How Do Bail Bonds Work in California?

In 2020 California, voters turned down by referendum a law that would have replaced cash bail with risk assessments for detained suspects awaiting trial.

The law would have required that most people who were arrested for misdemeanors be released within 12 hours. For those charged with felonies, the law would have created a pretrial system that relies on judicial discretion and risk assessment to determine whether a defendant should be freed pending trial and under what conditions.

Proposition 25’s defeat means California’s 58 counties continue to greatly differ in their policies and practices on bail.

However, four months after voters rejected the proposition, the California Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to require defendants to remain behind bars simply because they cannot afford bail.
The Supreme Court told the state’s judges to favor pretrial release and consider a person’s ability to pay before setting bail.

“The common practice of conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional,” Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar wrote for the court.

Because of the covid pandemic, in April 2020, California implemented an emergency bail schedule, which meant zero bail had to be paid for most of those charged with misdemeanors or low-level felonies.

While the statewide emergency bail schedule was rescinded in June, a majority of California counties have kept some of its provisions in place.
Overall, for the most part, California’s bail system is much like those in other states. A judge or other court official sets the bail amount for those accused of a crime, and it can be paid in cash, through a bail bondsman or through equity in the property.
In California, the value of the equity must at least be twice the bail amount. The property must have been recently appraised, liens disclosed and the equity professionally estimated.

The California Supreme Court in its ruling noted that pretrial defendants are jailed more often in large urban counties in California than they are elsewhere in the United States.
The median bail amount in California is $50,000, more than five times the median amount in the rest of the nation, according to the ruling.