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24-Hour Bail Bonds: Supporting Your Loved Ones in Times of Need

A person’s hands in handcuffs in El Paso.

When a loved one finds themselves under arrest, it can be a distressing, disheartening, and urgent situation. It’s not uncommon for friends or family to feel helpless or unsure of how to support their loved ones during times of need. That’s where 24-hour bail bond agencies can help.

Freedom Bail Bonds is here to support individuals and their families by providing around-the-clock bail bond assistance in El Paso. Contact us online or call (915) 877-9293 to learn more.

Immediate Assistance During Times of Need

Arrests often don’t adhere to regular business hours, happening at any time of day or night. That’s why it’s crucial for individuals to have support from 24-hour bail bond services to help alleviate stress and return loved ones to their familiar and safe environments. These services are just one phone call away and available to anyone around the clock all year long. 

Peace of Mind

Facing an arrest can be a traumatic experience for both the defendant and their family. Having access to 24-hour bail bond services in El Paso can provide families and friends with much-needed peace of mind while dealing with the nature of the arrest. Knowing that there is a reliable and readily available option for getting their loved one out of jail can reduce the emotional toll of the situation.

Streamlined Legal Processes

Whether an individual has faced legal troubles in the past or for the first time, navigating the legal system can be complex and overwhelming. Fortunately, bail bond agencies are experienced professionals well-versed in the bail process. With their expertise, they can comprehensively guide individuals through the necessary steps to ensure the individual’s release process is as smooth as possible.

Employment and Daily Life Security

Arrests can disrupt an individual’s life in many ways, including jeopardizing their employment and daily routines. For many, being released on bail is crucial for maintaining stability in their lives. With 24-hour bail bond services, individuals are able to return to their jobs, families, and additional responsibilities promptly, as well as make appropriate accommodations, if necessary, to help minimize the negative impacts of an arrest.

Affordable 24-Hour Bail Bonds in El Paso

With over 30 years of experience, Freedom Bail Bonds is here to provide support to individuals facing arrest and their families. We accept many payment methods and offer payment plans upon approved applications to get El Paso families back on track. Call (915) 877-9293 for assistance today.

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How Are Bail Bonds Calculated in El Paso, Texas?

A gavel, handcuffs, and cash on a desk in El Paso.

Posting bail is one guaranteed way of a safe release after being arrested. If your loved one has never been arrested before, the bail acts as a surety that you will attend court hearings as required. No matter what bail bond services you use, many factors will determine how you will end up paying. Learn about these factors below. 

If you require bail bond or felony bond services in El Paso, Freedom Bail Bonds can help. Contact us online or call (915) 877-9293 today and see how we can help.

Factors That Influence Bail 

Nature and Severity of the Offense

Minor crimes are typically settled with a smaller bail, as you may already know. More severe offenses call for significantly higher bails. These bail amounts are set by state and federal laws and specific jail regulations. That said, misdemeanors call for lower bails than felonies, and so on. 

The Bail Bond Algorithm 

El Paso courts have used math and algorithms to make informed decisions regarding pretrial releases in recent years. Specific information about the defendant is entered into a program, which then releases a score or recommendation. The algorithm uses the following to assess bail: 

  • Age
  • Criminal history 
  • The risk that the defendant could commit another crime or probability of appearing in court 

Criminal Record or History 

On the risk of committing another crime, criminal records and history also play a significant role. If you do not have a criminal record, you will more than likely get a smaller bail than someone who is a repeat offender with a lengthy record. Defendants with outstanding warrants or are on parole may not even have the opportunity to make bail or will need a felony bond.

Employment Status 

A judge also looks at personal status. Believe it or not, factors such as employment and wealth play a major role. For example, if the judge sees you have a stable job and have dependents, you should have fewer reasons to miss court, and you should be able to make bail. 

Danger to the Public 

A judge has to look at criminal records and history for another major reason: determining whether or not the defendant poses a risk to the public. This is because if there were victims of the committed crime, a judge has to know whether or not the defendant could compromise their safety after making bail. 

Ties or Involvement in the Community 

While this may seem like an odd consideration, involvement in the city or community can say a lot about a person. Usually, those who are involved with their community, organizations, and their families pose little risk due to a good reputation and background. Therefore, a judge will issue a lower bail. 

Police Practices

El Paso police tend to arrest suspects for the most serious criminal charges that the facts of the crime can support. For example, while possession of marijuana could be charged as a misdemeanor in most states, police could charge a felony if the suspect possessed marijuana with the intent to sell. Although these kinds of charges are most often reduced to a misdemeanor after investigation, it may call for a higher bail bond. This is where Freedom Bail Bonds can help.

Bail Schedules 

In many cities, defendants can post bail with the police before they are even brought into a court hearing or an arraignment. This is because many jails have specified amounts for certain crimes. So, if a defendant is brought in for a crime that is posted on the jail’s bail schedule, they will be able to make bail before attending a hearing, if possible, all through a bail bond.

Work with the Fast and Knowledgable Services at Freedom Bail Bonds 

Here at Freedom Bail Bonds, you can trust that our services will help you navigate the legal system in no time. Learn more about how our services can help you with bail and felony bonds. Contact us online or call (915) 877-9293 today.

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Indictment in Texas: Probable Cause, Grand Juries, and Statute of Limitations 

Indictment Title On Legal Documents

While courtroom dramas are always doing a half-decent job in portraying legal proceedings, courtroom procedures, and other law-related processes, they often leave plenty of room for clarification. One area of common confusion deals with the indictment process. While the process is generally similar, an indictment in Texas, for example, is different than in other states—as every state has its unique regulations and code. In Texas, there is a differentiation between a criminal complaint and felony charges brought on by the State.

In this post, we review important concepts relating to facing a criminal indictment by the state of Texas and crucial information you need to know. 

Brush Up on Indictment Proceedings and the Texas Criminal Code 

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, an “indictment is the written statement of a grand jury accusing a person therein named of some act or omission which, by law, is declared to be an offense.” In other words, a written statement from a grand jury that declares a person is charged with a felony is deemed an indictment. A misdemeanor crime in Texas is categorized as a “criminal complaint.” Felony charges, on the other hand, are put forth through an indictment. 

The Difference Between Being Charged and Being Indicted of a Crime

The terms are often used interchangeably, but the difference rests in who actually files the charges. Getting charged with a crime means that the prosecutor filed the charges. When a grand jury files the charges against the defendant, then it is deemed an indictment.

Statute of Limitations in Texas 

The statute of limitations refers to the amount of time the State or a prosecutor has to bring the case against a defendant. Statutes of limitation differ depending on the severity of the crime. 

Examples of various crimes and statutes of limitations include:

 

  • Manslaughter: no statute of limitations
  • Murder: no statute of limitations
  • Sexual assault of a child: no statute of limitations 
  • Theft by a public servant of government property: 10 years 
  • Forgery: 10 years
  • Medicaid Fraud: 10 years 
  • Bigamy: 7 years
  • Robbery: 5 years 
  • Insurance fraud: 5 years 
  • Other felonies: 3 years
  • Misdemeanors: 2 years 

Probable Cause 

Before you can be indicted there has to be probable cause. The prosecutor has to prove that. A person does not need to be arrested to be indicted because the process begins without their presence. The jury, however, has to agree that there is probable cause enough to proceed with the case and bring charges against the individual in question. 

What You Need to Know About a Grand Jury 

Think of a grand jury as an investigative body— independent from the prosecutor or defendant. They serve as a buffer between the people and the government, acting as a barrier to unwarranted or frivolous State prosecution. The main difference is that the grand jury is composed of 12 people similar to a petit jury.  Different states might differ in the size of their grand juries. When a person is indicted, the defendant is generally not present. The prosecutor bringing the case to the grand jury must establish probable cause. 

The concept of the grand jury can be traced back to early English history. Eventually, the grand jury took on a protective role—a barrier between the monarchy and the common folk and providing a safeguard from abuses of power. The idea was embedded into the Constitution of the United States via the 5th amendment. Under this amendment, criminal prosecution of anything more than a year required the indictment of a grand jury. 

Grand jurors are often chosen from the same pool of citizens that make up the trial jurors. A federal grand jury can often sit for longer periods of time, including 18-36 months. 

The Process of Grand Jury Indictments 

The process of beginning grand jury indictment begins without the defendant or subject being present or aware of impending charges. The only people privy to the grand jury proceedings are the jurors, a prosecutor bringing the case, and a court reporter.

During this process: 

  • Witnesses that testify must do so under oath 
  • Evidence must be presented by the prosecutor 
  • The grand jurors themselves perform the necessary tasks of presiding over the hearing and clerking duties 
  • The court reporter is sworn to secrecy 
  • The prosecutor lays out proposed charges and how the alleged crime fits in
  • The grand jury votes on whether enough evidence has been presented on each of the proposed charges to warrant proceeding with the case

All felony cases that go to trial must be indicted by a grand jury. That is unless the defendant waives the indictment.

Facing Legal Trouble? Learn More About How Bail Bonds Might Apply to You

If you are facing an arrest and need to get out on bail, Freedom Bail Bonds provides trusted support for people facing difficult and uncertain situations. When facing indictment in Texas, knowing about the process can help you learn what’s next. 

Want to learn more about how bail bonds might apply to you or your loved one? Have a loved one in jail or facing criminal charges? Connect with us today and learn more. 

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What Crime Dramas Tell About Bail: When Myth and Reality Clash

Neon Bail Bonds Service sign on a brick wall

Films depict anything from war to space exploration, to intergalactic conflicts involving intelligent lifeforms, Jedis, and spaceships, or even deep exploration of dreams and the human mind, time travel, and drama in the courtroom and prison system. How many great films have dealt with prison breaks and escapes from the law?! In reality, however, the day-to-day of the courtroom and the justice system might not be as enthralling or dramatic as depicted on the big screen. This goes for instances where films deal with setting bail. 

For many years, Freedom Bail Bonds has helped people who find themselves in a tight spot regain their freedom until they see their day in court. Our goal is simple: to facilitate someone’s release until their legal situation can be determined. Whether the verdict is guilty or not guilty is far beyond our jurisdiction. And yet, the setting of bail is often dramatized in interesting ways and has skewed people’s perception of bail amounts and how bail is set. It’s important to note that bail amounts are set by the courts, usually in predetermined amounts based on the crime. 

Let’s take a look at some famous television shows and movies that frequently deal with the bail business. 

Law and Order

With their famous opening theme, unmistakable to anyone that has ever flipped through the channel in the middle of the night, Law and Order frequently deals with bail and bail setting. For the most part, they do an okay job at not over sensationalizing it, as their goal in the show is to represent the work of law enforcement and the judicial system somewhat accurately. In a 1999 episode titled “Hunters,” two meddling bounty hunters working for a local bail bondsman get in the way of a murder investigation. Their carelessness and curiosity end up causing the deaths of two more victims. 

Bounty hunters never interfere with investigations or take part in any law enforcement other than enforcing the terms of the bail. Although it’s quite easy to vilify and depict the bounty hunter as a blood-thirsty detective, their job is pretty straightforward. 

A Time To Kill

Ah, nothing like a 90s-directed John Grisham story to get those criminal juices flowing. Grisham is very good at selling what might seem like overly-dramatic stories that tug at the emotional heartstrings. In the film, a young African American girl gets brutally attacked and raped by two white supremacists. It’s hard to forget the scene where Samuel L. Jackson rage-filled and blood boiling bursts into the court hallway where the two accused men are being led out from their bail hearing and shoot them to death with an M16 rifle. In the film, the judge also denies bail to Carl Lee Hailey, the father of the little girl.

How to Get Away With Murder

In this crime drama series, a criminal defense attorney herself is accused of murder. During the dramatic bail hearing, the defense attorney attempts to convince the judge that there was considerable evidence that other suspects were the real murders. This doesn’t normally happen in a bail hearing and also the judge denies bail here as well. 

Common Myths of Bail and Bail Hearings 

One myth is that bail is frequently denied to people. In real life, a judge can deny bail because of a few circumstances. If the judge has considerable evidence and reason to believe that the accused is a flight risk or is a threat to the public. Other circumstances in which bail might be denied include high profile major crimes or repeat offenses. 

Portraying the bail hearing as a dramatic and tense-filled moment is a favorite in tv shows and crime dramas. The truth is that most bail hearings are pretty straightforward and without much fanfare. The judge doesn’t have complete discretion over the bail amount. The amount of bail is often predetermined by law and corresponds to the kind of crime that the person is accused of committing.

The bail might be based on several other factors including the crime itself, criminal history, the age of the defendant. Most bail amounts in films and movies are often depicted in the millions. Unless it is a mega high profile case or murder case, the amount will likely be in the thousands or hundreds of thousands. To give just an example, the bail amount for something like assault in states like New Mexico and Texas can range from $2,000 to $5,000 and felony bail for theft can range from $5,000 to $20,000. 

Find a Trusted Bail Bondsman For Your Case

Here at Freedom Bail Bonds, we assist people who are struggling to meet bail amounts. If you or a family member has been arrested and is facing charges, this is a stressful time. Don’t let the movies fool you into what can be done. We can help you get your loved one out until their day in court. Call us today. 

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Overview of the Bail System: How it Works and How It Can Help You

Lawyer going over contract to discuss the conditions of bail in defense of the arrested client.

The industry has seen its fair share of criticism lately. In fact, the bail system is seeing reform all over the country. We’ve written about some of these reforms in past blogs. At the same time, many people misunderstand the bail system and why it’s there and who it actually serves to protect. The fact is that many times people find themselves in trouble with the law and turn around to find their lives suddenly coming to a halt. The bail system is there to protect people from finding their lives devastated while waiting for their charges or cases to be resolved. It also acts as a kind of insurance for people to go to court. 

Let’s Cover Some Basic Ground

When a person gets arrested and/or charged for a crime or possible crime, they might be taken to jail. Before they can be committed or acquitted, however, they must go through the court system and their case must be heard in a court of law. This takes time. So in order to ensure that everybody gets the right guaranteed by the sixth amendment, they are guaranteed trial. So a person can either stay in jail until their trial comes up, or they can be released on the condition that they will return to court for the assigned court date. Remaining in jail for a couple of months is not only a nuisance to most people, but it is also a completely life-altering event. That is because it means a person will likely lose their job, might be unable to pay bills, take care of family, look out for their kids, loved ones, pets, etc. For the average person, this is simply unthinkable to simply be ripped out of your everyday life and expect things not to fall apart. The issue at hand is that if the justice system deems the person innocent, they have already lost months of their lives, their livelihood, and many times their reputation and loved ones. As a bail bondsman, we help people that cannot afford bail on their own. 

Helping The Defendant and the Court System

Our job is somewhere in the middle. If people were to sum up our jobs, we are a kind of insurance. We are a loan. And we make sure that people show up to court. When there is a bail that is of high amounts, most people cannot afford that. So we front the money for the agreement that they will show up to court when need be. If they do not, we help find the defendant and ensure that they show up to court. 

The court itself makes its assessments about who is a flight risk or not. That is really up to the judge. We are not connected to the courts in any way, per se, but we are a third party that helps defendants keep their lives together as they await their court date and also puts pressure on them to return to court when they need to show up. 

The Judge’s Considerations for Bail

The bail bondsman does not set the bail amount. It is the judge that sets this amount and decides what the defendant needs to pay depending on certain factors. These include:

  • Whether the defendant is a flight risk
  • Whether they are a possible danger to the public. 
  • The judge will consider the evidence and charges. 

Interesting Facts about Bail That You May Not Know

Even though bail bondsmen are often portrayed as the bad guy, we are really only a kind of middleman that takes responsibility for a defendant to show up to their court hearings. In this sense, we will help the justice system move along. Here are a couple of interesting facts to note about what we do here:

  • The state regulates Bond fees. The fees that come with the bonds are regulated and imposed by the state. 
  • A bail bond is a type of loan. We provide a type of loan to people that cannot afford the bail amount that the judge requires. Otherwise, defendants may have to remain in prison until their court hearing. 
  • Showing up is not always the end. Some defendants may have more special restrictions set for their bail. These may include signing up for a drug rehab program, remaining within state lines, etc. This all in addition to showing up for court. 
  • Bail bonds often accept collateral. And that collateral can come in different shapes and sizes. For people that can’t afford to take out a bail bond, there are options available in terms of collateral. This might include a vehicle, jewelry, etc. This helps secure your loan and allows you to pay your bail in order to get out of jail.

Go to a Trusted Bail Bondsman in El Paso

Freedom Bail Bonds has been providing people with bail for many years now. If you’re loved one has been arrested and is facing a bail amount, give us a call today and see how we can help you. Don’t let your life come apart before you see your day in court.