AWOBB wrote:
It's slow everywhere not just in TN. Summer coming and you'll get busy fast.
I agree. Spring and Summer, particularly now that gas prices are down, are the times when more people are out on the roads and more arrests are being made. There are a lot of DUI's, but also more warrants are served as people are stopped for other traffic violations that turn into more serious charges, and other warrants are found. It is common here for LE to ask for ID on every person in the vehicle, not just the driver. Many warrants have also been served on passengers. It is also common when LE gets called to a residence or public place to run ID's. Again, more warrants served. The more arrests, the more bonds written. For weather-based seasonal workers, more have the money to pay a bondsman, so more bonds are written.
Bail is a very complicated business. It is dependent on the economy, but also on many other factors. Many bondsmen are in and out of business within a few months or a couple of years. These are the ones that get greedy and write careless bonds. They can't afford to pay a BEA, they don't have the experience or knowledge to collect on or apprehend their own bonds, and they can't pay the forfeitures. Either their county, state, or insurance company puts them out of business.
Many of the larger, more experienced bondsmen have in-house agents on salary. The other small independents like me that survive are careful of the bonds that they write, so seldom have jumpers. The ones that we have we personally deal with, and seldom have the need for an outside agent other than to assist with the very few that completely refuse to cooperate. I still do all the research, so only hire muscle to accompany me when I finally have to go door knocking.
I don't do a lot of outside BE anymore, but most of the few times I do so, I either find the person or they hear that I am looking for them and call their bondsman to come in. Everyone has a few failures, but when your success rate and reputation supercedes those, you will get the work as it is available. It takes a lot of hard work to build a reputation that precedes you, but once you do, you are set. It's just getting a start, and getting your name known in your area that is very hard. Ironically, the best reputation that you and your bondsman can have comes from the defendants that you have apprehended. If you have a reputation for success, and it is known that a particular bondsman uses you, the bondsman will gain your reputation. Inmates share information, and if it is known that a particular bondsman has a BEA with a high success rate of recovering skips, the bondsman will get better bond calls.
That is good and bad for recovery. In some cases we work ourselves out of business, but at the same time, some bondsmen will write more risky bonds because they know our experience rating is so high that they have confidence in us. Like I said, it is very complicated. Those who do the research, understand the complexities, and accept them doing what it takes to be successful are the ones that ultimately do succeed. Even those know the difficulties and are diversified in what they do for those slow times.
