Bail works a lot like insurance does for your car. The insurance company ensures that you will be able to pay for the damages for an automobile accident. When it comes to bail, the bail bond agent acts like the insurance company and ensures that a person will appear at all the court hearings as they are required to do.

When an amount of bond is set, a person has a couple of options for the bail bond process.

They can elect to pay the full amount of the bond and be released pending a court date. Once the case is resolved, the bail amount is then returned to the person. Many people don’t have thousands of dollars laying around to pay, or would rather not use their money in this way.

Instead, they can pay a bail bondsman, a portion of the bail amount, and the bondman will put up the entire amount required to get released. This is usually done for a set fee, depending on the bondmen. The bondsman then becomes responsible for the person appearing in court. If the person fails to appear, the bond is forfeited and the bondsman is liable for the bond amount. In this case, both the bondsman and the client are in a tough place, as the bondsman has to pay and the client will have a warrant issued and wind up back in jail awaiting trial.