| June 03, 2010 |
| How do I bond my _____ out of jail in Houston, Harris County, Texas? |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| The general public has no idea how to bond someone out of jail. They receive a phone that frantic phone call from a relative, friend, or loved one requesting to be bonded out of jail in the middle of the night. Essentially, a person has three options when bonding out of jail. They may get lucky and be granted a pretrial bond. A pretrial bond allows a person to bond out of jail without having to pay any money. Please keep in mind that typically a pretrial bond is for a low level misdemeanor and given to people that have never been previously arrested. Also, a pretrial bond also takes much longer to process. Next, a person may post a cash bond. I have been told that this is the quickest way to bond someone out of jail. A cash bond is straightforward. A person for the arrested individual goes to 49 San Jacinto in Houston, Texas after the person is booked and pays in cash the amount of bond. For a first time offender , a misdemeanor bond for something like a DWI should be from $500 to $1,500 depending on the charge. A felony bond starts at $2,000 and goes up from there. The cash bond will be returned once the criminal case is concluded provided that the person makes all their court appearances and their bond is never revoked. If the cash is not available a person may use a bonding company to make a bond. Typically, a bonding company charges a fee of 10-20% of the bond amount for their services. Collateral equal to the bond amount is also required by most bonding companies in Houston, Harris County, Texas. Most of these companies are open 24 hours a day. A Houston criminal defense lawyer may not post a bond for a client. |
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| May 24, 2010 |
| Lindsay Lohan- How not to act in a Houston Court |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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A lot of clients get annoyed when their court case interferes with their working schedule. Most court appearances are scheduled for weekday mornings and take anywhere from one hour to three each time. Also, most criminal court cases take several months to resolve therefore, so can severely impact professional/work obligations.
A perfect example of how to make matters worse for your criminal case is Lindsay Lohan. Ms. Lohan has been her own worse enemy. She has missed court dates, arrived late to court dates she did attend, and she also been rumored to be drinking while on bond. Due to the perceived lack of respect for the court Ms. Lohan will be paying a significantly higher price than she anticipated. Today, she was ordered to be fitted with a SCRAM device, weekly drug testing, daily alcohol classes, and lose out on work opportunities that she had scheduled in Texas.
It is best for a person to understand that while their case is pending there will be some inconveniences, but is best not to have the judge apply extra conditions by not following the court rules since this will in turn make the situation much worse in the long run. |
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| May 20, 2010 |
| How long does it take to bond someone out of jail in Houston, Harris County, Texas? |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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Our criminal defense firm regularly gets a phone call from someone that just had a person they know get arrested for a crime asking the above question. As I would do on most subjects if I was not a criminal defense lawyer they turn to the internet for information. Unfortunately, the internet lacks suffiecient information to answer their query. The short answer is that it could take anywhere from 12-48 hours to bond someone out of jail in Houston, Harris County, Texas. The keys seems to be if you are able to make the bond before the person is transferred to the Harris County jail. Most people are arrested and booked in the local city jail. If a bond is made while the person is waiting in this city jail and before they are transferred to the county jail the time waiting in jail is signficantly reduced.
If you need the assistance of a Houston Criminal Defense lawyer please contact our law firm.
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| May 20, 2010 |
| How did Lindsay Lohan avoid jail |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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Party girl, Lindsay Lohan is in criminal hot water again. Apparently, she is not doing very well with her probation. Fortunately, she was notified about her arrest warrant while working in France. I would not expect the court to call one of my clients to inform them they are about to get arrested. Perhaps, this is done in California, but it is not done in Harris County, Texas. Once she was made aware of the situation it allowed her family to post a non arrest bond on her behalf, saving her from returning to jail. A non arrest bond allows a person to make a bond without going to jail. If you find that there is a warrant for your arrest contact a bonding company to avoid going to jail. Simply them you wish to make a non arrest bond. I have previously discussed non arrest bonds here.
If you need a Houston criminal lawyer after bonding out of jail please contact our law firm. |
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| May 20, 2010 |
| Dude...do not smoke before court! |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| Today, I was in the elevator with someone that was still reeking from smoking marijuana the night before or the morning of court. Please keep in mind that when using the elevators in the Houston, Harris County Criminal Justice Center you are also sharing it with prosecutors that may inform your court that you may test positive for drugs if they request a urine sample from you. A court may revoke your bond if you test positive for any type of non prescribed drug. Do yourself a favor and do not smoke before court to avoid going back to jail. |
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| February 21, 2010 |
| One phone call is easier then ten emails |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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Yesterday, I received an email inquiring why a bond would be $50,000. As it usually happens my reply illicited several other emails back and forth. I tried to explain that there is a bond schedule for all cases in Houston, Harris County, Texas. If you would like to see the schedule for yourself click here for the felony bond schedule and here for the misdemeanor bond schedule. The bond in any particular case may be raised after a request is made. I truly wish the person would have just called me instead of exchanging ten emails before I was able to answer all her questions.
For now on, I am going to answer at most two emails from the same person before I insist they call me on the phone to discuss a case. A five minute conservation is far more effecient then an unlimited amount of emails. Lastly, I am unable to quote a fee for a criminal case without talking to a person on the phone. |
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| February 17, 2010 |
| No client no trial... |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| After a sucessful outcome to my trial on Monday I was geared up today to go trial on another case. I guess my client was not as excited as I was since he decided not attend for some unknown reason. Typically, I get a phone call or some indication that a client is not going to show up for court, but not in this case. I tried unsucessfully to reach him at the phone numbers he provided to try find out why he was not in court. Since I could not reach him I could not provide the court with a reason not to forfeit his bond. I hope nothing happened to him. Now, my client has a warrant for his arrest for not appearing as scheduled. I may be able to get his bond reinstated if he has a valid reason for not showing up to court. Otherwise, it is likely he will be arrested the next time he has contact with a police officer. |
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| October 20, 2009 |
| What are the Houston DWI Bond Amounts? |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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This is a question that I get regularly when someone's friend or family gets arrested for DWI in the middle of night in Houston. For a first time offender, the bond should be set at $500 if they have never been arrested for any other crime. For a second DWI, that amount increases to $1,000. The bond amount really takes a jump on a third DWI. The main reason for this is because after the second DWI any DWI arrest is classified as a felony. Thus, the bond is set at $10,000 for a person's third DWI. There are other felony cases that are felonies such as DWI with a child passenger, intoxication assault or negligent homocide. Those bond amounts range from $2,000 to $25,000.
Please keep in mind that those amounts are assuming that the person does not have any other arrests outside of the previous DWI when applicable. |
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| October 06, 2009 |
| Roman Polanski's recent arrest serves as a reminder |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| In my practice as a Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer a few times a year I have clients that contemplate leaving the United States to avoid their pending charges. Most of the time I convince them that is a bad idea and they stay to fight the case. However, some of my clients that do not follow my advice and leave the country. I can understand that they are scared, confused, and distrustful of the system, but this is hardly ever a good idea. In Texas like most other states the case will not go away despite the amount of time one is out of the country. A perfect example is Roman Polanski, spending over thirty years avoiding an arrest, living life with eyes behind his back, and never able to return to the United States. Mr. Polanski was fortunate that he was able to work abroad, and that additional charges of bail jumping were not filed against him like they would in Houston. I hope that he is treated fairly and not made a poster boy for fleeing the country to avoid prosecution. |
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| September 12, 2009 |
| Dont be a bonehead while on bond! |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| I am always disappointed when one of my clients gets their bond revoked and put back in jail. Typically, the client and/or their family has spent a significant amount of money to bond them out of jail. While we mention all the pitfalls of being on bond some people do not seem to believe us. For example, if you are ordered to put an interlock device on your vehicle after a DWI arrest in Houston the judge will revoke your bond and put you in jail for failing to do so. If you are bond for a drug case do not be surprised when the judge orders you to get a drug test after being on bond a few months. If you test positive or forget to get the test your bond will be revoked and you will placed in jail. Another common way that someone gets their bond revoked is after being ordered not to have contact with a specific person the person on bond telephones that person. All these things are likely to lead to your bond revoked by the judge. Moreover, these actions could be used against you if there is a punishment phase to your case. |
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| May 28, 2009 |
| Judges Checking Your Driving Habits While On Bond |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| What ever happened to being presumed innocent...just this week I overheard a judge reprimanding a person on bond for DWI that his driving habits were not normal according to his interlock log. I almost fell out of my chair that the court would be monitoring a person's driving habits so closely when they are only accused of a crime. The judge went as far as threatening to add the scram device as an added condition to the poor guy's bond. |
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| May 26, 2009 |
| Get Your Bond Reduced |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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| In a lot of instances a court will initially set a very high amount in a case. For example, in a theft case where the value of the alleged property that was stolen is one hundred thousand ($100,000) the court will routinely double that amount and set the bond at two hundred thousand ($200,000). However, if you hire a lawyer before raising the money to bond the person out of jail the lawyer should be able to go to the court and have the bond reduced to a more reasonable amount. In the above scenerio a lawyer would be able to save you thousands of dollars when making a bond. Typically, a bonding company will charge you a 10% fee for bonding someone out of jail. The two hundred thousand dollar bond will cost you twenty thousand dollars and the one hundred thousand dollar bond will cost you ten thousand dollars. Thus,hiring an experienced criminal defense attorney will pay for itself by getting the bond reduced in addition to all the other things they can do for you. This is an example of where this was done. |
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| May 22, 2009 |
| Get A Bond Before The Police Arrest You |
| Posted By Herman Martinez |
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A question that I get asked routinely as a Houston Criminal Lawyer: "There is a warrant out for my arrest...I do not want to go to jail." "What should I do?" This is a situation everyone would like to avoid. There are several proactive steps one can take when this occurs. The first thing I would do is contact a bonding company so that I could do what is called a "non arrest bond." If you contact a bonding company and they do not know what that is move on because they probably can not help you. I would hate to pay anyone to be their first case.
A "non arrest bond" is straight forward. This type of bond allows you to avoid any jail time while waiting for someone to bond you out if you get arrested. If you talk to anyone that has spent as little as a few hours in jail they will tell you do not want to be waiting in jail for someone to bond you out. Thus, the non arrest bond allows you to skip the booking process. The bonding company will take your information and give you a court date to appear with your attorney. If you do this you will be one of the lucky people that will not be hassled by the police and potentially giving them information that you would later regret.
The Courts of Harris County have their a bond schedule for each case. |
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