Brenwell Bail Bonds « Florida Bail Bonds

Welcome to Brenwell Bail Bonds. Our agencies have been servicing Florida families for over 25 years and we are family owned and operated. We understand that calling a bail bondsman is not something you probably are looking forward to. That is why we offer a wide variety of services that ensure your bail bond experience is easy and painless. Our licensed bail bond agents will be glad to explain the entire process to you. We post bonds in all counties in Florida.

What are Skip Tracers?

February 3rd, 2014

A skip tracer is, essentially, a bounty hunter. Before you start thinking of bounty hunters as they existed in the Old West, realize that this is not the reality of the situation. In fact, in a rather rare instance of this, some of the reality television shows that followed bounty hunters around gave a good idea of what they do.

It Starts with Bail

Skip Tracers generally work with bail bondsman. A bail bond company puts up a surety bond for someone who needs money to get out of jail on the contingency that the person makes their court date. Ideally, the person makes their court date and the bail bond is exonerated right then and there. There are people, however, who decide to skip out on their court date and to, to put it in common terms, open up a can of worms that they never wanted to deal with.

When the defendant skips their court date, the court will issue a warrant for their arrest right away. At the same time, the bail bond company that put their trust in the person to show up for their court date suddenly becomes liable for the full amount of the bail required to get that person out of jail in the first place. As you might’ve guessed, this can sometimes amount to tens of thousands of dollars or even more.

The bail bond company will engage the services of skip tracers, in some cases, to find the person who absconded from their court date. These are professional individuals who are not law enforcement agents per se, but who do have quite a few powers that allow them to go after the person who skipped out on their court date.

In the best case scenario, the tracers working for the bail bond company manage to track down the person, bring them back to jail and resolve the whole situation. In fact, contrary to what people who go on the run likely think, these professionals end up catching the people who skip out on their bail more than 90% of the time.

People who keep their commitments to a bail bond company never have to deal with bounty hunters or, as they generally prefer to be called, skip tracers. They only come into play when somebody fails to hold up their obligations and puts everyone around them in a bad situation, and the consequences for doing so are generally rather severe.

Posted in Bounty Hunting, Florida Bail Bond Laws, Florida Fugitives, Fugitive Recovery, Nationwide Bail Bond News |

When Does Someone Need Bail?

January 6th, 2014

If you’ve gotten a call from a friend or a family member who was thrown in jail, you’ll want to wait a little bit before you decide whether you need to contact a bail bondsman about getting them bailed out. In some cases, you won’t need to post any bail to get someone out of jail. If the offense that they got arrested for is relatively minor or if they were just picked up because they were being disorderly and no charges are being pressed, they will generally be released in short order. It can take a while to figure out what’s going on, however.

Getting the Call

Generally, people who are thrown in jail are allowed to make a phone call. It’s a misconception, however, that this is a right in every jurisdiction. Most of the time, the people who get thrown in jail will call a family member to let them know where they are and to have them call their work and so forth.

If the offense that they got thrown in jail for is minor, the staff at the jail may be able to give them an estimate of when they’ll be released. It can literally only take a couple of hours. In other cases, if the offense is more serious, the person may be required to post bail to get out of jail before their court date. A judge will set the bail amount, usually within a few hours of the person being arrested.

Once you have the bail amount, you can contact a bail bondsman. Remember that you don’t have to talk to the defendant again to get the bail amount. You can get this from the jail. Alternately, if you’re completely stressed by the situation and you’re not sure what to do, the bail bondsman can likely find out the bail amount required for you.

Once you have the bail amount, the bail bondsman can get to work figuring out how much it would cost you to get the bail bond company to post bail for the person you need to get out of jail. Again, this process can take a few hours to complete. If you’re very worried and stressed out and find yourself not knowing what to do, ask the bail bondsman what paperwork you can get started on to make everything go more quickly when it’s time to meet down at the jail house and get your friend or family member out.

Posted in Uncategorized |

The Internet and Bail Bonds

November 27th, 2013

The internet has changed nearly every industry in the world. We’re now reliant on computers in most industries, and the same is true with bail bonds. The great thing about the internet and bail bonds is that the internet has been able to increase the scope of some bail bond agencies. It has given them a chance to offer their services in a wider area and also attract more customers. The internet has also revolutionized the way the bail bonds industry sees customer service. Whereas a number of years ago most agencies could get away with the odd customer complaint because there was no way for that customer to reach lots of people, every customer is now incredibly valuable to a bail bond agency’s reputation. If there is just one bad review on the internet, that review is soon syndicated to a number of different websites and can ruin a whole business if it becomes prominent.

This is why the bail bonds industry is now so heavily focused on making sure that the customers are happy. Any agency or bondsman that wasn’t offering a good service has been driven out of the industry, and any newcomers hoping to make a quick buck don’t stand a chance. The industry is now far more efficient and offers people are much more reliable level of service.

As in every industry, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t still people trying to take advantage of you. The internet has definitely allowed “scammers” to reach more people, so you still have to be weary about who you do business with, but it’s not a major issue in the bail bonds industry. It’s always amazing that some people are so negative about our industry, when in actuality it’s one of the most scam-free industries around. All bail bond agencies are stickily regulated by the Department of Insurance in most states.

You can find dozens of agencies to choose from with the click of a button, and that has meant a great deal of extra competition. This means better customer service, and more experienced companies to deal with. It’s no longer the case that an agency can just throw up a website and get business. They have to work hard to create a good website and build their reputation online, which means better quality of information for the customer.

The industry used to be quite asymmetric, with most of the information in the hands of the bondsman. This meant they had an unfair advantage over their customers, but that has all changed now. These days, someone can find a great deal about the bail bonds industry and the process in a matter of minutes. Customers have more information available to them when they talk to an agency.

The use of the internet has also made bail bond agencies more efficient. Large teams of people can now work with each other at breakneck speed. This is great for customers on the receiving end. Overall, the internet has been a huge help to the industry, and it’s hard to see why anyone would be negative about the impact it has had.

Posted in Bail Bond Tips, Online Bail Bonds |

How to Get to Court on Time

November 5th, 2013

It might seem a little silly to give advice on how to get to court on time, but enough people miss their court dates that it seems sometimes necessary to do so. Remember that getting to court on time is unlike any other appointment that you have. If you miss your court date, you’re looking at serious legal consequences. If you happen to be out of jail on a bail bond, the consequences are going to be complicated by the fact that you will have a serious issue with the company that issued your bail bond if you fail to appear. Here are some tips.

Plan to Be Early

There’s an old saying that to be on time is to be early. Do not plan to make it to court 10 or 15 minutes before you are to appear before the judge. Be there an hour early. This might seem like an inconvenience but, in reality, there are times when the court is isn’t quite as busy and where you might actually be able to get out earlier if you show up earlier, simply because of a light day at the court. The larger jails, such as Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, take longer to get to your assigned court room.

Call Ahead and Learn the Security

Everybody is well aware of the fact that you can’t bring weaponry into court. There are some other items, however, that may be banned. You should figure out what these are well in advance of your court date. The reason for doing so is that, for example, if you took the bus to court and you happened to have a cell phone on you, you might not be able to bring that into the courthouse and you might not have anywhere to store it. The guards are not going to take responsibility for it for you.

By knowing what you have to bring and what you cannot bring, you can avoid any delays that may actually make you late for your appearance before the judge.

Have Your Paperwork

If there is any paperwork that you need to bring to court, lay it all out on the table the night before and make sure it’s all there. You don’t need to be scrambling for documents when you’re trying to get to court on time.

Multiple Rides

If you don’t have a vehicle of your own, arrange for a ride. If you don’t have any friends who are reliable, set aside the money to take a cab to court so that you can be sure to be there on time.

Tags: court date tips, criminal court, jacksonville court date, west palm beach court date
Posted in Bail Bond Tips, Processing Time |

How Long Does it Take to Post Bail

September 17th, 2013

Ryan Wells -
Lic #: P105790

When you’re working with a bail bondsman, remember that they cannot speed up the legal system. They’ll be ready to go—provided you have the right paperwork and information for them—once the defendant is eligible to be bailed, but you’ll have to remember that there are some circumstances that can make this take a long time. Here are some things to consider.

Jail Occupancy

If the person you’re trying to bail out happened to be arrested when the jail is very busy, it may take a long time before they’re even booked. People do tend to disappear into a sort of limbo for a while when they’re being processed, so it may take three or four hours before you have all the information you need to bail them out. Be patient about this. The jail will usually be fairly accurate when they give you an estimate of how long it will be, so you don’t need to call them every 10 minutes and make everything take even longer.

Busy Nights at the Bond Office

There are busy nights at bail bondsman offices, as well. There may have been some sort of an incident that resulted in a lot of people being arrested—a protest, for example—and there may be a lot of people who are having their bail bonds processed at the same time that you’re trying to get someone out of jail. The bail bonds companies are usually very fast at processing, however, and they’ll be able to offer that speed day or night, so this isn’t usually the problem.

Other Circumstances

If you’re bailing someone out that you thought you knew very well, keep in mind that there may be circumstances that you’re not aware of. For instance, that person may have a lengthy record and that may mean that it could take some time to process them. They may not be eligible for bail at all if they’ve committed a serious crime or have a lot of past instances of committing crimes.

Posting bail can take several hours. The Tallahassee, Gainesville, Stuart, and Fort Myers bail bond process have been the quickest. It also may turn out that it costs a lot more than you thought, if the person arrested has a checkered past. If either is the case, talk to the bail bonds company about what you can get done while you’re waiting. There is a lot of paperwork involved, and getting that done as soon as possible will speed up the entire affair.

Tags: Bail Bonds, Fort Myers bail, Ft Pierce bail bonds, gainesville bail bonds, inmate booking, inmate releasing, Jacksonville, jail processing time, posting bail, stuart bail bonds
Posted in Bail Bond Tips, Florida Bail Bond Agencies, Nationwide Bail Bond News, Processing Time |

Immigration Bonds May Help Family Members

August 14th, 2013

Joe Brennan
Immigration Specialist

If you have a family member that has ended up with an immigration problem, you may be able to help them with a bond. Immigration bonds are bonds that allow the individual to get out of jail under certain circumstances. Whether or not one of these bonds can be used will be dependent upon the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, but getting a bond for someone who has been thrown in jail may be a viable option.

Options

Getting a disposition of the authorities, someone who is an illegal immigrant and who has been arrested may have a couple of different options. The first would be a delivery bond. This is a bond that allows the immigrant in question to get out of jail, pending their immigration hearings. This functions in much the same way as bail would function for a citizen, allowing the person to be out of jail, to take care of everything they need to take care of regarding their case and to remain free, as long as they show up for their hearings as required.

A voluntary departure bond may also be an option. This involves paying Immigration and Customs Enforcement the full cash price of the bond. This amount is refundable, contingent upon the person actually leaving the country and will only be refunded when that person has been established to have left the nation.

As is the case with any other type of bond, violating the conditions of these types of bonds means that the person will be re-arrested. The idea behind these bonds is to allow the person to get their legal matters in line so that they can attend their immigration hearings fully prepared for the situation or, if the illegal immigrant would prefer, simply to leave the nation and to leave the whole mess behind them, as well.

Bondsmen

Bail bondsman may provide these types of bonds in a form called a surety bond. Under these agreements, the illegal immigrant need not come up with the entire amount required for the bond, but can oftentimes get the bond for 15% of the total amount required. In some cases, the fee required may be as high as 20% of the total amount required for the bond, but bail bondsman oftentimes take collateral if the family cannot come up with that full amount. Our Jacksonville bail bonds office has all the required items needed to complete your immigration bond,

If a loved one with an immigration problem ends up in jail, immigration bonds may be the best options.

Tags: immigration bonds, immigration bondsman, joe brennan
Posted in Bail Bond Tips, federal bonds, Florida Bail Bond Agencies, immigration bonds |

What Risk Does a Florida Bail Bondsman Take?

July 16th, 2013

Ryan Wells -
Lic #: P105790

If you had to contact a bail bondsman to get out of jail, it might seem like they put a lot of conditions on your bail that seem downright unreasonable. You have to understand what a bail bondsman is doing when they bail you out. They are taking a very real risk in doing so and they need to make certain that they are taking a sensible risk.

Florida Bail

Bail is money that a bail bondsman puts up to get you out of jail. They put up a surety bond, which means that they are guaranteeing the court that you will show up at your court date on time. If you don’t make your court date, the bail bonds company then becomes liable for the entire amount of your bail.

The service that a bail bondsman provides is allowing you to get this surety bond so that you don’t have to pay the entire cash amount of your bail. For most people, coming up with $1000 or more to get out of jail would likely be unreasonable. A bail bondsman takes a risk in believing you in regards to your intention to show up for court and they may need you to adhere to certain conditions to make sure that you actually are going to show up.

If You Don’t

As was said, a bail bondsman takes a lot of financial risk in bailing you out of jail. Sometimes, if you don’t have enough money to pay for the percentage of the total bail that they charge upfront, the bail bondsman may require that you put something up as collateral. This could be your car, your house, jewelry or anything else that’s valuable. This helps them to mitigate the risk. Of course, it also gives you a powerful incentive to keep your end of the bargain.

For example, if you decide to skip out on your Alachua County bail bond, you can expect the bail bonds company to come after you and, of course, you’re going to end up with a warrant for your arrest. This situation does not have to get to this level. If you keep the obligations of your bail, if you show up to your court date on time and if you stay in communication with your Gainesville bail bonds company, there shouldn’t be any trouble at all. In fact, if you adhere to the arrangement you have with your bail bondsman, you’ll quickly understand why this is such a valuable service.

Tags: alachua county bail bonds, brenwell bail bonds, Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Bondsman, gainesville bail bonds
Posted in Florida Bail Bond Agencies, Florida Bail Bond Laws, Fugitive Recovery |

Why You Should Never Miss a Court Date

May 20th, 2013

Joe Brennan

There are plenty of people out there who get arrested for a very minor offense and who end up making the situation much worse for themselves by missing their court date. Missing your court date is an offense in and of itself. If you want to make certain you don’t end up making a minor offense much worse than it has to be, you should always make your court date.

What Happens if You Don’t?

One of the ways that people get themselves into trouble is not realizing exactly what happens if they do miss their court date. Not showing up for a court date is no minor thing. There are good reasons why the courts take this so seriously. Aside from the fact that you’re breaking the law, it costs a great deal of money to operate a court of law and, when people don’t show up, not only has the law been broken, but a lot of very expensive people have had their time wasted.

When you don’t make your court date, the judge will generally immediately issue a warrant for your arrest. If you had the opportunity to get out of jail before your court date on bail before, you can be certain that you’re not going to get that chance again. If the offense is minor, they may release you on your own recognizance, but that generally will not be the case if you’re looking at something rather serious.

If a bail bondsman provided your bail, not showing up to court puts them in a very bad situation. The bail bond that they issue is contingent upon you showing up in court. If you don’t show up, the bail bonds company becomes liable for the entire sum of your bail, which could be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

If you have a court date, even for something as minor as traffic tickets, make sure you get there on time. It’s a good idea to show up an hour early. Some people show up to court too close to the time when they are supposed to appear before the judge, end up getting delayed and quickly find out that, when you’re not there on time, judges are generally not inclined to take excuses off of you and will throw you in jail.

If you need bail bonds in Tallahassee, call us

Tags: Florida Bail Bonds, tallahassee bail bonds
Posted in Bounty Hunting, Florida Bail Bond Agencies |

Handling an Arrest

April 24th, 2013

If you happen to be present when somebody you’re close to gets arrested, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to handle the situation. The first thing to keep in mind is that police officers are not litigators. It’s not their job to stand there and debate with you whether the person should be arrested. If the police officer has decided to arrest someone, it’s pretty much a done deal from that point on. That person will be brought to jail after they are arrested. The legal issues involved will be debated in court. The interval of time between when the person is arrested and when they go to court, however, is where bail comes in.

What Bail Does

If someone is arrested for a crime, there are, in the broadest sense, two directions in which it can go. The first is that the person is processed, given a court date, and then released on the understanding that they will show up for their court date. If they fail to show up for their court date, a warrant is issued for their arrest and they get picked up again. The other way it can go is that the person will be expected to stay in jail until their court date rolls around. This could take weeks.

Bail allows a defendant to put up money so that they can get out of jail. Unfortunately, the amount of bail required is more than most people have on hand. There’s also a much better way to go about getting bail money than taking it out of your savings account. You do this by contacting a bail bond company, which allows you to post bail for a much lower fee than would be required if you are to post it outright.

What to Do

After the person is arrested, you’ll have to wait until you get their booking number. You can contact a bail bond agent beforehand to get the process started, however. Once you have the booking number, the bail bond company can put up bail for a percentage of the total amount required; usually somewhere between 10% and 20%. After the fee is paid, the bail bond agent will put up a surety bond that is contingent upon the defendant showing up on their court date and, in some cases, upon some other conditions. Provided you follow the conditions to the letter, this is a very easy way to handle an arrest and to get someone out of jail before their court date.

Tags: Handling an arrest
Posted in Florida Bail Bond Agencies, Florida Bail Bond Laws |

Helping Someone Who Was Arrested

April 11th, 2013

Sometimes, people end up getting arrested for no real reason at all. This is generally what happens when somebody happens to be running with the wrong crowd and, because of who their associated with, the end up being charged for something that they had nothing to do with. This can create quite a nightmare. The nightmare is that the person, even if they are acquitted of the charges or the charges are dropped altogether, ends up sitting in jail until they can be seen in court. There is a way to remedy this: bail.

What Is Bail?

Everyone’s heard of bail, but not that many people likely know what it really is or why it exists. Even though the US justice system is set up to favor the rights of the accused over the rights of the prosecution, people end up getting charged with crimes they didn’t commit every single day. The idea behind allowing people to bail themselves out of jail is to make certain that people aren’t put through the hardship of being held in custody without being given an opportunity to establish their innocence.

Going to jail is a much different thing than going to prison. Nonetheless, sitting in jail while your employer is wondering where you are and why you haven’t called, while your rent is not getting paid and while you have no income is most certainly punishing. To make certain that people aren’t put through this unnecessarily, the bail system exists.

Paying Bail

If a judge has allowed someone to post bail and get released, there are essentially two ways that the person can do that. First, they can pay the full amount of the bail out of their own money, which is, of course, completely impossible for some people, particularly if the bail amount is set very high.

The second thing that they can do is to pay a bail bondsman. That bondsman, for a percentage of the bail required rather than the full amount, will issue a surety bond that guarantees that the person will show up in court but that allows the person to get out of jail in the meantime.

If you do this for someone, make certain that they know how important it is for them to show up in court. The bail bondsman’s business is based on getting people out of jail so they can take care of their lives and then show up in court when required. When they don’t show up in court, there are serious consequences.

Posted in Florida Bail Bond Agencies, Florida Bail Bond Laws |

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