Although most people avoid serious legal trouble throughout their lives, your friend has just been arrested for their first time and needs to be bailed out. They called you, and you aren’t sure how to help them through this situation. Thankfully, you can utilize the following techniques below to talk to your friend and help them through what can be a stressful experience.
Find Out What Happened
When your friend calls you and asks you to bail them out, you must ask them what happened. If you’re going to give them money, you deserve to know the truth. Demand that they discuss the situation as honestly as possible and describe what happened in great detail. They’ll likely have a lot to say and need someone who they can discuss the story with.
Importantly, your conversation needs to be held with no judgment over what happened. Right now, your friend is probably feeling persecuted and needs someone who will support them without question. Even if you find what happened to be questionable or even immoral, you should hold your judgment in check while talking about bail.
Stay Calm and Rational
After you figure out what happened that led to your friend needing bail, you must keep a calm and rational state of mind. This emotional state may be hard to maintain if the bond was a large sum of money that you can’t afford to pay at the moment. However, calmness is critical for your friend and yourself.
For example, your friend may have been involved in a bar fight and feels unjustly picked on by the police while those who started the fight are still running free. This situation could become a bad one if they decide to retaliate against the individuals involved in the bar fight, so you need to counter these heavy emotions with calmness and rationality.
Provide Support as Needed
Next, you need to make sure that you put aside your needs for a while to help your friend. This situation doesn’t mean that you should let them do whatever they want. However, you do need to provide them with emotional support by talking in kind and generous ways.
For example, while you may understandably want to take about how they’ll pay you back for the bail, you should skip this talk for a while. Most people just out of jail are going to be in a relatively rough emotional state and will need some time to recover. Try to be that supporting friend and give them time to fully recover from the shock of the situation before any talk of repayment occurs.
Highlight the Consequences of Skipping Bail
Lastly, when your loved one gets out of jail, you must sit down with them and talk about what will happen if they try to skip bail. Some individuals — particularly if they’ve never been involved in a criminal case — may panic and try to get away from the situation. Make sure that you let them know what will happen if they try to flee.
For example, they will not only continue to face their pending charges but will likely face additional ones for trying to skip bail. Importantly, you should also let them know that you will lose out on the money you paid for the bond. Those who aren’t moved by the legal consequences they will experience may want to avoid hurting others, like you.
Get Professional Help
As you can see, talking to a friend about bail bonds requires a lot of patience and empathy. So if you go through this challenging process and you need help staying focused on helping your loved one, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Affordable Bail Bonds to learn more. We will help you get the money that you need and give you insight into the bail process in a variety of ways.
