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Featured partnerVerifiedLicense #184424124/7
Statewide California bail bonds with twelve offices, several of them within walking distance of the courthouse or jail they serve.
900 Avila Street, #101, Los Angeles 90012
Call(213) 296-0901When someone is arrested in California, they are taken to a county or city jail and booked. That means fingerprints, photographs and a records check. Bail is then set from the county’s bail schedule, a published list that assigns a dollar amount to each offense before any judge has looked at the case. The same charge can carry a different amount one county over, which is why this site is organized county by county.
Families then face a three-way choice: pay the full amount in cash to the court, hire a licensed bail agent who posts a bond for a non-refundable premium of about 10%, or wait for arraignment, where a judge reviews the amount and can lower it or release the person on their own recognizance. Since In re Humphrey (2021), the judge must consider what the person can actually afford, which is why waiting a day is sometimes worth thousands of dollars, and why the honest answer to “should we post now?” is: it depends on when the hearing is.
The trade has its own vocabulary (indemnitor, exoneration, 1275 hold) and most of the expensive mistakes are vocabulary mistakes. Our plain-English glossary covers the terms, and the guides walk the whole process from the first phone call to the day collateral comes back. If someone is in custody right now, start with what happens after an arrest and find which jail is holding them.
BailCA lists 436 bail bonds companies across California with the details that matter under pressure: a phone number, a street address, Google review standing, and a license status shown plainly on every card. Listings are never ordered by payment. Here is exactly how companies get listed and what Verified, Listed and Claimed mean. Our featured partner, Abba Bail Bonds, is disclosed as such everywhere it appears.
Written for the person making phone calls at 2 a.m. Each one opens on your situation, not on a definition.
We link only official sheriff and government lookups and never paywalled aggregators. 20 counties confirmed so far; the rest are on the jails index.
What each county says an offense costs, searchable by code section, with the official PDF linked on every page.
The standard premium is 10% of the bail amount, a rate bail agents file with the California Department of Insurance. On $25,000 bail that is a $2,500 fee, and it is not refundable even if charges are dropped. Legitimate filed discounts exist for defendants with private counsel, union members and qualifying veterans. Read the full guide
Cash bail posted with the court comes back when the case ends and every court date was met, whatever the verdict. A bail bond premium is the agent's fee and never comes back. Which one you paid decides everything. Read the full guide
Usually two to eight hours after the paperwork clears, longer at large county jails and on weekends. Bail cannot be posted at all until booking is finished, which itself takes two to eight hours from arrest. Read the full guide
Yes. The scheduled amount is a default, not a verdict. A judge reviews bail at arraignment and can lower it, release the person on their own recognizance, or attach conditions instead of money. Since In re Humphrey, inability to pay is a legally relevant argument. Read the full guide
A hold is a separate legal reason someone must stay in custody, such as a probation violation, a warrant from another county, an immigration detainer, or a 1275 source-of-funds hold. Bail does not touch it. Always ask about holds before paying a premium. Read the full guide
Yes. Jails release people around the clock and most bail agents answer 24/7. Every listing here shows its hours. Weekends mostly matter for court timing: arraignment must happen within 48 hours excluding weekends and holidays, so a Friday arrest can mean a Tuesday hearing. Read the full guide
The judge issues a bench warrant and the bond starts toward forfeiture, but a missed date handled within days is usually fixable. Courts distinguish someone who fled from someone who was in hospital or got the date wrong. Call the attorney first, then the bail agent. Read the full guide
Smaller bonds are often written on signatures alone; larger ones may need a vehicle title, a deed, or a co-signer who accepts liability for the full bail amount. Collateral comes back when the court exonerates the bond. Get what is held, and what triggers its return, in writing. Read the full guide