Bail Bond

bond given to release a person from jail until his trial

A bail bondsman is any person or corporation which will act as a surety and pledge money or property as bail for the appearance of a criminal defendant in court. Although banks, insurance  companies and other similar institutions are usually the sureties on other types of contracts, for example, to bond a contractor who is under a contractual obligation to pay for the completion of a construction project, such entities are reluctant to put their depositors' or policyholders' funds at the kind of risk involved in posting a bail bond. Bail bondsmen, on the other hand, are usually in the business to cater exclusively to criminal defendants, often securing their customers' release in just a few hours. Bail bondsmen are almost exclusively found in the United States. In most other countries bail is usually more modest and the practice of bounty hunting is illegal.
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Noun
1. (criminal law) money that must be forfeited by the bondsman if an accused person fails to appear in court for trial; "the judge set bail at $10,000"; "a $10,000 bond was furnished by an alderman"
(synonym) bail, bond
(hypernym) recognizance, recognisance
(classification) criminal law

Special bail in court to abide the judgment.
  

A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety, to insure the prisoner's appearance in court, at the return of the writ.
  

A specialty by which the defendant and other persons, usually not less than two, though the sheriff may take only one, become bound to the sheriff in a penalty equal to that for which bail is demanded, conditioned for the due appearance of such defendant to the legal process therein described, and by which the sheriff has been commanded to arrest him. It is only where the defendant is arrested or in the custody of the sheriff, under other than final process, that the sheriff can take such bond. On this bond being tendered to him, which he is compelled to take if the sureties are good, he must discharge the defendant.

With some exceptions, as for example, where the defendant surrenders nothing can be a performance of the condition of the bail bond, but putting in bail to the action.

The plaintiff has a right to demand from the sheriff an assignment of such bond, so that he may sue it for his own benefit.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.