The Alternatives To Court Bail Bonds: What Your Relative's Options Are

At arraignment someone faces charges for a crime. If a judge so chooses, bail is set based on the severity of the crime and the charges presented. If your family member has been given a bail amount, and there is no way you can raise it, what are the options if you do not choose court bail bonds? Really, your options are limited.

Sit in Jail until the Hearing

Your family member can sit in jail until the hearing. Many people would prefer to avoid this option, since being locked up with more hardcore criminals is unsafe and rather terrifying. Hopefully, the time between arraignment and the actual hearing is short. With any luck, the judge may decide "time served" and remove the number of days spent in jail from any sentence passed down to your family member.

Appeal the Bail Amount

It is rather unusual, but if you have absolutely nothing of worth to post for a bail bond, you may be able to appeal the bail amount. You do have to show the financial distress and burden of your financial responsibilities to the judge and your family member's lawyer. If a bail bond would be not feasible at all, the judge may reconsider the amount or dismiss it in lieu of shortened time served in jail. The opposite could also happen; the judge could decide that in lieu of the set bail amount, your family member would have to serve additional days in jail.

Be Released with an Ankle Bracelet

A final option is that you can ask the lawyer and the judge to release your family member with an ankle bracelet and a strict set of rules. House arrest is a fairly common approach if your family member's crimes are not extreme and the county's jail is already crowded with convicted criminals. Of course, by the time you get a judge to approve this action, the actual hearing for your family member may be just a few short days or a couple of weeks away. That still leaves your family member in jail all of that time.

Reconsider Your Options

Clearly, none of the above alternatives to bail bonds are better than getting out of jail to await a hearing and going about daily life as before. Talk to your family member's lawyer to see if you can try a mixed approach, such as appealing the bail amount to a lesser amount, an ankle bracelet, and borrowing money from a bank. Also talk to a couple of bail bondspeople; they may be able to offer some solutions about which you did not know.

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