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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,…

Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee passed SB11-186 out of committee by a 5-3 vote. Committee Chair Senator Steadman moved the bill to the front of the line when three committee members opposing the bill were delayed (they were caught in traffic). Senator Steadman refused a request for another vote by the belated senators in opposition to passing SB11-186 out of committee, opting instead to take the bill to a floor vote. One has to wonder how a bill that has been determined, if passed would have negative fiscal impact of $500,000 to Colorado’s general fund, could pass out of the Appropriations Committee. Politics replaced the public interest in this case. SB11-186 is scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor today. Surety company members of the American Bail Coalition and the Colorado Bail…

Austin, TX – I attended the 2nd Quarterly Meeting of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin last week. The beautiful weather belied the continuing problem for the bail industry in Travis County; attorneys charging clients to obtain release on personal recognizance. Local attorney Eve Schatelowitz Alcantar was a guest speaker and spoke about how attorneys flaunt the fact that neither the law nor the State Bar is taking notice of the practice of several local lawyers operating as defacto bail agents by arranging for defendants to be released on personal recognizance bonds and then charging them for “jail release”. These attorneys are capitalizing on relationships formed with court clerks and judges receptive to requests to recommend or order a defendant’s release from jail on a PR…

Senate Bill 11-186 was scheduled to be heard today in the Senate Appropriations Committee when Senator Morse, the bill’s sponsor, didn’t show. The bill was ordered held over by Senator Steadman and is expected to be heard next week. It’s very likely Senator Morse has seen the writing on the wall and believes his bill is fated to fail. SB 11-186, should it pass, would run bail agents out of business once the courts began releasing criminal defendants from jail on unsecured bail. Such a move would not only place Colorado bail bond agents on the unemployment scrolls, it would cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue generated annually from the payment of premium taxes, licensing fees, court costs and bond forfeitures. The negative fiscal impact SB 11-186 would create for…

Gone are the days of the bail agent justifying their purpose and function by stating ‘we get our man to court’. That is, if our defendant decides not to show for court, we track him down and return him to the custody of the court at no cost to the taxpayer, and in those few instances where the defendant cannot be located, the bond is paid in full.   Private sector commercial enterprises that assume risk for a profit and carry out their responsibilities, to the best of their abilities in order to avoid loss are under attack by state government entities who seek to put us out of business by getting in our business. Colorado Senator John Morse, sponsor of the bail industry killing legislation known as SB 186, said it…