Time for reform in bond industry

5/20/07
Legislators were reminded again last week of the festering problems in the state bail-bond industry, with nearly everyone at a hearing agreeing that the state needs to reform the process from top to bottom. It’s about time the General Assembly took real action.
Bail-bond professionals warned lawmakers that because state officials are not enforcing the prices that defendants and their families are charged, the market is turning into a free-for-all. As a result, large, out-of-state companies are undercutting smaller firms and forcing judges to gradually raise the price of average bonds to the point where $100,000 isn’t unusual anymore.
It’s a bad situation for the defendants, the courts and for the state’s reputation for fairness and justice.
Lawmakers in a joint hearing of the Public Safety, Judiciary and Insurance committees heard testimony in support of legislation to remove much of the administrative work from the state Insurance Department and put it into the Department of Public Safety. It would also require bail bondsmen to remit the full amount of a bond’s premium to the insurer and then receive compensation rather than get their pay from the defendant’s premium itself.
Advocates for the bill say the current system makes a mockery of the judicial process, and there’s plenty of truth in that statement. With fights breaking out in courtrooms over the accounts of high-profile defendants, action is clearly needed to restore some dignity to the procedure.
It’s also about saving money. Experts said that in recent years, firms that undercut the state-mandated prices have regularly gone bankrupt, saddling the state with millions of dollars in uncollected bond forfeitures. That’s money that should go into the state’s coffers that is instead left floating in the ether.
There’s no shortage of reasons to reform the system, but action has, in years past, not been forthcoming. It’s time to change that, and bring some real reform to a system desperately in need of some.