All Things Bail Bonds

they’ll come to you for the money you fool! that’s why they had YOU cosign.. unless your friend shows up for court and or pays fines etc.. hope you have the $400..

You did not say what documents you signed, but I assume that you signed the agreement of general indemnity as a guarantor or principal. One may hope that you got your buddy to sign the indemnity as well, since otherwise, you will have a hard time recovering from him.

If your buddy does not appear, the bond is forfeited. That’s a buttload more than $400. The bondsman will pay the full amount of the bond to the state, and then sue you for the amount forfeited while chasing your buddy. If he recovers the amount of the bond from you through the lawsuit, he will stop pursuing your buddy and it will be up to you to get him to appear,,.and even then you might not be made whole. The cost of proceedings to exonerate the bond–get the money back–will be at least $5000.

You need to prevail on your buddy to appear on his court date: otherwise it is you will pay the piper.

you may suffer for that.

You’re a good friend, but you put yourself in a bind. Now you’re responsible to make sure your bud shows in court.(no pun intended)

If you’d let him sit in jail and he had no priors, he probably would have been released on Personal Recognizance.

As it stands, you took on the responsibility to assure his court appearance. If he’s not going to show in court, call the court and the bondsman, ask what you can do to assist. There’s no sense in you “holding the bag”(another pun, sorry), after you bailed out your friend.

Good Luck!

You are potentially on the hook for the full amount of the bail.