Hellooooo all you university students out there, welcome back to whatever this is. Today I’d like to talk to you about something that’s really important but we never talk about, something we overlook and turn a blind eye to because we think it’s boring and couldn’t possibly interest us. But let me tell you ladies and gentlemen and non-binary folks, it’s worth knowing about and it’s worth knowing a lot about! Now, don’t get me wrong, in practice it may not be particularly fascinating, but it’s something you really should know about. Like right now.

Bail bonds are these weird little contracts that your average defendant has to fill out whenever they get accused of a crime and arrested by a deputy. You probably know that the Police don’t want you to go around committing crimes all the time so when you do get arrested for a crime, the Police somehow legally require you to pay them money before you are allowed to get released. That’s called the bail amount. And sometimes the bail amount is just way, way too much money to afford paying and sometimes the defendant isn’t so tied to the community that they feel it’s safe to let them out on bail. So in that case, they need a bail bond form.

That was kind of a circuitous explanation, let me try again. Picture this: Onto your scene of dishonest activity bursts your local sheriff, guns a blazing, entering “suspect” into their small-town database. You’re apprehended by this so-called “police office” and taken immediately to jail in handcuffs. The police officers inform you that your bail is set at ten thousand dollars, and you are horrified. Where will you ever find that much money? Probably underneath all those sketchy floorboards you are if you were ever actually honest about your wealth. You mournfully realize that you are going to be stuck here for a long time.

Well, not necessarily! You can fill out a bail bond form. What is this, you ask? It’s a handy form that allows a friendly bail bonds agent to put up the money for you, in return for certain payments and agreements that allow the bail bondsman to cover their own ass if you turn out to be a completely untrustworthy defendant and you run away to New Mexico without telling anyone. In that case, the bail bondsman can get the police to send the full amount of the bail to the bondsman, or the bondsman can be held liable for the full amount of the bail, at least! So that’s why the bondsman makes the little defendant agree to surrender to the court and so on. But for you, it’s a good deal because at least you can get out now and hopefully pay off the bail bondsman later.

I’m getting ahead of myself here. Your average bail bond form has several sections that require information on the defendant, including their full name, residential address, contact number, mail address, date of birth, state issued ID number, and social security number. Additionally, the defendant has to fill out the following two sections: Conditions of Bail Bond (which include “STATUS” at the bail hearing as usually an entry of “PUT AT STATE’S behest,” “PUT AT DEFENDANT’S request,” or “RELEASED UNSECURED”) and Obligations of Bail Bond (which includes to make all court appearances in a specified order in a criminal case, to be of good conduct, to appear at all hearings related to the bail bond, and to pay the bail bond premium which is usually a percentage of the bail amount times the number of people you already know are going to jail in the same situation as you).

The defendant also needs to sign a few places, but you can read about that in the article. That’s about it! It’s a pretty basic little government form. I hope that you learned something about it.

For more information on bail bonds and their legal implications, you can visit Wikipedia.