Verify your warrants

Just a helpful hint to new people in the industry. We picked up a new file today from one of the bondsman we work for. Looked it over and made a few calls to verify things on the defendant and co-signers information. Things looked up and up. We figured this would be a simple arrest. We make it a habit to look into the subjects criminal history to see if they have violent tendencies and such. We found our case in a long list of offenses. Looking at the court record of events, we noticed that he had turned himself in a couple days ago and gotten a new court date. NO WARRANT. We always call and verify a warrant just before arresting a subject, so we would have found this out tomorrow. The only problem is, we would have driven all the way across the state for nothing! This warrant came out of a smaller county. It takes them a while to do all the paperwork and notify the bond company. Good thing we checked.

Yep, that is always a hazzard and something that needs to be continually monitored. We can verify a warrant in the morning, and find that it has been cured by the evening. This comes from personal experience.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Rule #1: Always, always verify your warrants before heading out or spending any money.

Rule#2: Alawys check local jails to see if the def is locked up on different charges. Not all county/municipal jails talk to each other.

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River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

I concur with the prior comments, as a professional your actions should be an operational standard for all to model. I applaud you for taking the time to do it correctly, pre-planning prevents problems.

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Domestic Security Investigations
P.O. Box 4462
Rockville, MD 20849
Tel: 1-800-387-0787
Anti-Moral Majority Club President
"Fear not the unknown, Fear the person who controls the unknown" Gene 7:14

Notify the bonding company????... you mean the court notifies the bonding company???? That is something that never, never happens around here... now I do have clerks that are personal friends that will call us if something happens with one of our clients but as a general rule the courts in VA do not make it a habit to contact bonding companies except of course to serve show causes...

and another question............. I think I am understanding you here..... your talking of course about warrants issued by the court or LE.... what about the bail piece... surety capias or whatever you call it there.... if the bondsman wants off his bond don't you do the pickup anyway??? New court date or not.... regardless of other warrants that may or may not be out there, active or not.... the bail piece is the serving paper that authorizes the pickup in the end... if that is signed and in hand... that's it. Is it not?

Technically, if a bondsman doesn't like the way a defendant parts his hair, he can come off the bond. Period.... that is of course an over simplification but still factual.

_________________
Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"

We haven't had any instances yet to where the bond company wanted off the bond. If they did, you bet we'd go pick up the person. In this case, we're still trying to figure out what's going on. The warrants division we spoke to last night said the guy was released on a signature bond with a new court date. Our bond was ordered forfeited 2 weeks ago. We were instructed to contact the bond company to file to get their bond money back. The bond company called yesterday morning and verified the warrant. Our MNCIS check verified everything going on with the court along with the call to the warrant division. Wires got crossed somewhere! I'm thinking the bondsman just handed us the file without checking to see what was actually going on. Long story short, no warrant and no revocation of the bond.

smart

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

I really must be dense on this but let me get this straight.



Revoking the bond is the reason I employee BEA... there is no other reason for me to lock up the defendant... in order to get off (revoke) the bond and not face a forfeiture.... if the defendant misses a court date or violates conditions, we revoke.



That action shouldn't have anything to do with the other bond... aren't you talking two completely different bonds here???



So if the bonding company paid the forfeiture... they should do the paperwork to recover the money... ????? BEA's do recovery work.... they have nothing to do with the actual bond, except to pick up the skip, return him to jail and have the bail piece served, signed and returned to the bonding company, who in turn present this to the appropriate court, who then refund the forfeiture...

You are BEA... you contracted with a bonding company to pick up a skip... before you could make the pickup.... the skip turned himself in but the bond had already forfeited two weeks ago.... the bonding company says they don't want off the bond???.... if the bond forfeited, their already off the bond... if the bonding company wants to get its forfieted money back THEY need to do the paperwork with the court and show that the defendant is back in custody... right???? So what are you as a BEA doing filing paperwork to recover a forfeiture???? and what difference does it make that there are no other warrants on this guy... if the bail piece is active and the bondsman wants off the bond... there don't need to be any other active warrants.



Verified the warrant???? I thought you said there was no warrant.... or are you talking about the bail piece/surety capias???



Revocation of the bond takes place automatically when the bail piece/surety capias is served on the defendant.... whether another warrant is active or not.

Now, what part of this am I missing.... this is not a complicated process but you have me totally confused...Please understand... I am only trying to decipher what you have written here as it relates to my position as a Virginia bondsman. The procedures you are talking about do not occur in my state...

_________________
Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"

Here, it is a revoke "if" the bond is not yet in forfeiture status. Once the bond is in forfeiture status, returning the person to custody is a "curing of the forfeiture." The only way the original bond could be reinstated to the court is by "Consent" of the bondsman. Other ways the forfeiture could be cured would be if the defendant got arrested by LE prior to the bondsman paying the forfeiture, the bondsman locating the defendant in custody in another state, the defendant dies, or the bondsman paid the forfeiture. Once the forfeiture is paid, the bondsman has 1 year from the date paid to personally or through his/her agents return the defendant to custody and Motion the court for remission on the forfeiture. If the defendant gets picked up by LE during this time, too bad.

I think what Icer was saying was that his team was told by authorities to let the bondsman know that the bond had been cleared so the bondsman could file a motion to get the money back.

Many of us get paid if we can cause a bond exoneration due to actions outside of an actual apprehension. Many bondsman are able to do the motions themselves, but some are not. If the motions are not worded correctly, citing the appropriate statutes, etc, they will get rejected. Obviously the bondsman should pay a little something for the investigation and report, but not the full amount. If however, all of the research is done and put into the proper formatting, wording, fact-giving, etc by the BEA, then it is due a higher price.

I prepare all of my own motions. Some are standard (just change the name and amount), sign them and file them. Some are very in depth because of the specific situation that will cause the exoneration. Yes, when I hire a person it with the intent of having the defendant picked up, but if the BEA then finds that it is impossible because of a mitigating circumstance (remember my impersonation post?) then the bond was exonerated by my efforts.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Well, that may all be true in Colorado, Arkansas, MS or whatever but let me tell you about Virginia...



It is revoked if the judge revokes it or if the defendant is picked up and a court signed bail piece/surety capias is served on him. According to VA code, we can do this any time we feel it is necessary and it can be done by the bondsman or his appointed Bail Enforcement agent... "A bail bondsman or his licensed bail enforcement agent on a bond in a recognizance may at any time arrest his principal and surrender him to the court before which the recognizance was taken or before which such principal's appearance is required, or to the sheriff, sergeant or jailer of the county or city wherein the court before which such principal's appearance is required is located"

If the defendant FTA's the court has 45 days to serve the bondsman with a 'show cause' ... according to Va code 19.2-143: "The show cause notice shall be issued within 45 days of the breach of the condition of appearance."

I have had a number of cases go past the 45 days.... and when presented to the judge on the case... he just looks at me and says.... "well, we are still going to forfeit Mr. Marx..." and when I ask him about the particular code he says that "it is open to interpretation"... ghee... I thought the Code of Virginia was the law....?????? so they can pick and choose which laws to interpret and which to enforce.... as Scott said recently... they legislate from the bench, rather than judge and enforce the law...

The only good thing here.... IMHO is that we can usually bump along for about 60 to 90 days looking and getting continuances until the judge finally issues the forfeiture order and at that point we still have 150 days to pay the money.... about 5 months... Va Code: if the court finds the recognizance or any part thereof should be forfeited, the default shall be recorded therein, unless the defendant or juvenile is brought before the court within 150 days of the findings of default



... and it has been my experience that in Virginia that is about the only way to "cure a forfeiture" as Kathy has stated... then the process of getting your money back begins... that process is relatively simple... all I have ever done is take my bail piece/surety capias that has been signed by the jailer upon his taking custody of the defendant... to the clerks office of the jurisdiction named and within a few days I have received a check in the amount of the forfeiture... the clerk writes whatever needs to be processed... and I don't pay anyone to process this paper... it just gets done.



That won't happen if I wrote the bond... "once burned, I learn"...



We have 2 years in Virginia...

... and one other thing... have you ever had a jailer absolutely refuse to sign your capias.. because some do not know what it is and they are scared to sign something.... duhhhhh.... happens to me sometimes... show them this little tidbit.... :

Va code: § 19.2-150. Proceeding when surety surrenders principal.
If the surrender is to the court, the court shall make such order as it deems proper; if the surrender is to a sheriff or jailer, the officer to whom the accused has been surrendered shall give the surety a certificate of the fact.

Well, I sort of got off the subject a bit but I figure this info should maybe help some of you with a little extra ..... I'm done.

_________________
Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"