Excessive bail is an unreasonably high amount of bail for a misdemeanor charge. It originated in England, and the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment protects against it. Judges must set an appropriate amount, not disproportionate to similar crimes, to avoid penalizing or intimidating defendants. Attorneys can argue for reduced bail if it is unreasonable.
The term “excessive bail” appears most commonly in the United States legal system. Over bail is an amount of bail that is deemed to be unusually and unreasonably high under the circumstances. This usually occurs in the context of bail being set for misdemeanors. If a defendant believes bail is excessive, he may file a motion to reduce bail. It is potentially possible to use excessive bail as a reason for a case where someone claims their civil rights have been violated.
The origins of this concept lie in England, where historically sheriffs could determine when defendants were to be released on bail and set the amount of bail. However, concerns arose about abuse of power, as sheriffs were inconsistent at times. As a result, the government passed laws determining what types of offenses are subject to bail, and the concept of excessive bail grew out of this. When drafting the US Constitution, the Eighth Amendment included specific protection against excessive bail.
By law, when a judge sets bail in a case, he can assess the circumstances to determine an appropriate amount. The bail must be high enough for the defendant to retrial for real inducement, but cannot be so high that the defendant has no reasonable expectation of raising the funds. Even if a defendant has the money, the bail amount cannot be disproportionate to the bail amounts set for similar crimes. For example, two people charged with the same crime with the same flight risk shouldn’t have different bail amounts.
The concern with a large bail amount is that bail could be so high that the defendant is forced to remain in jail awaiting trial, even though they should be entitled to the opportunity to post bail and be released. Similarly, a high bail could be used to penalize or intimidate. For example, a minor accused of committing a minor nuisance offense who is asked to post $400,000 United States Dollars (USD) bail may argue that he has been treated unfairly.
Attorneys who regularly work in court on criminal cases are generally familiar with bail amounts. If an attorney believes that a client is being asked to post bail that is unreasonable, you can argue that too much bail has been requested and ask the court to reduce the bail amount.
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