The Attorneys' guide to bailing their friends out.

It finally happened, you hear, "an inmate from the Shelby County Correctional Center is attempting to contact you."  You knew this day would come, your friend finally got put in jail.  But why are you getting the call? You practice employment law.  All you know about criminal law is how to get speeding tickets.

This guide is to help those attorneys whose practice is far removed from criminal law.

1. Answer the call if you can. Which means you will have to pay, unless your friend in jail put money on the books.  Most likely isn't going to happen. So be prepared to dash to your wallet.

2. In most cases the person will be entitled to a bond. It may take a couple hours for a bond to post so tell your friend to enjoy a  new situation while they wait.  That's when you, the attorney, go to the Shelby County Inmate sight to see the bond amount.  For those of you that don't know:  a bond secures that the person will show up to court.

3. After you figure out the bond, you need to contact a bonding company or expect to pay a cash bond. Bonding companies make you only pay a percentage of the total bond amount. They are on the hook if your friend doesn't show back up. (Not good)

4. Now you have the bonding company, and it's time to get your friend out of jail. The bonding company will post the bond and your friend will be processed out. Once again, this may take a couple of hours.

5.  If you can't bond your friend out, then the next business day he will be arraigned.

6. If they do bond out immediately,  then arraignment will be the following business day as well.

7.At this point, you will want to contact a criminal defense attorney so you can hire them or so they can help you with the process.

As you can tell, it is a rather simple but foreign process to many.

*make sure to ask your friend why they were arrested. This will be important!