Increased Bail | Time Credit

To +Brian Zeiger, my attorney tells me that he wants to have my bail increased so that I get proper time credit on my case. He says its called putting bail on me. How can this be right? It seems like my lawyer is trying to screw me. Can you explain?

There are two scenarios where you can be sitting in jail with no bail on you, where you are actually consider out of custody on your case. If this happens you are not getting any time credit. Having bail put on you or increased is actually the correct thing to do. The two examples of when increasing bail or having bail put on you follow.

First, if you are locked-up on a new case while you are on probation or parole. The bail on the new case is set at zero or ROR, but before you get released your probation officer buts a detainer on you so you sit in jail on the old probation case. You will not get any credit for your new case because there was no bail on you, so you want your lawyer to ask for bail to be put on you for the new case so you get time credit.

Second, you have an open case that you had bail on but you paid the bail and now you are out on the street. While you are out on the street, you pick up a new case. On the new case, your bail is a million dollars and you can't post that much money. You are now in on the second case only because you paid the bail on the first case, so the first case is not holding you in custody. Therefore, you want your lawyer to go and have your bail increased on the first case so you start to get time credit for both case.

Increased Bail | Time Credit
Increased Bail | Time Credit

Labels: , ,