Appeal Holds Up Forfeiture of $700,000 Bond

Yeah its always good to have em check in, with a bond that size also, we always make sure they have an attorney lined up also, that can make a big difference. Usually if they can afford that kind of premium, they can afford a good attorney

_________________
Shane Lowery
Freddie Haddad Bail Bonds
Monroe, La
318-325-1600

We have our bondsman always fill out an information sheet that I made for the company. I did not care if it was a felony or a misdemeanor they are always filled out. Most individuals in the bonding business develop clients that stay with them and by filling out the sheet everytime you can learn quite alot about who they hang around with, live with etc. that they may not have divulged to you on other information sheets. I think they call this developing intel on your clients without their knowing, you learn about their habits and needs very quitely by always filling out an information sheet on your client and any and all co-signers.

I would want all the Bondsman to always obtain a booking ticket also as this can verify any information that they may be telling you. You can find out if they lied to Law Enforcement or are telling you a story by comparing these 2 documents. I always had a rule of thumb... If they had the nerve to lie to Law Enforcement then they have no trouble telling a Bondsman a lie and I would not bond them.

I usually don't worry about the large bonds, over $50k as much as I do on th $2k - $5k. On the smaller bonds the defendants often don't take the case / charges seriously. On large bonds we have verified collateral, period!

I do run a data search on ALL potential new clients before we even decide to bail them. We often pull up old cases, many addresses and sometimes several akas with the same social. Thats gives us a heads up. If we do write the bond, we let them know if they try to give us bad or outdated info.

As more and more people are going to pre paid cellular phone plans, we are getting less defendants with land lines in the home. So, we have to get more references from relatives or neighbhors to ensure that we have a good phone number that doesn't change every month.

The bottom line is if a defendant skips, we actively look for them. If we have to pay the summary judgment, we pay it!

We have only had to pay one, $1,600.

Don't forget email addresses, myspace accounts etc.

We also us a toll free number trap line that they have to call in to every week. If they thought of FTA'ing, the fact that you are keeping tabs on them makes them think twice. They also agree to home visits just like parole and probation in my bail agreement, without notice.

Tony, we don't have a bail schedule like you gys out there, around here, we compete with the court. We can bring in a fugitive that skipped on a competitor's $50k bond, and they will give him a $2,500.00 10% to the court bond! It makes me sick.

The point is, that when this happens, and you are not generating the money that you are used to making, you have to be most careful about what you write. When bills are due, a less disciplined individual could talk themselves into writing a bad bond.

I wrote bonds for 5 years before I wrote a bond over $25k. Around here, it is not uncommon for competeing bondsman to split liability on larger bonds.

On bonds that I feel are bad, I would rather a competitor write them and pay me to pick up the skips. No insurance premiums, BUF or court fees.

Scott

_________________
R.E. "Scott" MacLean III

"Leaders are like Eagles, you never see them in a flock, but one at a time"

Chesapeake Group Investigations, Inc.
Chesapeake Bail Bonds
877-574-0500
301-392-1100 (fax)
301-392-1900 (Office)

Scott,

I think some jugdes just don't get it. We have surrendered skips that a soon as they get back in front of the judge, they set the same or even a lower bail amount on the defendant!

Once, I even recommended to a judge that the defendant should not have bail as he FTA'ed on his first court appearance and ran to Las Vegas from California. Picked up new charges in Nevada and had to be extradited back to the Bay Area. He was granted the same bail amount as when we bailed him.

on a bond that big i would have a covert gps tracking unit installed on his vehicle--I relize that he could use other vehicles or transportation but at least you have a chance

While I am not informed on the collection law in states out of my area of operation in nh vt me mass it could take many years to foreclose on a home or property of the indemnitor if you only took a mortgage--at least with a recorded quick claim dead you can take steps asap to sell the property(I believe you would still have to go thru eviction procedures-again could be a long process)--and your lawyer is going to love you because you are sending his kids to college--also up here it is so easy to slip into canada you would not believe it-- a short time ago i did a repo in canada by accident--the house was in vt and the backyard was canada-the only reason i found out that the back yard was canada is i tripped on a cement border stake in the ground when i exited the truck after taking it from the backyard onto the driveway