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There is a character in the book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who dons a t-shirt with the slogan ARMAGEDDON WAS YESTERDAY – TODAY WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM. I laughed out loud knowing how germane this was to the state of the commercial bail industry. I vividly recall participating in a panel discussion at the 2006 PBUS Winter Conference, it was the year Dog and Beth Chapman made their first appearance. During this discussion I spoke about the expanding use of deposit bail and its threat to the commercial bail industry.   Dave Stuckman of Kansas receives certfificate for sponsorship. It was my opinion then as now deposit bail is a greater threat to the commercial bail industry than taxpayer funded pretrial service agencies.   Why? Because where public funded pretrial release…

Biloxi, MS – The Mississippi Bail Agents Association held its Annual Assembly and Membership Meeting at the IP Resort and Casino in Biloxi earlier this week. It was a two day meeting July 11-12 consisting of a board meeting on the first day with the general meeting held the following day.   The MBAA is very good about making each bail agent and guest feel welcome. At registration you’re provide an agenda, copy of the By-Laws, current balance sheet and an updated copy of the MBAA Bail Bond Court Procedures Manual, all this and a cool t-shirt to boot.   Each Mississippi bail agent must obtain 16 hours of continuing education prior to license renewal which occurs every two years. The MBAA has made it to where their members can earn eight hours…

Benjamin Franklin was known to have said, the only things certain in life are death and taxes.  So, while we believed the return of commercial bail to Wisconsin was certain, alas it was not to be, yet.  The amendment to the Wisconsin State Budget that would have returned the use of commercial bail bonds back to the State was stripped from the budget by Gov. Walker.   Reinstituting commercial bail would have resulted in improved appearance rates, millions of dollars in annual revenues generated from license fees, premium taxes and bond forfeiture revenue and more than 1000 new jobs.     Gov. Scott Walker stated in his Veto Message, " ...this (bail) provision..does not provide sufficient time to properly evaluate the proposal and to plan for appropriate regulation of this industry prior to the…

Then there were three.  Wisconsin is one of four states that currently does not permit money bail.  This may change as early as today.  The Wisconsin legislature approved the budget yesterday and shipped it off to Governor Walker for his signature.  The budget includes the reinstatement of commercial bail in Wisconsin which has been outlawed in this state since 1979.   The American Bail Coalition, of which American Surety Company is a proud member, has been behind the effort to bring commercial bail back to Wisconsin.  While ABC has been working the last three years to bring bail bonds back to Oregon, the process in Wisconsin has been significantly different.  With the Republicans winning control of both the House and Senate after the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, the state has been in a private sector fervor ever since. …

South Bend, Indiana – A number of concerned bail agents answered a call to action and made their way, from points all around the state, to South Bend on Wednesday, June 8.        The purpose of this call to action was to have as many bail agents as possible register with St. Joseph County Clerk of Court and the jail to write bail in a county which for the last 40 years has accepted only 10% of the bond in cash, no bail bonds accepted.   Needless to say, when 25 bail agents descended upon the county clerk’s office in South Bend it caused quite a stir. Phones were ringing all over town. What’s a bail bond? How do we file a qualifying power and what do we do with it…

This past week I attended the ISBAA Spring Meeting in Indianapolis and the TAPBA General Meeting and Continuing Education Class in Pigeon Forge. You could not pick two more distinctly different bail bond markets and associations if you tried. Both states have their market threats and both have an upside.   For starters, the number of licensed bail agents in Indiana has shrunk to 350 while Tennessee boasts around 1400 bail agents. Bail agents in Indiana must write with corporate surety backing while Tennessee has the option to write either through a surety or on personal assets.   Both Indiana and Tennessee offer classes for required continuing education. While the ISBAA had sixty bail agents attend the CE portion of the Spring Meeting, Tennessee had more than 350 in attendance at their class.  One…

The Alternative Bond bill SB11-186 died last night, after being assigned to House Appropriations, as the 2011 legislative session ended. The Alternative Bond, at its core, is a scheme for Colorado courts to engage in the bail bond business by collecting premiums normally paid to bail agents for posting a bail bond. Unlike the bail bond agent, the courts would have no risk of paying the full bond if a defendant was not timely rearrested after a failure to appear.   This concept is taken from the old government playbook; take your money with no responsibility to perform and cloak it in a disguise of being in the interest of public safety. SB11-186 had passed through the Senate last week by the narrowest of margins (18-17) and simply did not have sufficient time to…

Shelton, WA – The Washington State Bail Agents Association held its Spring Meeting at the Little Creek Casino south of Puget Sound last Thursday. The morning was devoted to continuing education with the general meeting held in the afternoon.   On the legislative front, nothing passed in the 2011 session that will impact bail in this state.  There has been significant debate on the issue of how much premium a bail agent should collect prior to posting a bond.   The amount included in legislation is 5% of the bond (50% of the premium). This bill is not expected to pass this year but we can expect to see it again in 2012.   I was surprised to learn of the expanding deposit bail operation in Washington. Apparently, there is no statute on the books…

There has probably been no greater counteroffensive mounted by the bail bond industry than the one brought about in Colorado in opposition to SB11-186 – The Alternative Bond bill. Public funded pretrial release proposed the bill early this year and the bail bond industry has responded with an all out assault on this government intrusion into the private sector. It’s a fair fight.   The legislative battle over SB11-186 has yet to be won and in comes Americans for the Preservation of Bail (APOB) with the introduction of HB11-1306 which would push the sunset of bail regulations from 2012 to 2017.   At first look why wouldn’t this be good for the bail bond industry? After all they gave an extension to all other forms of insurance. Well, the bail bond industry is…

In a published decision released Monday, the Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Melissa Kay Sneed in the case of Sneed v. State and against Decatur County on the issue of whether the court should have granted her request to post a bail bond in lieu of a cash bond. For bail bond agents in Indiana this ruling is long overdue.  Too many judges in Indiana have refused a defendant’s option of posting a bail bond and instead have demanded a bond in the form of a full cash bond or a meager cash deposit of 10% (with the balance of the bond being unsecured). In my view this decision will require judges in counties currently closed to bail bonds such as St. Joseph, Bartholomew,…