Those who have committed a crime are arrested and are sent to jail with a certain amount of money that is set for their bail. If the bail is paid, the individual is permitted to leave the jail until their next court date. Many criminals choose to jump bail, which means they fail to appear for their court date and often flee or go into hiding. Those who choose to jump bail suffer from a long list of criminal and financial consequences that increase the severity of the situation.
Search for the Criminal’s Arrest
When an individual jumps bail, the bail bondsman immediately makes a phone call to the criminal to determine if their actions were intentional. The court immediately issues a bench warrant for your arrest and will revoke any collateral that is used for the bail. If a bail bondsman fronted the money to allow you to leave jail, they will then search for the criminal for six months and will work diligently bring you back to court to surrender.
Unlike law enforcement, bail bondsmen are able to search your house without a warrant and can also hire a bounty hunter to find you. Bounty hunters are often aggressive and successful with the search due to the large amount of money that is at risk. This makes many people’s attempts to jump bail and flee unsuccessful.
Reinstatement of the Original Bond
If someone chooses to jump bail, it will cause the original bond to be reinstated despite the money that was paid or the collateral that was used. In some cases, a second bond is added and will require that both bonds be paid to allow you to leave jail for a second time. The judge may also decide not to allow the criminal out of jail at all and will not provide a bond to prevent the individual from fleeing again.
Additional Crime Added to the Criminal’s Record
After someone jumps bail, the crime of failing to appear for the court date is then added to their record in addition to the original crime that they committed. Jumping bail means that you essentially stole money from the bail bondsman by failing to agree to the terms and appear in court on your appointed date. This can mean that you’ll face more time in jail due to the multiple crimes that you committed.
Financial Consequences
Jumping bail is a serious crime and often results in financial consequences for the criminal. When posting bail with the help of a bail bondsman, a non-refundable fee of 10 to 20 percent of the bail amount will be lost including any collateral that is offered. Additional fees may need to be paid if the court determines that you purposely fled and avoided to show up for the court date. If a family member or friend used their vehicle or house as collateral to help you obtain the bail money, these items will be revoked immediately.
Do yourself and your loved ones a huge favor and be responsible for yourself and your obligation to your bail bondsman. Handle your business!
Kyle Carter is an avid blogger and professional bail bondsman with C&K OKC Bail Bonds in Oklahoma City. Kyle is passionate about sharing information online through his blogs, on youtube, and provides local bail bonds services in OKC to the local community.
