California Bail Bond Calculator

Bail bond agents in California

Commercial bail is lawful and regulated: bail agents must charge the rates their surety company files with the Department of Insurance. (Cal. Dept. of Insurance (Ins. Code ch. 7, § 1800 et seq.))

Each surety company must file rates with CDI and bail agents representing a surety must charge the same filed rates.

The premium is the rate each surety company files with the Department of Insurance; the department says the cost is most commonly 10 percent of the bond plus expenses, which is a filed rate, not a statutory percentage. (Cal. Dept. of Insurance, Bail Bonds)

Each surety company must file rates with CDI and bail agents representing a surety must charge the same filed rates. The court determines the amount of the bond, and the cost to the consumer is most commonly ten percent of the total amount of the bond, plus actual, necessary, and reasonable expenses incurred in connection with the transaction.

Bail agents are licensed by the California Department of Insurance, where a license can be checked and a complaint filed.

Cash bail in California

Instead of a bail bond, the defendant or another person may deposit the bail amount from the order or the court's bail schedule with the court clerk. (Pen. Code § 1295)

instead of giving bail may deposit, with the clerk of the court in which the defendant is held to answer or notified to appear for arraignment, the sum mentioned in the order or, if no order, in the schedule of bail previously fixed by the judges of the court

After judgment, a cash deposit is applied to restitution, fines and costs and any surplus is refunded; a depositor who is not the defendant gets it back within 10 days of claiming it with the receipt. (Pen. Code § 1297)

after satisfying restitution to the victim or the Restitution Fund, fines, and costs, shall refund the surplus, if any, to the defendant. If the person to whom the receipt for the deposit was issued was not the defendant, the deposit after judgment shall be returned to that person within 10 days after the person claims it by submitting the receipt

How bail is set in California

The state constitution requires release on bail by sufficient sureties, except in listed cases such as capital crimes when the facts are evident or the presumption great. (Cal. Const. art. I, § 12)

A person shall be released on bail by sufficient sureties, except for: (a) Capital crimes when the facts are evident or the presumption great;

Superior court judges in each county must adopt and revise every year a countywide bail schedule; there is no single statewide schedule. (Pen. Code § 1269b)

It is the duty of the superior court judges in each county to prepare, adopt, and annually revise a uniform countywide schedule of bail for all bailable felony offenses and for all misdemeanor and infraction offenses except Vehicle Code infractions.

Note: Amended by Stats. 2025, ch. 679 (AB 82), effective January 1, 2026.

If a court date is missed in California

If the defendant appears within 180 days of the forfeiture (or of the mailed notice when notice is required), the court acts on its own motion at the first appearance to vacate the forfeiture order. (Pen. Code § 1305)

If the defendant appears either voluntarily or in custody after surrender or arrest in court within 180 days of the date of forfeiture or within 180 days of the date of mailing of the notice if the notice is required under subdivision (b), the court shall, on its own motion at the time the defendant first appears in court on the case in which the forfeiture was entered, direct the order of forfeiture to

Note: Research copied the sentence to "direct the order of forfeiture to"; it continues "be vacated and the bond exonerated" on the official page. Last amended Stats. 2016, ch. 79.

For the rest of what can follow a missed date, see missed court in California.