Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: bail amount

When a person is booked into jail, the arresting officer usually looks up the charge on a bail schedule and lists the bail amount. When the accused goes to court, the judge has the authority and discretion to set the bail amount at the first court appearance. There is a "bail schedule" in every county that sets a presumptive bail amount for every criminal offense. The judge usually follows that guideline, unless there are reasons to go up or down.

Without knowing the specific charge, etc., I can only guess why bail would have increased $15,000. It may have been incorrectly set by the arresting officer, there may have been probation violations, additional or different charges may have been filed by the DA that the person wasn't booked for, etc.

Re: bail amount

Bail can be raised or lowered at arraignment because one of the lawyers brings something to the judge's attention that convinces him or her that the standard bail amount shown on the bail schedule is not appropriate in a particular case. Bail is always an issue at arraignment, without anyone filing any motion or papers in advance.

For future reference and more information on bail practices and alternatives you can see this link:

http://dinday.com/info04.htm