If my loved one is in jail why should I speak to a criminal defense lawyer in Riverside before deciding whether to bail him out?

You always should speak to an experienced criminal defense lawyer before making a decision as to whether to bail someone out of jail. In most cases the family of the accused will speak to a bail bondsman to attempt to have their loved one bailed out of jail. However, a bail bondsman must charge a fee of 10% of the face value of the bond in order to bail someone out of jail. In addition in most cases the bondsman will require “collateral” such as a deed to a home to secure the bond.

However, if you first speak to an experienced Riverside criminal defense attorney and retain their services then you will only be charged an 8% fee by the bondsman. This is called “attorney referred bail”. If the bail is $100,000 by retaining a Riverside criminal defense attorney you will save $2,000 in bail bond fees. In addition, in reality there are certain bail bonds companies that you do not want to deal with.

However, in other cases it is not a good idea to bail a loved one out. These are cases where the bail is set at a low level and your criminal defense attorney knows from experience than when the accused makes his first court appearance the court will likely raise the bail. In this circumstance you would be wasting bail bond fees because the accused would only be out of custody for a short period of time and then would be taken back into custody when the bail is raised at his first court date.

As you can see the decision to post bail should never be made until you meet with an experienced Riverside criminal defense attorney.