By M Demery
Part 1
Choosing a bail bond company may seem overwhelming, even appear as one of the most important decisions to be made in the first few hours after the arrest of the defendant: but it’s not. In California, as well as most other states, the cost to get a bail bond is set by the state at 10% of the bond face value. A $10,000 bond will cost 10% or $1,000. In California, there is also an approved 8% rate meant to help Union Members, Gov’t workers, Attorney’s get a bail bond. The real purpose behind that 8% rate was advertising. Until the 8% all bail bond company’s had to use 10% in their advertising, but then all of a sudden some bail company’s could now legally advertise less. Granted it was just 2%, but if you were searching the phone book for a bail bond company and one advertised 8% wouldn’t you rather pay $8,000 instead $10,000 to get a $100,000 bail bond?
Unfortunately that was just the beginning of what some in the business call the end of integrity bail. Today bail is like the wild west – a free-for-all, everyone out for themselves. Very few large bail bond company’s have bail agents that understand there is more to being a bail agent than just how many bonds one can write.
I compare being a bail agent to a boxer. There are two different kinds of people that box and they both think they know what it takes to win.
The first kind of bail agent works and writes for a big retail company, gets paid hourly or salary, has no responsibility for running the company, takes no financial accountability when bonds go bad, is hired to answer phones and write any bail for anyone that calls regardless. This bail agent is a boxer that sits on the couch and X-box box’s. They think they know all the right moves and never actually feel any pain.
The second Bail Agent is the one that works and takes all financial responsibility for his/her actions. If a bond goes bad, they pay out of their pocket. They bail people out not for the bond count but for bond quality because they understand if it goes bad they have to write 35 bonds of the same amount to payoff that one. This bail agent is like the boxer that steps inside the ring to fight. Unlike the couch boxer, this agent hopes to have the right moves and feels the pain of every hit they take.