HBA-EDN C.S.S.B. 1119 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.S.B. 1119 By: Armbrister Criminal Jurisprudence 5/3/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, a person seeking a bail bond license (license) is not required to have had any experience in the bail bond business or to have completed continuing legal education in bail bond or criminal law. Having such an eligibility requirement for a license would help ensure that persons entering the bail bond business have a genuine intent of operating legally and would also decrease the number of bonds written with poor risk factors, which may be a cause of a defendant's failure to appear in court. There is also concern that counties do not have enough oversight over a license holder's solvency and that the current license application process does not differentiate enough between the process for property bondsmen and for agents who write bonds on behalf of a corporation. Finally, automatic bond-dispensing machines, as found in jails or courthouses in some states, have caused concern because they allow a defendant to purchase a bond without having a bondsman responsible for the defendant while free on bail. C.S.S.B. 1119 modifies provisions relating to licensing requirements for bail bond sureties to address these needs. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.S.B. 1119 amends the Occupations Code to modify provisions relating to licensing requirements for a bail bond surety. The bill authorizes a county bail bond board (board), by rule, to regulate solicitations or advertisements by or on behalf of license holders to protect the public from harassment, fraud, or misrepresentation (Sec. 1704.109). The bill stipulates that an individual who is acting only as an agent for a corporation holding a license for a bail bond surety (license) is not required to possess the financial resources necessary to comply with security requirements. The bill also includes as an eligibility requirement for a license that an individual, in the two years preceding the date a license application (application) is filed, must have at least one year of continuous work experience in the bail bond business and have completed at least eight hours of continuing legal education in criminal or bail bond law courses that are approved by the State Bar of Texas and that are offered by an accredited institution of higher education. The bill provides that this requirement does not apply to the issuance of an original license in a county before the first anniversary of the date a board is created in the county or to an individual who applies to operate the bail bond business of a license holder who has died if the individual is related to the decedent within the first degree by consanguinity or is the decedent's surviving spouse (Sec. 1704.152). C.S.S.B. 1119 provides that an application for a license of a corporation or an individual must include the amount of cash or the cash value of a certificate of deposit or cashier's check that the applicant intends to deposit with the county treasurer if the application is approved, or if the applicant is an individual intending to execute nonexempt real property in trust to the board, the value of the real property. The bill provides that an application for an applicant who is or has been licensed in another county must be accompanied by a list of each county in which the applicant holds a license and a statement that as of the application date the applicant has no unpaid final judgments of forfeiture against the applicant in any county in which the applicant holds or has held a license, and if the applicant is a corporation, a statement by the designated agent of any unpaid final judgments of forfeiture on any bond executed by the agent. The bill prohibits the existence of an unpaid final judgment disclosed by the designated agent of a corporation from barring licensure, but authorizes the disclosure of such judgment to be considered by the board in determining whether to grant a license to a corporation with that agent. The bill deletes the requirement for a corporation to provide an irrevocable letter of credit to the sheriff to pay any final judgment of a forfeiture on a bond on receipt of notice that an application has been conditionally approved and deletes provisions prohibiting a deposit or the total value of property executed in trust from being less than $10,000 in a county with a population of less than 250,000. The bill also provides that a corporation must file a separate corporate application for each agent the corporation designates in the county. The bill provides that an applicant must meet certain conditions on receipt of notice of conditional approval of the application not later than the 90th day after the date notice is received (Secs. 1704.154 and 1704.160). C.S.S.B. 1119 prohibits an attorney from executing a bail bond if the board, rather than a sheriff, determines that the attorney has engaged in conduct that would subject a bail bond surety to license revocation (Sec. 1704.163). C.S.S.B. 1119 deletes provisions authorizing an agent of the board of the county in which the bond was executed to contest the surrender of the principal upon determining that a reason for the surrender was without reasonable cause (Sec. 1704.207). C.S.S.B. 1119 authorizes a corporation to limit the authority of an agent designated to execute bail bonds on behalf of the corporation by specifying the limitation in the power of attorney that is filed with the county clerk and the board (Sec. 1704.211). C.S.S.B. 1119 sets forth provisions regarding the effect of default on bail bonds by a corporation and provides that a corporation is considered in default beginning on the 11th day after the date the court enters a final judgment and ending on the date the judgment is satisfied, set aside, or superseded (Sec. 1704.212). The bill also sets forth provisions regarding the office location of a license holder and prohibits a person from accepting or receiving from a license holder anything of value as payment for employment within a bonding business if, within the preceding 10 years, the person has been convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude (Secs. 1704.213 and 1704.302). C.S.S.B. 1119 prohibits a person from advertising as a bail bond surety in a county unless the person holds a license by a board in that county. The bill increases the punishment from a Class C to a Class B misdemeanor for a violation of these provisions, but provides that a person does not violate these provisions if the person places an advertisement that appears in more than one county, and the advertisement clearly indicates the county or counties in which the person holds a license and any local telephone number in the advertisement is a local number only for a county in which the person holds a license (Sec. 1704.303). C.S.S.B. 1119 prohibits a person from placing a device in a place of detention, confinement, or imprisonment, that dispenses a bail bond in exchange for a fee (Sec. 1704.304). EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.S.B. 1119 modifies the original by removing the stipulation that the value of real property be determined by the most recent certified county appraisal roll or according to a current appraisal by a board approved real estate appraiser (Sec. 1704.154).