Questions for Bond Indemnitors. What do YOU ask?

I thought maybe this would be a good topic for all bail bondsmen.

I just received a bail bond call from an individual that was calling from my local area, but he was using a cell phone number with a California area code. His wife (or so called wife) was incarcerated for a domestic situation. He stated that they were renting where they lived, and his wife was unemployed. When I asked about his employment, he told me where he worked, but added, "I'm not happy there and I'm looking for another job." I asked him to provide me with his wife's birth date and he did not know it, and acted floundered. After trying to verify more information without results, I advised him to try another bonding company.

When YOU receive a call or a walk-in from an indemnitor (co-signer), what are the most pertinent questions (in your opinion) YOU ask about their qualifications to do a signature bond? i.e. Employment, Net Worth, Property ownership, etc. Does your company or agency have a specific list of questions you ask, or is it done "on the fly"?

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Joshua P. Woodby
P.I./Surety Agent/Washington Co. TN Appointed Process Server
Owner, A Beagle Investigations and Process Service
TN P.I. License #6232, TN P.I. Company License #1496
Senior Agent, A Bail Away Bonding Company Inc.
T.A.P.B.A. Certification Always Current

We use what we call a pre-app. It's a list of questions about the bond, the inmate and the co-signer. If anything is out of the ordinary we dig deeper depending on the red flag. (OUT OF STATE area code, SSN#, family members, etc...) If everything checks out, we transfer all of this information to the application/contract.

If you bond people "on the fly", eventually you will get burned.

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Jay Shell
Covering North East AL.
AAA / Eagle Bail Bonds, LLC
Anniston, AL
256.235.2437

I agree with Jay.

Most professional, legitimate, and established bonding companies have a screening process in place before agreeing to actually writing the bond. However, in smaller, rural areas, 'Mom and Pop" outfits will often bond locals out w/o the pre-screening. Part of the "good ol boy" network. But even those have been known to burn people.

There are several industry "rules" if you will that come into play here:

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"; "Work smarter, not harder"; "Writing any paper leads to no paper".

If you create, institute and maintain a consistent pre-screening policy among all of your posting agents, "Wright tight", and fill out every single blank on your bond apps, then you tremendously reduce your liability and increase your profits.

Basic questions: Residential and employment history, 3 COMPLETE character references (dob's); valid d/l's, c/s information, etc.

1 thing that I used to do as a posting agent that no one else did was that I would ask for the 3 references in advance. I would tell the defendant that I was going to call them RIGHT THEN and if I got a disconnected number, a wrong number, or if they declined knowing the def. I would leave them in jail. This stopped alot of the lying and misinformation that some of my predeccessors had endured and I also got a reputation as being a no-nonsense agent.

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River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

I always ask if they have a job and a social....
I'm just getting started with that as an opener....

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Kate
650.863.8470

" Yeah, I see ya, you ding dong..."

We work for one of the biggest and oldest bonding companies in the state. The problem we run into is the lack of good information on the applications for the defendant and the co-signer. The company employs 100+ bondsman. They get payed for every bond they write, so they try to write as many as they can. Some of the files are fairly easy to work, but others are a nightmare. We've talked to the company hoping they'll talk to the bondsman about verifying more of the info on the applications. It makes our job a lot harder when all we have to go on is a name, d.o.b., and a cell phone number! The addresses turn out to be vacant, the jobs are bogus, etc. If you want to secure your bond, put in the extra time and effort to verify some of the info the defendant and the co-signer put on the applications!!

Instead of asking the bonding company to speak to the agents, do it yourself. Request to attend a regularly scheduled in house staff meeting, training session, etc. Give a 15 minute presentation, take some of the worst apps with you and put them on the overhead.

You can also reccommend to the company that if a person skips, and the bond app is poorly written or unverified, that the posting agent lose that particular commission via payroll deduction. This is a huge incentive to the agents to begin treating the business as if it was thier very own company.

The other item I would discuss with your client to support this meeting is that what profit does a company make if all the money they are bringing in is lost to BEA expenses, attorneys, court costs, and forfietures ?

You want to motivate people to be professional/responsible, hit them where it counts...in thier wallets.

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River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

This is very difficult to give a one size answer fits all situations.

Every question you ask the defendant and co signers is important! Small talk about the color of their car or is it reliable can help you locate them if needed. What grade in school are their children in? Do they like their teacher or principal, etc? All questions will provide you with some piece of information that can help locate them.

Up front, let them know what the bond will cost. Sometimes that ends it right there because they don't have and can
come up with all the bail premium.

Let them know that their co signer needs to be employed fulltime and have proper id. That is local, current and legal identification.

In CA, we have plenty of transients and of course illegals. Have we bailed them in the past? Yes we have with very few problems. It was the co signer that we made sure was legal, working and had collateral we could go after to cover the bond.

Now, we just don't do illegals at all. ICE is deporting them like crazy and we don't need the extra paperwork that involves.

I also run most defendants through IRB right after gettiing the booking info and before I call any co signers. That way I have already verified prior criminal cases, addresses and got their social security number.

If the defendant or co signer then gives false info or tries to hide anything, the process stops and they can call someone else.

Watch their body movement when they talk to you. Even on the phone you can listen for changes in pitch or speed when they answer certain questions. That can help you determine if they are lying or not.

Even though it is tv, try to catch Lie to Me on Fox on Wednesdays. It is based on real techinques in detecting body and speech changes when someone is lying.

I don't just ask questions that are on the bond app. I chat with the defendant and co signers, their kids and anyone else that comes with them. I become their new best friend. I flirt with the women, if my wife is not around! I get all kinds of personal information about them that they don't even realize they are giving up.

One example was a women that came in to bail her brother. We got started talking about girlfriends / boyfriends. Her brother was charged with a domestic against his girlfriend. The sister and I talked about high school sweet hearts etc.
She stated that she did not have a boyfriend and of course I asked if all the boys in her class when she was in school, were stupid or what.

Turns out she "likes" girls. Has a "girlfriend and they like to go to a particular club or movie theatre, etc. So I have a pretty good idea of where I can find her. Oh, she also showed me a picture of her friend.

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R&R
Professional Skip Trace Service
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Turns out she "likes" girls. Has a "girlfriend and they like to go to a particular club or movie theatre, etc. So I have a pretty good idea of where I can find her. Oh, she also showed me a picture of her friend.[/quote]


Holly cow,that's just nasty....

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R&R
Professional Skip Trace Service
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No, thats just California!