Get a Lower Bond: How Bond Works

Bond has two purposes: (1) ensures a defendant’s return to court and (2) ensures the person will not re-offend while awaiting trial. A lower bond shows a low risk of both of these factors. To get a lower bond, especially at a bond hearing, you will need a lawyer to present evidence to the judge which will allow him/her to assess a defendant as a low risk.

Mr. Solomon has worked many, many bond issues at both the trial and appeal level.

How much is my bond? Why is my bond so high?

A judge weighs many things when determining bond, such as the nature of the offense charges, the person’s criminal history, ties to the community, etc. A higher bond shows a higher risk of failing to appear at future court dates or reoffending (danger to the community). A lower bond shows a lower risk.

How do I get a lower bond?

If a judge gives a person a lower bond, he must have a good reason. To get your bond lowered, you need to convince the judge that you are likely to show up at all your court appearances, that not likely to flee, and that you are not a risk of re-offending while on bond. If your new offense happened while on probation or parole, a judge will probably not be receptive to hear arguments that you are not likely to re-offend, because the case before him/her was while you were under court orders not to commit new offenses already. Talk to a lawyer to see how to find good things in your life which will allow a judge to give a lower bond, to release you with confidence that he will not be in the news for allowing a dangerous person to run free among law-abiding people.

To get a lower bond, get a lawyer! You can have a bond hearing to ask the court for a lower bond.

What is a PR bond?

A personal recognizance  bond (PR Bond) is a lower bond. This is where the defendant signs his name promising to appear in court.

What is an unsecured bond?

An unsecured bond is a lower bond. This is where a judge assess a bond, but does not require the defendant to pay it to be released. However, if the defendant fails to appear to future court dates or commits new offenses, his next bond will not be a lower bond, it will be a higher bond or no bond.

How does bond work? How do bondsmen work?

After the judge sets a bond, someone has to pay the bond to the court before the defendant can be released. In Colorado, a person can contract with a bondsmen who pays the bond for a fee. The bondsman will typically expect to be paid approximately 10% of the bond, and will keep this as his fee. He will also require a co-signor who guarantees the rest of the bond if the defendant fails to appear to court and the court orders that the bond posted is forfeited. The bondsman’s business is ensuring that he is not the party who loses if the defendant flees. As such, if a defendant flees, the bondsman has two options: (1) send a bounty hunter to find the fleeing defendant and return them to the custody of the court to avoid a bond  forfeiture, or (2) collect the forfeited bond from the co-signor by attaching their collateral (car, house, watch, etc.).

What is a surety?

A surety is where one person pays a bond for the defendant. Why would a judge disallow surety? If the judge deems the person as a high risk to fail to return to court, or a danger to the community, the judge might also believe that the defendant would not care if the surety’s money is forfeited. The judge might believe that the defendant values his/her freedom over the surety’s money.

What About When the Judge Says “No bond”

If the judge says “no bond” then no amount of money or assurances makes the judge feel one or both of those bond objectives is possible, or that the defendant is too risky for either or both to be given a bond.  In short, the defendant is stuck until the judge allows bond. An attorney can help with this through negotiating with the government and reaching an agreement.

What about parole holds?

When a person is on parole and probable cause exists for a revocation, the parole officer (PO) can either arrest the person or issue them a summons to appear at a revocation hearing. Most of the times, the PO does not issue summons, but, rather, arrests them and holds them for a parole revocation hearing.

So, while the parole officer/parole board has the discretion to release a person accused of a parole violation on a summons (like a PR bond), they usually do not do this.

Remember that bond has two purposes: (1) make sure the person comes back to court and (2) does not reoffend while waiting to resolve the case.

If the defendant is facing a new charge, then a conviction for a new offense is almost always grounds to revoke a parole. If that’s the case, the defendant is alleged to have committed a new offense while on supervised release. Generally, this is not an easy case to try to get someone released when evidence exists of their reoffending while on supervised release: parole.

To have any hope of a defendant’s release in this situation, get a lawyer and talk to them about the specifics of the situation.

If you have been charged with a federal offense, you need a criminal defense attorney who understands the federal sentencing guidelines. These guidelines will determine how the sentencing judge will determine punishment. To the unacquainted, these guidelines can seem challenging, but because they have been around since the mid 1980′s, much has been published to explain their apparent mystery, and most judges have long since accepted the transparency and general uniformity that these guidelines provide.

The guidelines focal point, showing the sentencing ranges is the Sentencing Table. This Sentencing Table works on two axis: offense level on the vertical side, and criminal history on the horizontal.

View the 2012 Federal Sentencing Guideline Table on the the U.S. Sentencing Commission web site.

Offense level: Each federal offense’s statute is mapped to a guideline’s base offense level. Other specific facts agreed that occurred in the offense being sentenced will dictate changes, either up or down in that base offense level. For example, if the offense is robbery, bodily injury will increase the offense level, as will theft of a large amount of money, called “amount of loss” by the guidelines. If more than one person is involved in the offense charged, this offense level will also be affected by the defendant’s role in the crime: the offense level will decrease if a “mitigating role” and increase if the defendant is in an “aggravating role,” such as a ringleader. Also, the role of the victim affects the offense level: being hate crime motivated, victim restrained, to a victim of terrorism. Specific guideline application notes exist for each offense, as well.

Criminal History:The defendant’s criminal history plays a major role in sentence determination. For example, a first time offender for an offense getting a sentencing range of 0-6 months, and one with an extensive criminal history getting a range of 18-24 months. This difference in criminal history makes a difference in four times the maximum sentence.

This history score is determined by prior convictions and sentences which go back as many as 15 years for most offenses which are not excluded by law, and can even encompass juvenile convictions under some circumstances, especially if convicted in adult court. Each qualifying conviction will earn the defendant at least one point, and these one point convictions are capped at a maximum of four points. A conviction where the defendant received a sentence of over 60 days incarceration will earn two points. Finally, a felony conviction with a sentence imposed of over 13 months, can earn three points. These conviction points are totaled and converted to one of the six criminal history categories.

While a defendant cannot do anything to change his/her criminal history, a competent defense attorney can scrutinize and challenge these convictions to ensure they accurately reflect the facts of the convictions that the federal probation officer found during his pre-sentence investigation. The prosecutor must be able to prove these facts in criminal history. A good criminal defense attorney knows how to potentially lower a federal sentence by working all aspects of a case, and being able to hold a federal prosecutor to his burden of proving what he/she must be able to prove.