As many as 500,000 people are sitting in jail awaiting trial in the US. What would you do if you or someone you love were arrested and charged with a crime?
Being arrested is frightening enough. Imagine being jailed in another state, cut off from your family and resources. How would you make bail in an unfamiliar legal system?
You’d need someone back home to post a bail bond. But can you transfer bail bonds across state lines? The short answer is yes!
That’s what transfer bonds do. Here’s what you need to know about this long-distance bail bonds solution.
Traditional Bail Bonds Basics
When someone’s arrested and charged with a crime, they will have to wait a while, sometimes months, before their case goes to trial. They can spend that time in jail or pay the bail and get out of jail until their court date. Show up to court, and you get your bail money back.
Bail amounts vary from court to court and depend on the specific charges you or your family member face. When the amount is more than you can comfortably pay out of your own pocket, you turn to a bail bonds company for help. Bail bonds are like short-term loans, so you don’t have to pay the full amount of the bail yourself.
Ordinarily, you pay the bondsman a portion of the total bail amount, and that’s 15% in North Carolina. So, if bail is set at $10,000, you’d pay $1,500 to the bondsman. The bail bonds agent will keep the amount you pay them as their service fee.
The bondsman will post a bond for the full amount of the bail, securing your release (or your loved one’s release) from jail. That bond guarantees to the court that the defendant will show up for their scheduled court appearance.
Because the bail bonds agent takes a risk, they usually require some type of collateral to guarantee the bail amount. That might be a car, house, or other valuable. If the defendant fails to show up for court, the bond agent loses the cash they posted, so you forfeit the collateral you promised to cover their loss.
What Are Transfer Bonds?
When someone is arrested far from home, it’s not always possible for their family to get to them quickly. Fortunately, transfer bonds mean your loved one doesn’t have to wait for you to arrive to get out of jail.
Transfer bonds are bail bonds arranged in your home state to get someone arrested in another state out of jail. The process is similar to local bail bonds but not entirely the same.
Each state issues licenses for bail bond agents who work in that state. So, your local bail bonds provider probably can’t post the bond directly if the defendant is jailed in another state.
Instead, the bond transfer process requires you to hire a local bail bonds agent who will work on your behalf with bail bonds professionals in the arresting state. With transfer bonds, you can sign all the necessary paperwork and pay the fees locally. So, there’s no need to travel to the presiding jurisdiction.
Your bond agent takes care of getting everything to the out-of-state bondsman. And it’s the out-of-state agent who actually posts the bail bond with the court. The out-of-state bondsman is the one guaranteeing you or your loved one will show up for the next scheduled court appearance.
How to Arrange Transfer Bonds
When arranging transfer bonds to get someone out of jail, most of the work involves communication between your local bondsman and the out-of-state bail bonds company. But you will need to spend a little time up-front gathering some essential information.
Before you approach your local bail bonds service, you need to know the following:
- Where your loved one is jailed (name of facility, city, state)
- Their inmate or detainee number
- The charge(s) they face
- The amount of the bail set
- Their next scheduled court date
You will need to wait until the booking process is completed and bail has been set before you can begin the bond transfer process.
Local Bail vs. Bond Transfer
The laws governing bail and bail bonds vary from state to state. So do the fees bail bond agents may charge.
Transfer bonds often include an additional fee called a Transfer Bond Execution Fee. State and federal regulations set this fee, and it generally runs $50-100.
Plus, transfer bonds require more labor hours to complete. All of this adds to the bond transfer costs. You should expect to pay more for these trans-state bonds than for local bail bonds.
The bond transfer process will vary somewhat from state to state as well. In some states, bond processing takes longer than in others. Ordinarily, someone in a local jail can get out fairly quickly after making bail, usually within a few hours.
Arranging for transfer bonds is more complex, so it’s usually a longer process. Because of this, the amount of time it takes to get out of jail or have a loved one released is also a bit longer.
Working with a bail bonds provider who uses electronic processing (like email signatures) can speed up the process considerably. But because the bond must be posted in another state, you should expect transfer bonds to take longer than local bail bonds.
Affordable Bail Bonds Service
No one should sit in jail awaiting trial any longer than absolutely necessary. The state of the arrest shouldn’t delay your release.
You need a bail bonds agent who can quickly and efficiently complete transfer bonds. Charlotte Bail Bonds has more than 40 years of experience, and we know the fastest way to get you out of jail.
Because money shouldn’t keep you behind bars, we offer flexible payment plans. We also accept most forms of payment (even credit cards and PayPal).
Contact us when you need us, 24/7. We offer trusted, considerate service to Mecklenburg County and beyond.
