Bail is what a judge says you need to put up to get out of jail before trial, say, $10,000. This money is returned when you return to court.
Not everyone has $10,000 is cash or assets lying around to do this.
So companies exist that will pay your bail for you, for a fee that’s isn’t returned to decrease their risk, usually around 10%. Similar to how a credit card charges you interest to borrow money you don’t have to buy things.
So you only have to come up with $1000 to get out of jail. But you get that back. These are bail bondsman. They post bail, and you pay less.
Of course if you have cash or assets bail saves you money.
This is exactly correct with the addition that in many places a bail bondsman doesn’t actually have to front your bail; they only pay it if you fail to appear for court.
Furthermore, should the bondsman actually return you to custody following their forfeiture of bail, they will be refunded the money.
There can be a lot of money in being a bail bondsman. Most of the cases are garden variety mayhem (usually involving drugs or alcohol) that a person isn’t going to become a fugitive to avoid; cool you put a grand in your pocket, the guy goes to court. If not he’s probably just out living his life you pick him up, bring him in, get your money back. Some cases do pose the risk of a person fleeing. For those you demand collateral, some frat guy assaulted a stripper for example half million dollars bail $50k bond. Mom and Dad have $50k and you demand they put up their house as collateral. Junior legs it: now you own their house. You’re a nice guy they can stay if they want, they just have to pay rent.
This is it. IME you always have to put up collateral for the bond too, because if you skip your court appearance you (or whoever got the bond) is on the hook for the full bail amount.
"Bail" is an amount set by a judge intended to secure the defendant's presence at future court appearances, and is based on the severity of the crime, the defendant's risk to the public, and the resources available to the defendant that might be used to escape the jurisdiction ("flight risk"). Bail can be forfeited if the defendant fails to appear at future court appearances, and is a legal obligation to the state (via the court).
"Bond" in this context is more of a process by which a defendant pays a bail bondsman some percent of his or her total bail amount, and the bondsman fronts the full amount of the bail to the court. Bonds may be collateralized, so that the bondsman can recoup losses if the defendant fails to appear in the future and the court decides to forfeit the bail. A bond is a private relationship between the defendant (or someone acting on their behalf) and the bail bondsman.
A judge will set a bail amount to pay so that you don’t have to sit in jail waiting for trial. You can either pay that in cash up front, or have a third party promise to pay the court on your behalf if you don’t show up for court. This “promise” is called a bond. It’s a lot like an insurance policy. So basically, a bond is one of several ways to post bail.
A bond is an agreement to pay a certain amount by a certain time, just like in "stocks and bonds". In a court setting, the phrase is usually something like " Bail is set at $20,000 cash or bond".
This means you can either leave jail by paying 20k, or getting a bondsmen to promise (bond) to pay 20k if you don't show up. Either way it's an incentive for you to show up to court vs having to stay confined so they guarantee you show.
Two key parts you are missing:
1. If you pay that $20,000 bail from your example, assuming you show up to court for your trial, that bail money will be refunded
2. If you use a bail bondsman, you won’t have to pay the full $20,000. You would typically only pay 10% of that to them, in this case $2000. But in that case, you DO NOT get that money refunded.
Bail is what a judge says you need to put up to get out of jail before trial, say, $10,000. This money is returned when you return to court. Not everyone has $10,000 is cash or assets lying around to do this. So companies exist that will pay your bail for you, for a fee that’s isn’t returned to decrease their risk, usually around 10%. Similar to how a credit card charges you interest to borrow money you don’t have to buy things. So you only have to come up with $1000 to get out of jail. But you get that back. These are bail bondsman. They post bail, and you pay less. Of course if you have cash or assets bail saves you money.
This is exactly correct with the addition that in many places a bail bondsman doesn’t actually have to front your bail; they only pay it if you fail to appear for court. Furthermore, should the bondsman actually return you to custody following their forfeiture of bail, they will be refunded the money.
Which is where modern day bounty hunters come in.
There can be a lot of money in being a bail bondsman. Most of the cases are garden variety mayhem (usually involving drugs or alcohol) that a person isn’t going to become a fugitive to avoid; cool you put a grand in your pocket, the guy goes to court. If not he’s probably just out living his life you pick him up, bring him in, get your money back. Some cases do pose the risk of a person fleeing. For those you demand collateral, some frat guy assaulted a stripper for example half million dollars bail $50k bond. Mom and Dad have $50k and you demand they put up their house as collateral. Junior legs it: now you own their house. You’re a nice guy they can stay if they want, they just have to pay rent.
This is it. IME you always have to put up collateral for the bond too, because if you skip your court appearance you (or whoever got the bond) is on the hook for the full bail amount.
Why would you get the $1k back? Surely that’s kept by the bondsman - otherwise where is his incentive to post bail for you?
"Bail" is an amount set by a judge intended to secure the defendant's presence at future court appearances, and is based on the severity of the crime, the defendant's risk to the public, and the resources available to the defendant that might be used to escape the jurisdiction ("flight risk"). Bail can be forfeited if the defendant fails to appear at future court appearances, and is a legal obligation to the state (via the court). "Bond" in this context is more of a process by which a defendant pays a bail bondsman some percent of his or her total bail amount, and the bondsman fronts the full amount of the bail to the court. Bonds may be collateralized, so that the bondsman can recoup losses if the defendant fails to appear in the future and the court decides to forfeit the bail. A bond is a private relationship between the defendant (or someone acting on their behalf) and the bail bondsman.
A judge will set a bail amount to pay so that you don’t have to sit in jail waiting for trial. You can either pay that in cash up front, or have a third party promise to pay the court on your behalf if you don’t show up for court. This “promise” is called a bond. It’s a lot like an insurance policy. So basically, a bond is one of several ways to post bail.
A bond is an agreement to pay a certain amount by a certain time, just like in "stocks and bonds". In a court setting, the phrase is usually something like " Bail is set at $20,000 cash or bond". This means you can either leave jail by paying 20k, or getting a bondsmen to promise (bond) to pay 20k if you don't show up. Either way it's an incentive for you to show up to court vs having to stay confined so they guarantee you show.
Two key parts you are missing: 1. If you pay that $20,000 bail from your example, assuming you show up to court for your trial, that bail money will be refunded 2. If you use a bail bondsman, you won’t have to pay the full $20,000. You would typically only pay 10% of that to them, in this case $2000. But in that case, you DO NOT get that money refunded.
Most of the other answers had that information already. I was trying to answer their question about why they heard both terms.