What is bail?
It is important to understand what bail is before knowing how it works. This suggests that bail is the money you need to pay for setting someone free from jail until their time in court. You may wonder about the amount you need to pay. Well, it depends on the severity of the crime committed or being accused of. So if the crime is small, the amount will also remain less and vice versa.
Bail is security money for the court in case you fail to visit the court on the expected date. But if you visit the court on time, the bail money will be returned to you.
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How does bail work?
Suppose someone has committed any crime and been sent to jail. And you want to release him/her from jail. What should you do? You need to visit the court for an appointment and wait for your time to come. When your time comes, you can pay for the bail. You can directly pay the bail money to the court or hire a bail agent by paying a 10% premium. After paying the bail money, the accused person gets released from jail.
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Where does bail money go?
If the accused person does not fail to appear in court, the bail money will be returned to him/her after the case is dismissed. But some small charges will be deducted as the prescribing fees. Sometimes the money is returned to the hired bail agent. But when you are adopting the option of hiring a bail, it means you need to pay 10% of the initial bail. But remember that money is non-refundable as it is considered as a fee paid for enjoying the services of a bondsman.
In the failure of your appearance in the court on the prescribed date, the amount gets forfeited and distributed as per government laws and regulations.