For those who have been arrested, the most common form of secured release takes place when bail is posted. Bail is valuable for helping prevent a defendant from sitting in jail all the way until their hearing, which could be days or weeks in the future.

At Beehive Bail Bonds, we’re here to help with all your bail bond needs, offering 24/7 bail bondsman services for you or someone close to you who has been incarcerated. One important factor in the bail amount that will be set for you and what you have to pay to be released: Whether you are to be tried in a state or federal court. The former will invoke state bond statutes, while the latter will invoke federal ones. Let’s go over some of the basics of both these sets of statutes, including how they differ and what this means for you depending on which you’ll be tried under.

Federal Bond Statutes

When a suspect in a given case is to be tried in federal court, they fall under federal statutes for bail bonds. These allow courts to retain individuals who may be a public danger, plus govern those who can be retained in jail without any bail number set based on the severity of the crime. The types of crimes or defendants who can be retained without any bail under federal statutes include:

• Defendants charged with a violent crime
• Those charged with any offense that carries a maximum sentence of either life in prison or the death penalty
• Defendants facing a felony offense charge who have previously been convicted of a felony
• Individuals charged with drug offenses with a maximum penalty of over 10 years in prison
• Defendants who are deemed to pose a serious risk of failure to appear, obstruction of justice or witness tampering as part of their case

Utah Bond Statutes

For starters, Utah bond statutes cover many of the same areas as federal ones in terms of who can be held without bail. These are relatively similar to the federal guidelines, with the addition of those who are charged with a capital felony or a felony committed on probation. In addition, Utah statutes actually prohibit bail for those arrested for a failure to appear in court – this is not the case under federal guidelines.

On top of this, Utah statutes also cover the ethics and business practices of bail bond agents and licensing guidelines. They also allow a surety or a bondsman to arrest and produce an individual in court who failed to appear, so long as the agent properly identifies themselves and follows all laws governing arrest by surety.

For more on state and federal bail bond statutes, or to learn about any of our bail bond services, speak to the staff at Beehive Bail Bonds today.