Getting Your Cash Bond Back After a Dismissal

Attorney Answer

If the charge was dismissed and you posted the $500 in cash, that money is yours, and the court is required to exonerate the bond. You do not have to prove anything beyond the dismissal.

Idaho Code § 19-2922(1) requires the court to order bail exonerated where the defendant has appeared for all court proceedings as ordered and all charges for which the bail was posted have been resolved by acquittal, dismissal or sentencing. Idaho Code § 19-3503 is even closer to your facts: if the court directs the action to be dismissed, the defendant, if admitted to bail, has his bail exonerated, and money deposited instead of bail must be refunded to him.

That second point answers the question people usually ask next — what can the court keep. Idaho Code § 19-2908 is the deduction provision: where a cash bail deposit remains at the time of judgment or an order withholding judgment, the clerk applies it to fines, fees, costs and restitution and refunds the surplus to the person who posted it. A dismissal does not produce a judgment. With no judgment, no fine or cost is imposed, and the deduction mechanism has nothing to operate on. The full deposit should come back.

Two practical points on who gets paid. The refund goes to the person who deposited the money — if a relative posted it in their own name, the check goes to them, not to you, unless the court has an assignment on file. And if a bail bond company posted a surety bond for you rather than you depositing cash with the court, the premium you paid that company is its fee for the service; it is not money the court is holding, and exoneration of the bond does not return it.

What you can do

1. Get a certified copy of the order of dismissal from the clerk of the court where the case was heard. 2. Ask the clerk whether an order exonerating bond has been entered. Dismissal and exoneration are two separate entries, and the second is sometimes simply never made. 3. If it has not been entered, ask the court to enter it. A short written request in the case, referencing the dismissal, is usually enough. 4. Complete whatever bond release or refund form the clerk uses, and give a current mailing address plus the exact name that appears on the bail receipt. 5. Bring your original bail receipt if you have it. If you do not, the clerk can locate the deposit by case number. 6. If the refund is delayed, reduced, or applied to something, ask in writing which statute the deduction is being made under, and point out that a dismissal produced no judgment. 7. If it still is not resolved, file a written motion in the case for exoneration of bond and return of the bail deposit.