California law prohibits bail bonds companies from making attorney referrals.  The Top 50 Criminal Defense Attorneys Online list was thus created by allowing people to nominate attorneys who they feel are the most influential and have the strongest social media presence.

All nominees underwent a stringent evaluation process and the winners were selected based on multiple factors, including their use of social media marketing and AVVO rating.   AVVO ratings are calculated based on number of years in practice, professional achievements, industry recognition, and disciplinary history.  Company representatives say their ratings are easy to understand, lack favoritism and are completely unbiased.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds is family-owned and operated and has more than 40-years of experience in helping people get friends and loved ones out of California jails.  They have offices located throughout the state and have long-standing A+ accreditation with the Better Business Bureau.

It’s no great secret that the economic waters continue to be a little rough.   Right now many people are stretching their paychecks just to make ends meet.  This is something that’s hitting people from all across the board, from all walks of life, and from all income brackets and backgrounds.  Having money stashed aside in a “just in case I need to bail someone out of jail-fund” is likely not something you have.

In this edition of Bail Bonds: Fact or Fiction, we address questions regarding California bail bonds payments and financing a bail bond.

Fact or Fiction: You Have To Pay For A Bail Bond Prior To Release From Jail

Fiction:  With many bondsmen, yes, you do need to pay the full bond amount (10% of the total bail) prior to the defendant being release from jail. However, there are California bail bonds companies that offer payment plans.  You should keep in mind, though, that not every bail bondsman will allow you to spread out payment on a bond and if they do; the person wishing to purchase it will still need to meet eligibility requirements.

Different companies will offer different plans: some will require a minimum down; some will require you to pay within a given time frame; some may be very flexible and able to meet individual situations. Ask your bondsman about payment options, bail bonds payment plans, and find out if they will be able to work within your financial parameters.

Fact or Fiction:  You can negotiate with a bail bondsman in the same way you can haggle with a car dealer.

Fiction. Sorry folks, that misconception is just that – a misconception.  Bail bond premiums are set by on a state-by-state basis. In California, that agency is the Department of Insurance.  In the state of California, bail bonds companies charge 10% of a bond’s total premium to provide the service of getting someone out of jail.

Although discounts are granted on occasion based on the parameters of the bond, the greater portion of bonds are not eligible to receive a discount on the purchase of a bail bond.

You will come across a bail bonds company that will be touting 5% bail bonds.  You’d probably be thinking how great a deal they are giving you.  In this instance, you should be cautious of a “bail bonds bait and switch”.  Ten percent is an industry standard and by offering such a low rate they ’are likely attempting to lure you into the office under false pretense.  In fact, the unscrupulous bondsman is requesting 5% down in cash with the remainder being worked out via payment plan. At this point it’s late, you’re tired, and when they produce the contract, you sign it. This practice isn’t illegal, per se, but it is unethical.  There are bondsman who offer payment plans. If that’s what you need, look for it from an expert bondsman.

If you are in fact being offered a 5% bail bond, be aware that price undercutting in the state of California is illegal.

Well, our jobs may not be as flashy as Stephanie’s, but Janet Evanovich sure makes it seem exciting. Evanovich, author of 16 novels including the signature series of “Stephanie Plum,” the bounty hunter, is hitting the big screen. Evanovich has a large following of fans and can write in a masterful way, always keeping readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more. She has reached the best sellers list numerous times, so much in fact, that there is a scheduled release date of June 3, 2011 for her One For The Money.

According to Collateral Magazine, Evanovich began writing about a bounty hunter character after being inspired by the film “Midnight Run,” starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. Evanovich stated that she saw the film in 1993 and got to thinking, “What if I wrote a book about an unemployed lingerie buyer who blackmails her cousin into giving her a job going after FTAs (failure to appear)?”

As quickly as Evanovich had this thought, she was on to writing instantly, creating her novel series about Stephanie Plum the bounty hunter. Now it has been over 18 years in the making and Evanovich states she doesn’t seek the help or advice of law enforcement, but occasionally may ask for an opinion or two.

The film, stated to release sometime in 2011, is called, “One for the Money,” starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum and John Leguizamo as Jimmy Alpha.

Although Evanovich has no part in the making of the film, she is hopeful, stating, “I’m happy the movie is finally getting made. It’ll be interesting to see how different (or similar) the movie’s take on the characters is. I have nothing to do with the movie, but was encouraged that Stephanie is being played by Katherine Heigl, who is a fan of the books.”

People often ask about the type of person that needs to call a bail bond company. I assure them it could be anyone: students, lawyers, white-collar, blue-collar, celebrities, even mayors get arrested. As a bondsman, we hear the sad stories of people who are in situations they never could have imaged almost every day.

Such is the case with San Gabriel Mayor Albert Huang who this week resigned from office under allegations of battery, assualt and robbery. A mayor? What happened? We don’t know, exactly.

To onlookers, Huang seemed to almost be in tears. The second Asian American to serve on San Gabriel’s City Council informed the public on Tuesday that he would no longer serve as Mayor due to bad press he and his family was receiving since his arrest on Friday.

Huang said, “When I saw someone had posted a picture of my daughter on the Internet, it is when a line has been crossed,” he added in Chinese, “I don’t want my family to be hurt anymore. I will sacrifice anything to protect them.”

Betty Mui, the wife of Huang’s deceased mentor, Chi Mui, spoke on his behalf. “I know Albert,” Mui said, “Albert did a lot to accomplish what Chi left behind. This is a great loss to the community.”

According to San Gabriel Police, Huang and his female companion at a restaurant fought over her purse. Then he tried to drive off with it, first in her car, then in his. She wouldn’t let him go and perched on the running board of his SUV, hanging on as he sped off.

At this time, Huang has not been formally charged but rather put under suspicion of these activities that occurred inside and out of the New Taste Dumpling House. Huang was released Friday on $100,000 bail and since then the Chinese media has been all over his felony charge involving the altercation between a woman and Huang.

Huang’s attorney, Daniel Deng said, “It’s a private matter that has nothing to do with his capacity as mayor; he wants to prove his innocence in court.”

Being arrested and needing a bail bond can happen to anyone, and when they least expect it. Everyone needs to be reminded that the family, victim, defendant and those who are around them are living out a very sad and stressful time in their lives. Even the Mayor is not immune to being arrested, and most people do not expect to find themselves in a situation like this.

Pretrial Services Vs. Commercial Bail

Is anyone surprised that bail wins?  Would you be surprised to know that twice as many defendants on unsecured release failed to make their court date?  That is correct: commercial bail (releasing a defendant on bond with a friend and bondsman following up) outperforms pretrial services (releasing a defendant on a promise to appear or their “own recognizance” without a responsibile individual to track the defendant) two to one in getting persons to court.

For 22 years, the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics has been indicating that bail wins, but recently the pretrial services advocates have been trying to make a case to change or eliminate the bail system as we know it. Bail bonds work because they assign responsibility and financial liability to parties who can control the outcome – getting the defendant back to court while allowing them to return to work and freeing up public funds (via jails and staff). This, of course, at no cost to the public.

Now we have another source to prove our point. This comes from this pretrial service’s own records. This particular agency in Houston, Texas is one of the largest and most sophisticated in the country. Bail works twice as well in preventing failures to appear.

Source: Pretrial Services Vs Commercial Bail

In the world of bail bonds, unemployment as well as lost credit and housing devaluation has made it increasingly difficult for people to bail out their family members, loved ones and friends. It used to be a lot easier to put up the 10% or $2,000 for a $20,000 bail bond on a credit card when you had a larger limit to draw from.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department stated ”There definitely have been more cite releases in the last couple of years… We are under a court order to stay just below maximum capacity to help alleviate the overcrowding situation.” For those who are “cited out” or “cite released,” the court has entrusted the defendant with the duty of showing up on their own for court dates, in lieu of being held in jail or being bailed out. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t nesessarily mean there are less of those out there on the streets committing crimes. There’s no guarantee the offenders will show up for court as promised. Then we’re back to where we started all over again: overcrowded jails,  more cite outs and more people being re-arrested.

By simply having a bail bondsman involved in the process, it can help to put an end to this vicious cycle. Bail companies provide the public a much needed service. Definitely something for the penal system to think about, before approving more cite out releases.

Television’s “The O.C.” and “Real Housewives” may have put Orange County California on the media map, but Orange County Police Departments have an interesting history that dates back to the Wild West.  The county can trace its beginnings back to 1887, when silver was discovered in the Santa Ana Mountains, attracting settlers. As people came to California in droves, seeking their fortunes or just to settle and build a new life, the California Legislator was overwhelmed by the influx of these new arrivals. 

And so, they decided to divide Los Angeles County into two back in 1899, creating Orange County as a separate political entity. The county is supposedly named after –what else — oranges, but since they already had a town named Orange here, the county may have been named for this city.  Like many other places in the west, law enforcement was conducted by sheriffs and marshals until the needs of these settlements grew too big for just a few good men to handle.  And so, OC law enforcement also expanded and grew into more sophisticated, full fledged Police Departments.

Orange County also happens to be the smallest county in Southern California. But despite its size, it has many police departments and they, in turn, have a wide variety of resources. Some OC cities run their own independent department while others contract with another city or with the County Sheriff’s Department.  But one thing they all have in common is their dedication to providing great services for their citizens.  They do this by working closely with other local, state, federal law enforcement and community agencies as well as many citizen groups, in a structure model called Community Policing.

Community Policing engages officers with the public by assigning patrol men and women, Detectives and traffic officers to a specific geographic area or “police beat” for a specific length of time.  The advantage here is that it gives these officers the opportunity to become more familiar and emotionally connected to the people that live and work in their area.  A special emphasis is placed on the “Quality of Life” issues that affect each of these communities, like traffic, noise and vandalisms.

Working on, understanding and being able to problem solve area-specific issues has definitely strengthened the officers ties, and this is evidenced by the fact that many police care so much, they have volunteered their off duty time to local youth programs and community groups.  The results have been very positive for all involved.

The Orange County Police Departments incorporates several ethical values into their law enforcement work, too.  Some of these, like courage, duty and commitment are fairly obvious.  But emphasis is also placed on organizational growth and teamwork.

Most OC Police Departments also have several divisions within their ranks.  These include, but are not limited to, K-9 Units, Animal Control Services, 9-1-1 Dispatch/Communications, Crime Prevention, SWAT Teams, Bicycle Units, Traffic, Records, Administrative and Patrol.

Most of these local departments do not have on-site jail facilities so they utilize Orange County’s incarceration facilities: the Central Jail Complex, Theo Lacy Jail and the James A Musick Jail.

The OC Sheriff’s Department, rather than the police, is contracted to handle the jails and even the law enforcement needs of many of their cities.  Regardless, all of the Orange County law enforcement agencies must be doing something right because a lot of cities in Orange County are consistently voted the safest places to live in the entire USA.

When you bail someone out of jail, you take responsibility to make sure they show up for their court appearance. We tell people all the time, courts understand small mistakes like traffic, illness or trouble finding the courtroom. However, that doesn’t mean judges like it.

Such may have been the case in San Bernardino Superior Court this week where the judge issued arrest warrants and set bail at $200,000 for two defendants who weren’t present in his court when he call their case at 8:36 am. They were due in court at 8:30. The defendants were brothers accused of attempting to bribe the staff member of a San Bernardino Supervisor.

The men showed up in court 20 minutes late. Their attorney indicated the two were in the wrong courtroom. The judged agreed to lower the bail back to $100,000 if the bail bondsman would ”re-assume” the bond. While the men waited briefly in the court’s jail, the attorney contacted the bondsman who provided the proper Reassumption of Liability for the bail bond.

This is common in the bail bond business: a simple mistake puts the bond in jeopardy and judge rules that the defendants have failed to appear in court. In such cases, when the defendant contacts the bondsman, bondsmen will usually continue the bail bond.

Let me back up: When people hear that I’m a bail bondsman, they always seem to think, “you must have a lot of good stories.” Truth be told, we don’t. Mostly, we bail out regular people. Day in and day out, bail is like most other jobs – except, of course, that you do it 24 x 7 x 365.

Days like yesterday, where we get an interesting case, are pretty rare. Got a call this for a bail bond out of Los Colinas Jail, San Diego’s womens jail on an out of state warrant on a woman – pretty regular so far.

Now, for the rest of the story… Husband put together a birthday cruise for wife and their two small children – nice. They get to the ship (where, of course, the couple’s passport’s are scanned upon entry). They settle in, have a nice meal while waiting for the ship to set sail. Next thing you know, there’s a knock at the door. The Border Patrol is standing there asking questions, puts the wife in handcuffs and she’s headed to jail. Bummer of a vacation buster!

Unfortunately for the family, they thought an attorney had taken care of the wife’s situation. After a call to us to arrange bail, the man and the two children returned home. We bailed the wife out and she was able to make a flight home late in the day.

Moral of the story: security checks while traveling net more than terrorists. So, if you have an outstanding warrant, be prepared to head back home. Even better, arrange with a bondsman to get it taken care of before you set sail.