What Is Bail Bonds Company?
A bail bond company or bail company helps people charged with criminal offenses legally live outside of jail while they wait for trial in the US.
State laws usually regulate these bond companies, and you can imagine the regulations will be complex. There is also a strong movement of activist and legal groups to eliminate these bail companies or maybe lessen their support for their system.
How to start a bail bonds company?
To start a bail bond company, you must take classes, become a licensed bail bond agent, and then register a business in the State at the Secretary of State website.
A bail bond company operates for civil society by working on state-regulated laws and providing money to bail-seeking accused persons. Companies set bail bond charges on a percentage basis, and with the percentage, the rate will also increase as the amount of bail increases. The lawyers and advocates recommend this to their clients to avoid the bail companies and stop them from seeking 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 they will not get back.
Usually, the percentage of the bail company bonds ranges around 10 percent of the total amount to be paid as bail. This is besides the bond payments that are compulsory to pay. Moreover, the bail bond company may sometimes ask to put the jewelry, car, or other valuable assets as collateral to secure the bail bond. The motive behind this collateral payment is that if the accused person runs away and does not appear at the hearing, the court will seize the bail amount. The bail bond company will seize the assets they have from the accused person; by doing this, the accused person will be bound to fulfill the court conditions.
How to become a bail bond agent?
To become a bail bondsman, you need to do the following steps:
- Stat laws of any place require you to do an apprenticeship before becoming licensed as a bail bondsman. 1- Complete a one-year apprenticeship. During the apprenticeship, you should learn to perform all activities related to this business that a bail bond agent usually conducts.
- 2- For any legal business, you must check and pass the test and take the 8-hour class to get the license. The license is the key to conducting your business activities quite efficiently.
- 3—Securing a better place for your office. The most appropriate place for this business is near the central jail, where you can be approached easily. If needed, you can walk and seek your customers to conduct your business in prison.
- 4- Submit your documents to the business for approval with all your information in case you are working as a legal person for this business. Every State has different rules, so you can apply your own State’s authority to start a business with bail bonds.
- 5- Hire or partner with a bounty hunting service. Bounty hunters are the most crucial department in the bail bond services. They work as the support system and the backup plan as well. You need to permanently contract 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 qualified professionals, you need to check their background first and give them the proper training.
- 7 – To do this, you need to become recommendable, which requires you to develop good relations with court people and other people in this circle.
For example, how do you start a bail bonding company in Georgia? You need to register your business name on the Secretary of State website and pay applicable fees, which range from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.
After leaving Wells Fargo Bank in 2014, Daniel began a career as a finance consultant, advising companies and individuals on economic policy, labor relations, and financial management.
At Nimblefreelancer.com, Daniel writes about personal finance topics, value estimation, budgeting strategies, retirement planning, and portfolio diversification.
Read more on Daniel Smith's biography page.
Contact Daniel: daniel@nimblefreelancer.com