Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Bail

Bail is only forfeited when the defendant fails to appear. If you appeared in court when required to do so, then you should be able to reclaim your bail. Some portion of it might be withheld for administrative costs, but the rest is yours.

Winning a false arrest case would require proof that the police had no reasonable basis for believing you might be guilty at the time of the arrest, or that they kept you in custody after they realized you were innocent. The fact that your case was dismissed does not prove that you were innocent and certainly does not prove that the police lacked a reason to suspect you. Unless you can prove that the police arrested you when they knew they should not have done so, your case will be dismissed because the officers and the police department will have immunity.

If you *can* make the necessary showing for a false arrest case, then you won't want to bring it in a small claims court. You will not be able to build the kind of evidentiary record in small claims that you will need to make this sort of case, and the $5,000 small claims limit will probably not be enough to compensate you.