The issue of bail can be a extremely sensitive issue in court and often has to be addressed at a Bail Hearing. The court may have set bail that is too high, making it impracticable or impossible for you even to come up with the premium. If bail is $1,000,000, you would have to post a premium of anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000. Not many people have that much money just laying around. And if you cannot pay the premium and have a bail bondsman post bond for you, the court would simply remand you into custody. You would be spending time in county jail, such as the Men's Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles or the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, throughout the duration of your case. If your case is serious and requires extensive preparation or there is some delay caused by any variety of reasons, you may be sitting in a cell for months, even years while your case drags on. And this is even BEFORE you are ever convicted!
Another wrinkle or complication in this whole affair may be that the prosecutor or the court suspects that the source of your bail, the funds that allowed you to post the premium, is ill-gotten, that it is the byproduct of criminality. This is known as suspicious bail. So that even if you DO post bond, you are remanded into custody and a hearing is set during which the whole issue is resolved.
The GOOD NEWS is that an experienced criminal defense attorney can help you stay OUT OF CUSTODY throughout the duration of your case. If the court wants to set exorbitantly high bail, your attorney may be able to show that you do not present a flight risk, that you have sufficient ties to your community that you have little to no incentive to flee, that you don't have an extensive criminal background or that the facts of the case are not so egregious that you should be confined. If your bail is suspect, your attorney can help convince the court that the money can be traced to legitimate sources.
Fortunately, our Coimbra Law criminal defense law firm has vast experience and we can get the court to release you on your own recognizance, also known as "O.R."
