Danger of Being a Flight Risk in Maryland Gun Cases

A major concern in gun cases is that an individual may be a flight risk. A flight risk is a person that the court believes would not come to court on their scheduled trial date. The court may determine that someone is a flight risk if, for example, they have had a failure to appear in their record in the past. They also could be considered a flight risk if they are not from the area in which they were arrested. If someone lives several states away or if they are transient, it is possible that they are just not going to come back to court. The danger of being a flight risk in Maryland gun cases could affect the judge’s willingness to release the defendant on their own recognizance, which is why it is important to work with an adept gun lawyer that could advocate for them.

Securing Bond

One way that the court can mitigate the danger of being a flight risk in Maryland gun cases is by making the person secure a bond. There are two ways that a person can post a bond in Maryland. They could either pay the money directly to the court or they could utilize the bail bondsman. The biggest benefit is that the person does not have to pay the full amount of their bond.

They pay a percentage of it to a bail bondsman (and that money is not refundable), and the bail bondsman posts the entire bond and basically serves as the guarantor that this person will come back to court. If the person fails to appear, then the bail bondsman often times has the authority to then go find that person and bring them back to court. Paying the money directly to the court can be more difficult because the court would require the defendant to provide the entire bond amount.

Benefit of Paying Bond to the Court

The benefit of paying bond to the court is that the person gets it all back if they appear in court and they do not have a failure to appear. Also, for posting a bond to the court, in some circumstances the courts will consider a property bond, so that can be helpful. The benefit of the judge making the person pay a bond is that hopefully they will not disappear or fail to appear because they are financially invested or they have a family member now who is financially invested in making sure that they come to court.If they think someone is a flight risk, they could continue to hold that person in jail pending trial or they could order that the person post a bond so that he or she is now financially invested in coming back to court.

Why Might a Person Facing Gun Charges Be More of a Flight Risk?

Whether or not someone is a flight risk is definitely a sliding scale and the more serious the crime, the more the court errs on the side that the person has more of an interest to not return because of the significance and severity of the charges that they face. Gun charges are considered to be serious crimes. Since they are considered to be serious crimes, it is possible that a judge would require a higher bond to make sure that that person is actually going to come back for court.

How a Maryland Gun Lawyer Can Help

The danger of being a flight risk in Maryland gun cases can have real consequences for an individual. A judge may be less inclined to release someone because they fear that the defendant will try to flee. Attorneys could gather information from the defendant and from the defendant’s family or friends, in order to explain to the court that this person is not a flight risk. For example, the person is not a flight risk because they are employed here even though they just recently moved here, they are renting a house or they recently purchased the house, etc.

The attorney’s job is to present to the judge all the information to make the judge believe that this person is going to stay right here and is going to appear for court when told to do so. The attorney’s job is to explain to the court all the different ways in which this person is rooted in their community and does not pose a flight risk. If an individual has been charged with a gun offense, they should speak with a qualified drug attorney that could work towards a positive outcome for them.