What Is an Indemnitor?
A bail bond indemnitor or “co-signer” is the person responsible for signing a bond for bail on behalf of the defendant. To be an indemnitor, they must first be eligible and willing to take responsibility for the defendant—which is important, since bail bond indemnitor responsibilities include being held liable by the courts if the defendants decides to miss their court date. A bail bond indemnitor can be a friend or family member of the person in custody, or it can be a bail bond agent.
Responsibilities of a Bail Bond Indemnitor
Get the Defendant to Count
By co-signing a bail bond for someone, you’ll be taking full responsibility for the defendant—and that includes making sure they make all their court dates. Mistakes do happen, and sometimes people simply forget about a court date or are too sick to show up. In these instances, things can usually be easily resolved with a simple phone call and request to reschedule, so you don’t have much to worry about if something unexpected comes up preventing the defendant from making it to court. If something does happen, just make sure to follow your local county protocol.
However, if you have reason to believe that the person requesting you bail them out of jail will intentionally skip their court date or even leave the county or state, it’s a good idea to turn them down—while you won’t be criminally liable for their charges, you may be help civilly liable.
Paying the Initial Bail Fees
When using a bail bond agency, the indemnitor will need to pay an initial fee in start the bail process. It’s usually a percentage of the full bail amount. Once the indemnitor has agreed to the fee, the bail process can proceed. However, it’s important to note that while these initial fees may not be as much as you’d thought, there is always the possibility that you’ll incur more fees as the case progresses.
Full Bail Cost if Necessary
If the defendant can’t be located after they’ve skipped their court date, then the indemnitor will be responsible for paying the full bail amount to the bail agency, releasing them from any financial obligations. If collateral was used to help pay for the initial fee, it’ll be kept and put towards the full bail amount, never to be returned to the owner. Aside from the full bail costs, indemnitors may also be subject to paying fees that the courts incurred while trying to locate the defendant—in many cases, a fugitive recovery business will be hired to help do this, which the indemnitor will be expected to pay for.
Are you in need of quick bail bond? PCS Bail Bonds offers affordable and fast bail bond services, and accepts a variety of different payments, as well as collateral. We work to make our services as fast and cost-effective for everyone—in fact, our fees are 10% lower than the competition. For more information on our fast and affordable bail bond options, contact us today.
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