District Attorney Wants to Raise Your Bail? How Hiring the Right Defense Attorney Can Save You Money & Peace Of Mind

Upon being charged with a crime, it is a common tactic for the District Attorney (DA) to request that the bail be set at maximum or raised, which often requires you to stay in jail for a prolonged period of time. Luckily, hiring an experienced defense attorney can greatly reduce the chance of this occurring.  

In a recent case, our law firm, Wallin and Klarich was hired to defend a client who was facing life charges in two separate felony cases in California and Texas, both for child exploitation and felony drug trafficking.

The prosecution notified us before the arraignment that they intended to ask the judge for a bail increase. The bail had previously been set at $2,000,000 ($2m). The DA was asking the judge to change the bail status to NO BAIL. In the alternative, the DA wanted bail to be increased to $4,000,000 ($4m). The DA’s justification was based on the defendant being bound over at the preliminary hearing and some new evidence, there was a change of circumstances justifying an increase in bail.

Keeping You Out of Custody

The law requires that the prosecution justifies their request to raise the bail. Thus, in order to effectively defeat the District Attorney’s motion, it required our law firm to do a detailed analysis of what exactly was the “new evidence” that the District Attorney claimed required the bail to be increased. We then created a timeline and looked at what and WHEN evidence was known to law enforcement and the DA’s office.

After filing two separate motions and a lengthy court hearing on the  “bail matter”, our team was able to show the faults in the prosecution’s justification, thus inspiring the judge to deny the DA’s request. The judge agreed with our position that the evidence the DA was citing as “new” was known at the time, and the initial bail amount of $2,000,000 was set. justifying the increase to $2,000,000 back in October 2020.

 The DA was seeking to double the bail because our client was exercising his constitutional right to contest the charges. There were no new facts or circumstances indicating either an increased danger or flight risk to justify the monumental increase. With a bail amount of $2,000,000, it was clear that this amount was deemed sufficient to ensure the protection of the public and the defendant’s appearance at all future hearings.

What’s The Point of Bail and Why Does It Matter?

Our opposition motion argued that the bail previously set was sufficient. We filed a separate motion that dealt with the important Humphrey case. If the judge was inclined to change the defendant’s bail status at all, we were demanding a separate hearing for a determination to be made as to what bail was constitutionally appropriate. Note that with the Humphrey motion, there needs to be a declaration that details the defendant’s ability to pay a bond or lack thereof, which the judge will then use to assess bail status. 

 As the Humphrey court noted, the purpose of setting bail is to ensure the defendant’s presence at court and to protect the safety of victims, witnesses, and the community; any amount in excess of this goal is unethical since it harms the defendant without providing any additional benefits to the situation. In instances of excessive bail, the relationship between the bail amount and the intent of implementing bail (I.e to incentivize the defendant to show up to court) becomes much vaguer. Money bail is logically connected to ensuring the defendant’s attendance because if the defendant bails out and subsequently fails to appear, the money is forfeited. If, however, the defendant is financially unable to pay bail in the amount set, the connection to ensuring his or her attendance is less clear. In such cases, the bail amount really isn’t a bail amount – it is, practically speaking, a detention order, requiring additional procedural protections.

Our client was extremely grateful for our efforts. Instead of being taken into custody until he was able to post another $2,000,000 in bail, he could leave the courtroom free and able to continue to work and be with his family.

Contact An Experienced Criminal Defense Attorney Today

When the District Attorney wants to raise your bail, you need to hire a highly experienced criminal defense law firm who understands the intricacies of bail. With offices in Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, Victorville, West Covina, Torrance, Los Angeles, and San Diego, there is an experienced Wallin & Klarich criminal defense lawyer available near you who can aggressively defend you from criminal charges and do all we can to keep you free of custody.

 Please contact us at (877) 4-NO-JAIL or (714)587-4068 for a free phone consultation. We will be there when you call.