Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

This is why people should never ever go to their first court date without a lawyer. Odds are your husband said or did something to piss off the judge, who is free to raise or lower his bail for nearly any reason.

This wasn't 'rearrest', it was bail revocation and reassessment. To prevent these problems is why most people hire counsel to argue and negotiate for them.

The simple answer to your question is: "Yes, the Judge can do that." The important lesson to learn from this episode is that the court room is the Judge's house and therefore the Judge can basically do what he or she wants, how he or she wants and when he or she wants. What happened was that for some unknown reason, the Judge decided that bail was necessary in your husband's case. The reason why the Judge decided to require bail may be any number of different things and unless you or your husband understood everything that was being said you may have missed the reason. The DA may have asked for bail or may have asked for a bail hearing and the Judge decided to require bail until a hearing to decide the matter. Whatever the reason, right now - does not matter. What you need to realize is you will need the assistance of an attorney. Your husband may have been able to avoid his current set of circumstances if he had an attorney. Your husband has two choices in regards to an attorney. He can hire a private attorney or he can inform the court he can not afford an attorney and a Public Defender will be appointed to him. In regards to bail. A bondsman is going to generally require a 10% fee for the bond. So, for example, if your husband's bond is for $5,000.00 he will have to pay $500.00 for the bond. Most bondsman will allow the defendant or the defendant's family to make payments. You must use a bondsman or you will have to come up with the entire $5,000.00. Some bondsman will drop the fee to 8 and half percent if you are using a private attorney. I suggest you stop wasting valuable time and start finding an attorney you can afford. Your husband is obviously in a serious predicament and the sooner he has someone working for him the better off he will be.

Good Luck,

Brian D. McGinity