Court clerk refuses to provide BailPiece to bondsman

Here's a scenario for you.

Had an indemnitor call and want to revoke a bond. I discussed the process and determined that the SIQ was not necessarily a flight risk but had just had a few less than serious altercations with the indemnitor on the bond, his brother. I suggested all involved wait a few days and see if things cooled down since the defendant had not skipped or missed a court date or violated his bond in any other manner.

Just as a precaution as I do in like situations... I pulled the bail piece off the state website, filled it in, ran 3 copies and stuck it in the bond jacket. The next time I was in the area... next day... I walked into the clerks office to have the bailpiece signed so I could have it 'just in case'. Let me clarify one thing...... this was a JDR case and in Virginia a bailpiece for JDR or Circuit court must be signed by a circuit court clerk... whereas a lower court (general district) may be signed by either a clerk of General district court or a magistrate.... since courts are closed on weekends and I might have to serve this on the weekend if it came up.... I figured to go on and get the bailpiece signed and just keep it for possible use later. I have done this in many courts throughout Virginia over the years with no problems.

The clerk of this particular JDR (Circuit court) said that she would sign but had to retain the capias for service by that counties sheriff department. I explained what was going on and that I needed to have the copy to serve if needed and she refused. I further explained that the defendant had not broken any laws in the county or state and the bailpiece was for service by a bondsman for revocation due to breaking of bonding conditions and had basically nothing to do with LE.

She then tells me that the sheriff's dept. serves all bailpieces in that county and the bondsman gets a copy after the fact. I could see this was going nowhere so I thanked her and left.

My next move is to approach the JDR or Circuit court judge with the code of Va reflecting that the bailpiece is in fact for use by the bondsman to revoke a bond at any time he feels it is necessary. I haven't done this as yet but was interested what you might have to say about the clerks refusal to sign and supply me with the bailpiece....

Ever run into this in your businesses...............




....... here is an afterthought related........

If LE serves all bailpieces, doesn't that in some instances produce some apparent problems... given this scenario.... lets assume you have information that a SIQ is going to skip.... you go for the bailpiece and the county refuses your copy and gives the service to LE... now they ride out to the SIQ's house, probably in the middle of the day... with at least 2 uniformed officers and walk up and knock on the door... if the SIQ does not come to the door or if the person answering the door says that they do not know where the person is... the officers have no authority to go further and must leave to either obtain a search warrant (which they will not do) or come back at a later time.... obviously if the SIQ is going to skip and he now knows the law is after him........ what a really nice head start he now has since LE and the courts have now alerted him.......... so now what.......................... see how this can turn against you very fast..... LE can be very helpful but let me make the call on when and where................................ the bailpiece is for the bondsman, not LE......

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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 is an afterthought related........


Exactly!

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