A bonding agent, commonly called a bail bondsman, is a person who provides bail bonds for people charged with crimes and who do not have the money necessary to post the entire bail with the court. The bail bondsman acts as a surety, promising the defendant will appear in court. Every year, millions of Americans turn to a bonding company to help them continue to work and be with their families before their case is heard.
Over the years, much misinformation has entered wide circulation about bonding agents and what they can and cannot legally do in the course of their duties. In this article, we’ll look at some of the things that licensed bonding agents can do and a few things they can’t.
A Bail Bondsman Cannot Solicit Business at the Jail
If someone approaches you at the jail and solicits you to use their bail bonding company, they’re violating the law. It’s illegal for bonding agents to solicit business in or on the grounds of a detention center.
Most jails will have the numbers of licensed bonding agents posted near the telephones. If a bail bondman at the prison approaches you, politely decline and instead call a bonding agent licensed to serve your jurisdiction.
A Bail Bondsman Can Require Collateral
In cases where the bond amount is particularly high, a bonding agent is entirely within their rights to require collateral.
A Bail Bondsman Can Cross State Lines
One common mistake that defendants make is assuming that if they can get across state lines, their bonding agent won’t be allowed to cross into a different jurisdiction to make an arrest.
Bonding agents and bail recovery agents aren’t bound by the same jurisdictional limitations as law enforcement. If your bonding agent has evidence that you’ve left the state and can determine where you may have fled, they are entirely within their rights to follow you wherever you might go.
A Bail Bondsman Can Arrest You
This error may be one of the widest-spread falsehoods in the world of criminal justice. Some people believe that since bonding agents aren’t law enforcement officers, they don’t have the power of arrest.
Don’t believe the hype. If you skip bail, and your bonding agent or a bail recovery agent catches up to you, they absolutely can and will arrest you if you fail to surrender willingly.
A bail bondsman doesn’t have the power to arrest just anyone – they are only authorized to arrest individuals who have jumped bail after signing a bond agreement – but they are allowed to use any of the same methods as law enforcement to detain you and return you to the jurisdiction from which you fled.
A Bail Bondsman Can Use Force to Detain You – To an Extent
If you jump bail, and your bonding agent or a bail recovery agent finds you, they are authorized to use force to detain you in order to return you to justice – within certain limits.
If you refuse to surrender, they are allowed to use “reasonable force” to catch and detain you, and if you fight back, they’re allowed to defend themselves. They cannot, on the other hand, use disproportionate force to capture you.
An example of disproportionate force might be a bail recovery agent continuing to strike a defendant who is wholly defensive and unarmed or firing a gun at a defendant who’s fleeing.
A Bail Bondsman Is Not a Bounty Hunter
In Georgia, as in most states, bonding agents (bail bondsmen) and bail recovery agents (bounty hunters) are two very different roles, albeit with considerable overlap in what they’re allowed to do when trying to recover someone who has jumped bail.
A bonding agent is the individual responsible for signing the surety bond and stands to lose the full bail amount if the bail jumper is not returned.
A bail recovery agent is a third party that a bonding agent may contract to track and recover someone who has jumped bail. They are typically paid per job and receive a percentage of the bail amount.
Generally, when they’re on the trail of a bail jumper, a bonding agent and a bail recovery agent will use the same types of techniques and have the same rights regarding what they can and can’t do. Bond recovery agents, however, are highly specialized in tracing and recovery and are usually only employed in cases with high bail amounts.
A Bail Bondsman Cannot Execute Most Arrest Warrants
As stated above, bonding agents can’t arrest just anyone. There’s a specific class of bench warrant called an appearance warrant. When someone jumps bail, and a warrant is issued for their arrest, that’s an appearance warrant.
Bonding agents are only authorized to execute appearance warrants. They can’t arrest someone for drunk driving or violating their probation. A bonding agent or a bail recovery agent can only arrest an individual with an outstanding appearance warrant.
Arrested in Macon-Bibb County? Don’t Wait in Jail; Call All State Bonding: 478-745-1966
All State Bonding is located directly across the street from the Bibb County Jail in downtown Macon. We’re available 24/7, and all our bonding decisions are made on-site, so you never have to wait for an answer.