History Main / BailEqualsFreedom

* Invoked in ''The Art of Arrow Cutting'' by Creator/StephenDedman. Mage is up against murder charges, but Charles uses the power of the talisman to win enough money in Vegas to post bail. The evidence against Mage was fairly circumstantial to start with, and he manages to fake his own death before his trial comes up.

* ''Series/MarvelousMrsMaisel'': Although the series does acknowledge that bail does still mean she'll have to appear in court, there is an implication that Midge is through the worse once she'll get out and it's pretty smooth sailing once she goes through.

* Getting arrested in the handheld version ''VideoGame/TheUrbz'' results in either a small fee of 500 credits or barely a few hours of jailtime, though it's justified in that the things you can be jailed for are very petty misdemeanors that no real prison would waste the time and paperwork over (like pissing yourself or falling asleep in public or- during Chapter 4, ''running too fast'').

* {{Averted}} in ''Film/{{Shaft 2000}},'' which is surprising considering how fast and loose they are with the law in the rest of the movie. When Walter Wade Jr. jumps (no pun intended) bail by flying to Switzerland, he is immediately arrested the moment he sets foot back on American soil. Of course, he ends up getting released on bail by the judge ''again'' (highly unlikely in RealLife, given that he's ''proven'' himself a flight risk), making the whole exercise pointless, except as an example of what an entitled {{Jerkass}} the character is. His lawyer argues that taking away his passport is enough to eliminate him as a flight risk. The judge agrees... cue Wade calling Shaft from Switzerland to make fun of him. It's made blatantly clear that [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Wade's father is a very influential man]], and the judge is making all the wrong calls either because he's in the father's pocket or someone higher up is.

* Averted in ''Literature/ACivilCampaign''. On Escobar, a bond is a guarantee of court appearance, but on Jackson's Whole bail means being handed off into the clutches of the one who pays the bail.
-->''"Whatever. The Escobaran Cortes does not, as you seem to think, engage itself in the slave trade. However, it's done on this benighted planet, on Escobar a bond is a guarantee of court appearance, not some kind of human meat market transaction."\\
"It is where I come from," Mark muttered.''

* Defied in ''Literature/IHeardThatSongBefore''. When [[spoiler: Peter]] is eventually charged with [[spoiler: Susan's murder]], he's released on bail with strict conditions, including having to wear an ankle monitor and not being allowed to leave the property save for court dates and medical emergencies. When he inadvertently breaks the bail conditions [[spoiler: while sleepwalking]], he's swiftly jailed again.

* Zig-zagged all over the place in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan.'' Peter Parker assumes this trope is true when he hears Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) has been released on bail and is furious because the evidence Spider-Man helped the police get is impossibly damning. But even though Fisk can return to his cushy penthouses and wealthy "legitimate" businesses, he still has to try and beat the charges leveled against him. Being a crime lord, he plans to get the charges dropped by bribing officials, but even ''that'' process takes months of work. In the meantime, he can't risk involving himself in any potential crimes with the spotlight already on him. So instead Kingpin feeds information on the criminal underworld to Spider-Man to help arrest up-and-coming crime lords (ensuring here's no threats to him when he's able to commit crimes freely again). When the charges are dropped, he proceeds to reign hell on the lives of Spider-Man, Daredevil Iron Fist, and Moon Knight... but is finally arrested ''again'' for attempted murder, this time while he's in the process of boarding a private plane out of the country and bail is not extended. Then in a later comic he somehow inexplicably posts bail ''again''.... Only to be murdered by another super-villain.

* {{Averted}} in ''Film/{{Shaft 2000}},'' which is surprising considering how fast and loose they are with the law in the rest of the movie. When Christian Bale's character jumps (no pun intended) bail by flying to Switzerland, he is immediately arrested the moment he sets foot back on American soil. Of course, he ends up getting released on bail by the judge ''again'' (highly unlikely in RealLife, given that he's ''proven'' himself a flight risk), making the whole exercise pointless, except as an example of what an entitled {{Jerkass}} the character is. His lawyer argues that taking away his passport is enough to eliminate him as a flight risk. The judge agrees... cue Bale's character calling Shaft from Switzerland to make fun of him. It's made blatantly clear that Bale's character's father is a very influential man, and the judge is making all the wrong calls either because he's in the father's pocket or someone higher up is.