 Hi, I'm David Cantor with the law offices of David Michael Cantor. We often get a lot of questions about the Fourth Avenue jail when people get taken into custody. Basically, when somebody's taken into custody, the judge uses what's called the matrix. It's a form that judges how many times a person's failed to appear before, the seriousness of their offense, whether they're on probation, things of that nature to determine whether a person's going to be released on their own recognizance or whether there's going to be a bond, or whether they're non-bondable, such as capital murders, non-bondable, dangerous crimes against children could be non-bondable. Now the judge, if they are going to offer up a bond, has a choice of a cash bond or a surety bond, cash bond. If it's $50,000, that means you have to post $50,000 in cash to get out of jail. Now you'll get that back at the end of the case, assuming you show up as you're supposed to. Now a surety bond is much more common. That's where if a judge asks for a $50,000 surety bond, you have to post $5,000 to a bondsman, and the bondsman will post the piece of paper for $50,000. Now the $5,000 you give to the bondsman, you'll never see it again. That's a 10% fee, but a lot of people would rather pay $5,000 get out now rather than tying up $50,000 or not getting out at all. Other types of release involve what's called pretrial services or PTS. Now the judge can order pretrial services, which means there's no bond, but he's going to ask for ankle monitoring on certain types of cases, that's a GPS unit, or what's called a SCRAM unit. That's a unit that picks up the perspiration out of your skin that monitors you for alcohol. That would be more common on a DUI stop, a felony DUI stop. Lastly, the judge can order what's called OR release or own recognizance or third party release. Own recognizance means, okay, you've had no problems before, I'm going to release you on your promise to appear. And then if you don't appear, you're in big trouble. Third party release is, well, I don't want to hit you with a bond. I'm going to release you, but I'm going to have this third party such as your parent promise to have you at the next court date and all future court dates. And that person has to vouch for you. Now the reason you want to use an attorney instead of going directly to a bondsman is because many times we're brought in where the judge was going to issue let's say $100,000 bond, even a surety bond. We come into the picture and we say, hold on judge, let's give you all the reasons why he is not a risk and such as ties to the community. He's got other people here such as his parents that will vouch for him. And we can knock it down to let's say a $10,000 surety bond, which means now it's only $1,000 to a bondsman. That's a lot better than $100,000 surety bond where you're going to pay $10,000 to a bondsman and never see it again. So many, many, many times you're much better off getting a lawyer involved immediately before the initial appearance so you can get your loved one released or yourself on your own recognizance, a third party versus some onerous high dollar bond. So if this is applied to you, give us a call and we'll help you out.