Within a day of being arrested for a criminal offense, the Court will have a "First Appearance" hearing or as it sometimes referred to, a "24 hour hearing". At that proceeding the Court will determine whether law enforcement had probable cause to place you under arrest and if they did, what bond, if any is appropriate to be set.
A person arrested for a crime, may not have to attend the First Appearance if the arresting officer listed a bond amount on the booking sheet and you were able to post bond following arrest. The amount is generally arrived at by reference to a "bond schedule". Your attorney can later contest the probable cause if they believe they have sufficient grounds to do so.
In either scenario, if you have a bond, you can then either pay the total amount and recover the same once the criminal case is disposed or you can pay a bond agent 10% the value of the bond, but you will not receive the money back later. You may also qualify for pretrial release.
The next Court date is the Arraignment.
Cavanaugh, Kirby & Cavanaugh, P.A. Discussing Criminal Law Topics.
