Penal Code 470
If a person is arrested for violating penal code 470, the person has been arrested for forgery or intent to commit forgery of documents of value. Essentially, the person is arrested for counterfeiting or falsification of records. This crime is a felony and carries an assumptive bail rate of $10,000.
The assumptive bail rate is the same for counties across the state of California. This rate is the amount of money that a defendant will have to give the court as a bond until the defendant fulfills all duties to the court. When the defendant fulfills all duties, this money is released back to the payee.
In order to pay this bail amount, many defendants enlist the help of a bail bonding agency. A bail bonding agency will be available to provide the defendant with the full amount of funds that are necessary to secure the defendant’s release from jail pending the trial. In exchange for bail bonding services, a bail bondsman will charge the defendant a fee that is usually about ten percent of the total cost of the bail. So, if a person is being held on $10,000 bail, then the defendant would pay a bonding company about $1,000 for its services. The defendant would also supply the bail bonding company with assets that the company can use as collateral in case the defendant fails to appear in court.
In the event that a defendant fulfills the full legal obligation to the courts, the original bail will be returned to the payee. However, if the defendant does not fulfill the legal obligation, this amount will not be returned to the payee, unless the defendant is tracked down and returned to court in some cases.
The bail bonding agency will have to track down the defendant that skips a court date. The agency may also collect on the assets that the defendant had handed over as securities for the bail. In order to track down the defendant, the bail bonding agency may appeal to a bounty hunter for assistance. The U.S. is the only country that still allows legal bounty hunting for a defendant that failed to appear in court.
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