68 Op. Att'y Gen. 71 | Wis. Att'y Gen. | 1979
JAMES MOHR, District Attorney Vilas County
Prior to the recent expiration of his term, your predecessor, Timothy Vocke, had asked whether a cash bond which has been declared forfeited, as authorized by sec.
A court's order declaring the bail to be forfeited may be set aside if justice does not appear to require its enforcement. Sec.
The forfeiture statute directs that the proceeds of the judgment should be utilized first to pay costs and that any remaining amount should be applied to payment of the forfeiture judgment. Sec.
In the context of forfeitures, the term "costs" is understood to refer to court costs involved in processing the judgment of forfeiture. Sec.
The statutes provide that proceeds of the judgment of forfeiture "shall be paid to the county treasurer." Sec.
A defendant's forfeiture of a cash bond is unrelated to his or her liability on the underlying charge. It does not amount to paying a fine upon conviction.
The forfeiting of bail does not in any way atone for or dispose of the criminal charge against a defendant and, therefore, he may be brought into court and subsequently tried on the criminal charge and if found guilty as charged, may be fined, said fine having no connection with the amount already forfeited on the bail bond.
41 Op. Att'y Gen. 166, 168 (1952); see also Guenther,
I am aware of a program such as that which you propose having been utilized in only one other jurisdiction. There the statutes specifically directed that the alleged victim should receive the amount forfeited. See Commonwealth v. Jakub,
BCL:KK *73
