1. Applicable Statutes

Georgia Code Title 17: Criminal Procedure

Georgia Code Title 16: Crimes and Offenses

Governance by local rule is permitted in Georgia

 

2. Licensing Requirements

 

A professional bondsperson is one who holds himself or herself out as a signer or surety of bonds for compensation. [GS § 17-6-50]

 

Professional Bondsmen must comply with the following:

• Be18 years of age or over
• Be a resident of the State of Georgia for at least one year before making application to write bonds;
• Be of good moral character and not have been convicted of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude;
• Be approved by the sheriff and remain in good standing with respect to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and all rules and regulations established by the sheriff in the county where the bonding business is conducted.
• Submit to a criminal background check and submit two sets of fingerprints
• Complete 8 hours of approved continuing education [GC § 17-6-50.1]

 

 

3. Notice of Forfeiture

 

Upon the failure of the principal to appear, the court may forfeit the bond and order an execution hearing not sooner than 120 days but not later than 150 days after such failure to appear.

[GC § 17-6-70]

 

Notice of the execution hearing shall be served within 10 days of such failure to appear by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the surety at the address listed on the bond or by personal service to the surety within 10 days of such failure to appear at its home office or to its designated registered agent. Service shall be considered complete upon the mailing of such certified notice.

 

 

4. Forfeiture to Judgment

 

The court may forfeit the bond and order an execution hearing not sooner than 120 days but not later than 150 days after such failure to appear. [GC § 17-6-70]

 

 

5. Forfeiture Defenses

 

An appearance bond shall not be forfeited unless the clerk of the court gave the surety at least 72 hours' written notice, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, before the time of the required appearance of the principal. [GC 17-6-70]

 

Notice shall not be necessary if the time for appearance is within 72 hours from the time of arrest, provided the time for appearance is stated on the bond, or where the principal is given actual notice in open court.

 

No judgment shall be rendered on a forfeiture of any appearance bond if it is shown to the satisfaction of the court by the written statement of a licensed physician that the principal on the bond was prevented from attending: [GC § 17-6-72]

• By some mental or physical disability;
• Because he or she was detained by reason of arrest, sentence, or confinement in a penal institution or jail in the State of Georgia ; or
• Detained in another jurisdiction, or because he or she was involuntarily confined or detained pursuant to court order in a mental institution in the State of Georgia or in another jurisdiction.

 

No judgment shall be rendered on a forfeiture of any appearance bond if it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that prior to the entry of the judgment on the forfeiture the principal on the bond is in the custody of the sheriff or other responsible law enforcement agency. An official written notice of the holding institution shall be considered proof of the principal's detention. [GC § 17-6-72]

 

Presentation of such written notice along with a letter of intent to pay all costs of returning the principal to the jurisdiction of the court shall serve as the surety's request for a detainer or hold to be placed against the principal. Should there be a failure to place a detainer or hold within 15 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays the surety shall then be relieved of the liability for the appearance bond without further order of the court.

 

If, within 120 days after judgment, the surety surrenders the principal to the sheriff, the surety shall only be required to pay costs and 5 percent of the face amount of the bond, which amount includes all surcharges.

 

 

6. Remission

 

On application filed within 120 days from the payment of judgment, the court shall order remission of 95 percent of the bond amount if the surety locates the principal.

 

Should the surety, within two years of the principal's failure to appear, locate the principal, the surety shall be entitled to a refund of 50 percent of the bond amount. The application for 50 percent remission shall be filed no later than 30 days following the expiration of the two-year period following the date of judgment.

 

Remission shall be granted upon condition of the payment of court costs and of the expenses of returning the principal to the jurisdiction by the surety.

 

 

7. Bail Agent's Arrest Authority

 

A bail agent has the authority to arrest a principal for purposes of surrendering him.

 

 

8. Other Noteworthy Provisions

 

Professional bondsmen, their agents, or employees shall not solicit business as bondsmen or loiter about or around jails, places where prisoners are confined, or the courts for the purpose of engaging in or soliciting business as such bondsmen. [GC § 17-6-52]

 

 

9. Noteworthy Appellate Decisions

 

American Druggists' Insurance Company v. Harris , No. 71354

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Jan. 8, 1986.

Ronald Epperson was arrested in May 1983 and indicted on charges of trafficking in cocaine. In June 1983 Epperson as principal and appellant American Druggists' Insurance Co. as surety executed an appearance bond for $225,000. Epperson failed to appear when his trial was called. The following March 23 a judgment was entered against the surety and Epperson as principal, forfeiting the bond. Epperson was subsequently arrested in Florida and was extradited to Decatur County, Georgia, where in November 1984 he pled guilty as charged and was sentenced to prison. By a Consent Order, the penal sum of the bond was paid into the registry of the Superior Court pending resolution of the appeals process. The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed Epperson's appeal, and in December 1984 the surety filed an application for remission of the bond forfeiture. After a hearing, the trial court denied the application, holding that the surety had no standing at law or equity to reclaim any portion of the judgment.

The court holds that after a Final Judgment has been entered against the surety in a Bond Forfeiture Hearing and the Judgment has been satisfied by the payment of funds, the surety has no standing either in law or equity to reclaim any portion of the funds paid over to satisfy the Judgment.

 

Bennett v. State , No. 66443

Court of Appeals Georgia, Nov. 29 1983

Bennett was a bail recovery agent for a bondsman and was asked to apprehend Charles Brannon after Brannon failed to appear for trial on several traffic offenses. In effecting Brannon's apprehension, appellant went to the Brannon home where he fired a shot in the backyard, kicked in the front door when Brannon ran inside, and beat Brannon on the head and face with a pistol.

Bennett contended the trial court erred by charging the jury that if a bondsman or his agent uses deadly force in seizing an arrestee, "then, such constitutes an illegal arrest, or illegal seizure." Bennett argues that a bondsman or his agent who apprehends a principal on the bond is not making an arrest and thus, if he uses unreasonable force it does not constitute an "illegal arrest" or an "illegal seizure."

The court disagrees. The court notes that Georgia appellate courts have held that an arrest is accomplished whenever the liberty of another to come and go as he pleases is restrained. Caito v. State, 130 Ga.App. 831, 833(1), 204 S.E.2d 765 (1974); Collier v. State, 244 Ga. 553, 561, 261 S.E.2d 364 (1979). The actions of a surety on a bail bond returning his principal to custody fall within this definition of arrest, and other authorities also consider the apprehension of a principal by the surety on a bail bond as an arrest.

A law enforcement officer can use no more force than is reasonably necessary under the circumstances, and cannot use violence disproportionate to the resistance offered. In the instant case Brannon was being arrested for failure to appear on a DUI charge, a misdemeanor (§OCGA 40-6-391(c) (Code Ann. § 68A-902)), and was not resisting arrest at the time Bennett started beating Brannon on the head and face with a pistol with such force that the pistol discharged. Since Bennett was not entitled to use deadly force in effecting Brannon's arrest (appellant had announced he would take Brannon in, dead or alive), but could only use such force as was reasonably necessary under the circumstances, the trial court's charge of using deadly force was correct.

 

Osborne Bonding Co. v. State , 163 Ga. App. 648, 295 S.E.2d 577 (1982)

Where the record shows on its face noncompliance with statutory service and notice requirements, the proceedings and resultant judgment must be set aside.

 

Fields v. Arnall, 199 Ga. 491, 34 S.E.2d 692 (1945).

Forfeiture judgment not set aside upon surrender of principal and payment of costs. Section 17-6-31 and this section, while making it mandatory upon the court, after rendering final judgment of forfeiture of a criminal bond, to relieve the surety from liability thereunder upon his surrendering the principal into court and paying all costs, do not authorize in such a case the setting aside of such final judgment, and motion praying only that such judgment be set aside because the principal had been surrendered into court and costs paid, is properly dismissed on demurrer.

 

Troup Bonding Co. v. State , 121 Ga. App. 25, 172 S.E.2d 476 (1970).

Where the surety gives assistance to police officials which contributes to the arrest of the fugitive defendant and initiates action to surrender the defendant to the superior court, the surety should be relieved of the penalty on forfeiture of the bond.

 

Perkins v. Terrell , 1 Ga. App. 250, 58 S.E. 133 (1907); American Surety Co. v. State , 50 Ga. App. 777, 179 S.E. 407 (1934).

Intent to surrender principal must be expressed and understood. Producing or presenting a principal in court is not all that is required to discharge the obligation and relieve securities from their liability under a criminal bond. In order for a surrender of the principal in open court to be effective, the attention of the court must be called to the presence of the defendant principal, and the intention to surrender him must be definitely expressed and understood.

 

Garner v. Mears , 97 Ga. App. 506, 103 S.E.2d 610

Bail may arrest or recapture his principal.

 

 

10. Bounty Hunter Provisions

 

'Bail recovery agent' means any person who performs services or takes action for the purpose of apprehending the principal on a bail bond granted in this state or capturing a fugitive who has escaped from bail in this state for gratuity, benefit, or compensation. [GC § 17-6-56]

 

A bail recovery agent must be a United States citizen, 25 years of age or older, complete 8 hours of continuing education each year, and must obtain a license pursuant to Code Section 16-11-129, which states in pertinent part, that applicants must:

• Submit to fingerprinting and criminal background check
• Not have been convicted of a felony or forcible misdemeanor
• Not have been hospitalized in a mental health institution within the past five years
• Not have been covicted of an offense involving the manufacture or sale of a controlled substance

 

Any sheriff of a county shall require any professional bondsman who is a resident of or doing business in the sheriff's county to register his or her bail recovery agents in that county. [GC § 17-6-56.1]

 

Each bail recovery agent must notify by facsimile transmission or telephone the sheriff and police chief of the local police jurisdiction in which the surveillance, apprehension, or capture is to take place unless it is to take place in public.

 

Each professional bondsman shall issue a uniform identification card to each bail recovery agent registered by the professional bondsman which identification card shall include the bail recovery agent's name, height, weight, address, photograph, and signature. A bail recovery agent shall be required to carry such identification card while acting in the capacity as a bail recovery agent.

 

No bail recovery agent shall wear, carry, or display any uniform, badge, shield, card, or other item with any printing, insignia, or emblem that purports to indicate that such bail recovery agent is an employee, officer, or agent of any state or federal government or any political subdivision of any state or federal government.

 

A bail recovery agent who enters the wrong property, causes damage to said property, or causes injury to anyone thereon is liable for all damages.