The judge that arraigns you after your arrest may set your bail at an amount that you cannot afford to pay on your own. You do not want to remain behind bars before your next court date, however. You want to utilize a legal and affordable way to get out of jail and go home to await your next appearance.

Instead of expecting relatives or friends to pay your bail, you can contact a bail bonds service to assist you. You can use this option responsibly by understanding what terms that you must agree to when you sign your bail bonds contract.

Appearing in Court

One of the most important terms that you agree to when you use bail bonds to get out of jail is showing up to all of your court appearances. When the bail bonds agent posts your bond, he or she guarantees the court that you will appear on all of your court dates. If you fail to show up for one or any of them, you will have your bond revoked, and the full amount of your bail comes due.

The bail bonds agency must pay your bail if you do not show up to court. It can then ask the court to issue an arrest warrant for you and have you arrested for absconding or jumping bail. The bail bonds agency can also hold you financially responsible for compensating it for the amount of the bail that is paid to the court because you failed to show up for your scheduled appearance.

To avoid all of this from happening, you must appear in court on your scheduled court dates. By doing so, you avoid a new arrest warrant from being issued for you. You may also avoid having to pay off the full amount of your bail.

Putting Up Collateral

To ensure that you show up to court, the bail bonds service may require you to put up an asset as collateral to guarantee the full amount of your bail. This asset can be a vehicle that you own outright. It can also be real estate, a house, boat, or jewelry that is equal to or more than the value of your bail.

A bail bonds agency can post your bond to get you out of jail. You then must appear in court on all of your scheduled court dates. You also may be required to put up some sort of collateral to secure the full amount of your bail before your bond is paid.