminal case. Ties to the community involve whether or not you own a home here, whether you're married, how long you've been employed somewhere, whether you have kids or dependents such as your parents or kids that are depending on you.
>> Givelle Lamano:In order for you to get more information on bail, we ask you to give us a call so we can give you more information. Thanks for watching!
