Events

Recap of Bail USA Convention 2006

September 22, 2006

A great time was had at the convention this year. The following is a recap the events of the convention for everyone.

Discussion Topics:

Bond forfeitures due to failure of a defendant’s violation of conditions.

While you may not think this situation effects you please look at the court paperwork that you are signing. One person told me he does not sign for conditions and then was recapping in his mind what he signs and realized that conditions were on the bond.

Attorney Brian Manchester advised us to be proactive with our forfeitures. If we get a forfeiture due to failure of the defendant to meet conditions, immediately hire an attorney. When there is a court date you should go to court along with the attorney. The Judge wants to see you there to explain your position. Be sure to create a clear court docket as to why the court should NOT forfeiture your money. Once the court docket is carefully created and if you lose, you have a good chance of winning in the appellate court. Without the carefully executed court docket you have no chance in winning at a higher level.

You are not a 24/7 babysitter of your defendants.
You need to show the court that you have performed your job in making sure the defendant appears when scheduled. You have no authority to throw a defendant back in jail if you find that he has violated a condition of his bail.
You have to convince the court that justice was served by the defendant’s appearance in court and that to forfeit your money due to a violation would be an unjust punishment to you, the bail agent - and to the indemnitor.
Have your indemnitor appear in court with you so that the Judge can see that the person that is truly be punished for the defendants non compliance is his family.
Read the language on our bond that states we are only guaranteeing appearance of the defendant in court.

Question:

Do the forms that you have the indemnitor sign state that if a forfeiture occurs due to violation of conditions that the money is due and payable to you?

Writing bail for criminal cases when the defendant is an illegal immigrant.

Attorney Richard Morgan spoke to us about writing criminal bonds for illegal immigrants. He stated that the case law on this issue varies from state to state and that you should be prepared to appear in court and tell them exactly what you are doing to locate the defendant. A form was passed out to give you an idea of how you could handle the situation of deportation. Other than counties along the Mexican Border it is believed that you could win the forfeiture remission if you show the court the effort you made to locate the defendant. Please review the form and if you have any questions please call me. By following the procedures laid out on this form we do not guarantee a win, but it does show the court the extent you went to in locating the defendant. Remember, doing something is better than doing nothing and deportation papers may not be available to you.

Jail Overcrowding and Developing Relationships

Dennis William came to us from Florida’s Escambia County Sheriff Department. He was not a fan of surety bail until he researched how to eliminate the overcrowding in his jail. He then found that surety bonds were the most effective type of release of defendants. He stated that most folks learn about bail bonds through “Dog” and that is what we must overcome and stop. He is excited about educating Judges, law enforcement and legal community about what we do for the judicial system. Dennis strength lies in teaching, public speaking and the public imaging arena. He was a very powerful speaker that left the audience with a thirst for more information.

Marketing/Advertising

It was encouraged that you no longer be held hostage to costly yellow page ads. We heard from speakers with information on various types of advertising such as:

Going to local events such as county fairs, advertising at your child’s sporting events. Talk to people at these events about what you do, never be ashamed of what you do. Get involved in community organizations, speak at high schools, colleges and be at local events. Hand out personalized golf gloves at local outings. Be creative.
Billboards. Think about the billboards you pass on a daily business. If you needed a service would that billboard come to mind? Look to see if there is a building close to the jail that needs repair. Approach the owner and see if he would allow you to paint the side of his building and place your logo and phone number on it.
Radio. Cheap and effective. Negotiate your deal and attempt to write into the contract that you will be the only bondsman that they will allow to advertise on their station.
Television. Several of our agents are finding this to be effective and cheap. A California agent shared his cost. He advertises on 10 Channels – 157 times a week in one county. In another county he advertisements run 161 times per week with a total in both counties amounting to $550.00 per month.

Whatever form of advertising you use, the goal is to “Prime the Pump” by name recognition. The advertising you are doing has to be frequent and appear several times a day for a very long period of time. You want people to come up to you and recognize your company name and your face if you are on television. You want the person to trust you before they ever meet you.

Guest Speaker – Justice Aloise from the New York State Supreme Court

It was a complete surprise to everyone that after many years on the judicial bench the Honorable Judge knew nothing about what we do. The message we received from him was that we need to begin the educational process of our Criminal Justice System immediately. For more information on how this can be accomplished please contact myself or Nadena Owens.

Afternoon class – Tom Benge and Shane Reinhart, Apprehending defendants on mind altering drugs.

After listening to them speak I would encourage all of you to look in your area for a class on meth. Learn how it is made, learn what to look for so that you know a meth lab may exist inside a house before you enter it. Here are some startling facts:

A meth user can go 3 to 15 days without sleep.
A meth user can be calm one minute and go crazy on you the next.
A meth user has super human power when high.
One hit of meth turns you into an addict.
Going into a home that is cooking meth can cause YOU irreparable damage to your body.

Lesson learned

– be smart - if you can properly identify a home as a meth home go immediately to the police and report to them that you have come across a possible meth lab. Stand by while they obtain a search warrant and allow them to go in. They have the proper clothing to protect themselves from harm. You stand back and after the arrests are made identify your defendant and allow the courts to properly extradite him or her to the court from which he failed to appear.

I have enclosed a questionnaire please fill it out and return same, it is important so that I can look towards making next years convention a success.

For those of you who could not make it I would encourage you to speak to your fellow bondsmen. Everyone has stated that this year’s convention was the best ever. We would like you to be there next year. We at Bail USA are making every attempt to raise the standard of bail agents everywhere. Our goal is to create an elite group that is known as the icon of a successful bail agent.

I sincerely hope to see all of you next year.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Burns
President & CEO
Bail USA Inc.