You might be wondering that this kind of company that has the name of bail in itself exists and what type of services this actually offers. Now the question here is, what actually is a bail company?
A bail bond company or bail company is a company that helps people that have been charged with criminal offenses to legally live outside of jail while they wait for trial in the US.
State laws usually regulate these bond companies and here you can imagine the regulations will be entire to the next level since they will be complex. There is also a strong movement amount activist and legal groups to totally eliminate these bail companies or maybe less supportive of their system.
So, What Is Bail Then?
When a person in a society is subject to any offense that has disturbed the peace in a society and is on trial whether to release or to punish that person. And when a person is trustworthy in front of the court that court itself releases the person in order for that person to appear on the next date of hearing or to let that person stay in the cell until the final decision, there are laws that allow the person to ask for the bail. which means that the person who is being accused can stay out of the jail on the bail. Bail guarantees the court that the accused person will come back on the hearing date and attend the court until the final decision came.
The bail is in the form of money, which is required by the court once it is applied by the advocates on the behalf of the accused person. The money (bail) is submitted to the court and it can be low and it can be highest to millions though it depends on the court’s decision. The court will hold the money until the accused person meets the conditions of the bail and until the final decision after that court returns the money to the person.
Here comes a question that how the bail companies operate in society.
How Does a Bail Bond Company Operate?
There are many cases where the accused person does not do the offense deliberately or might be an accident but the accused person is not able to pay for bail. Now the bail company offers its services here by selling the accused people a surety bond that means the bond will act as an insurance card between the court and the accused person. Those Individuals who own a bail bond company are sometimes known as bail bondsmen.
How Does a Bail Bond Company Make Money?
A bail bond company operates for the civil society working on the state-regulated laws and provides the money to the bail seeking accused persons. The bail bond charges are set by the companies on a percentage basis and with the percentage as the amount of the bail increases the percentage amount will be increasing too. This is recommended by the lawyers and advocates to their clients to avoid the bail companies and stops them to seek bail bonds. The lawyers ask judges to reduce the bail amount so that the accused person does not have to go for the bail company services and ask for the money that they are not going to get back.
Usually, the percentage of the bail company bonds ranges around 10 percent of the total amount that is to be paid as bail. Moreover, Sometimes the bail bond company may ask to put the jewelry, car, or other valuable assets as collateral to secure the bail bond. This is besides the bond payments that are compulsory to pay. The motive behind this payment of collateral is that if the accused person runs away and do not appear at the hearing the bail amount will be seized by the court and the bail bond company will seize the assets that they have from the accused person by doing this the accused person will be bound to fulfill the court conditions.
Now, What Will Happen If a Client Skips Court?
Well, this is the most important question regarding the bail bond and the payment that is to be paid by the accused person but what will happen if the person who is accused does not appear in court? So the answer is bounty hunters. These bounty hunters are the law enforcement agents that work for the bail bond companies and yes the bail bond companies work on the state law so if the accused person is failed to come to the court on the call, the court orders the bail bond companies t bring the person to the court. So to fulfill this order the companies send their bounty agents to bring the person to court. Bounty hunters are trained in tracking down and safely apprehending fugitives. If the client cannot be located, the bail bond company is responsible for paying the bail to the court. This may force the bail bond company to seize any assets used as collateral for the bond.
How to start a Bail bonds company and Become a Bail Bondsman?
If you are wondering that how can a person become a bail bondsman and earn through this? So as the bail bond company does have the state laws and work according to them so every state has different rules for different companies and as for bail bond company, the person who intends to go for this is required to complete an approved training program, undergo a background check and obtain a surety bond. Most of the states also require licensed bail bond agents to complete continuing education courses as a condition of license renewal. State laws will also require the business itself to go through a separate, corporate licensing process.
There are other things as well that you need to consider before starting your own bail bond business. There are things and laws that may be related to your business activities or may be related to the laws of the state.
Steps to Become a Bail Bondsman are:
- 1- Complete one-year apprenticeship. Stat laws of any place require you to do an apprenticeship before you can become licensed as a bail bondsman. During the apprenticeship, you should learn to perform all activities related to this business that is normally conducted by a bail bondsman.
- 2- For any kind of legal business you need to check and pass the test and take the 8 hours long class to get the license. And the license is the key to conduct your business activities quite easily.
- 3- Securing a better place for your office. The most appropriate place for this business is near t the central jail, where you can be approached easily. and if needed to go to conduct your business into jail you can go there by walk and seek your customer there.
- 4- Submit your documents to the business approval with all your information in just case to be working as a legal person for this business. Every state has different rules so you can apply to your own state’s rule for the business start-up of bail bond.
- 5- Hire or partner with a bounty hunting service. Bounty hunters are the most important department in the bail bond services they work as the support system and the backup plan as well. you need to make a permanent contract with them, before starting any other program.
- 6- Now comes the staffing system. this is critical since not all people are qualified to be in this business and to hire those who are qualified you need to check their background first and give them the proper training.
- 7 – For this, you need to become recommendable, and becoming recommendable requires you to develop good relations with court people and other people in this circle.
For example, how to start a bail bonding company in Georgia? You need to go secretary of state website and register your business name and pay applicable fees, which can range from a couple of hundred dollars.
What Are The Important Considerations In Doing Bail Bonds Business?
Those who want to do business like bail bond companies must be aware of these considerations regarding the subjects which are as following:
- Working in this type of community where you just have to deal with those who are accused of criminal offenses or may be addicted to drugs or mentally unstable. Where you need to work more cautiously because not all of those who are accused are criminals and might be they are. Staying cautious in this environment is key.
- Seizing family assets: A lot of the people whose family member is accused of some criminal offenses do the same thing on the majority of the basis, and they do agree to the collateral of their assets in order to secure the bonds. Since not all accused go back to attend their hearings the bail bond companies have to take serious steps. In order to retrieve the person they need to use their bounty hunters and in the worst scenarios they need to sell the assets that they have in the collateral of bail bond. This can be a serious and emotional step where bail bond companies have to work efficiently.
- Hiring recovery agents (bounty hunters): Recovery agents who work to retrieve the accused person who has run away from the bail and the bail bond company have to find that person and this will cause the companies to use their specialed equipment and the agents where they have to pay them in huge amount in order to get back the accused person, because of this level of authority and responsibility, bail bond company owners need to be careful when hiring recovery agents and set clear parameters regarding their conduct while searching for a client.
- Financial liability: A bail bond company is financially liable for clients who don’t appear in court. The company needs to have enough cash flow to manage the cost of paying the full amount of bail and hiring bail recovery agents to locate fugitive clients.
- Regulatory compliance: Bail bond services are often tightly regulated by state laws. Owners must strive to remain in compliance with laws and regulations that can change over time.
What Are The Benefits of This?
Those persons who wanted to do this business and are seeking the funds to raise in order to meet the bail amounts to have when there are customers for this. Like the accused persons who seek the bail bond company’s services. If the individual meets their obligations by attending all of their court dates, the contract is terminated and any collateral that was put up is released back to the owner(s).
Tips: This kind of business and the consumers for these services are not appreciated especially by the community since this type of service gives freedom and that leads to doing more crimes. Though there is a very low rate of cases where the bail bond is genuinely used for the right person. there are a lot of states that have a high crime rate because of this bail thing. people do not have the sense of being caught by the court and the jail. They know there will be this way that can bring them out in no time and they can continue doing whatever crime they are up to.
In conclusion, there must be laws and criteria in the bail bond company rules, which can be implemented on the accused person to judge whether he or she is really in need of this service or do that person deserves this service or not. These kinds of rules can help the community and those persons who are accused of a criminal offense to stay limited and they will be restrained to do further offenses.