Bill Text: MS HB174 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Bail agents; revise education and bonding requirements.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Failed) 2012-03-06 - Died In Committee [HB174 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2012-HB174-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2012 Regular Session
To: Judiciary B
By: Representative Rogers (61st)
House Bill 174
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 83-39-3, 83-39-7 AND 83-39-8, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE PRELICENSING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS FOR A PROFESSIONAL BAIL AGENT LICENSE; TO REVISE QUALIFICATION BOND REQUIREMENTS; TO REVISE THE REQUIREMENTS OF TRANSFER OF A QUALIFICATION BOND; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 83-39-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-3. (1) No person shall act in the capacity of professional bail agent, soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent, as defined in Section 83-39-1, or perform any of the functions, duties or powers of the same unless that person shall be qualified and licensed as provided in this chapter. The terms of this chapter shall not apply to any automobile club or association, financial institution, insurance company or other organization or association or their employees who execute bail bonds on violations arising out of the use of a motor vehicle by their members, policyholders or borrowers when bail bond is not the principal benefit of membership, the policy of insurance or of a loan to such member, policyholder or borrower.
(2) (a) No license shall be issued or renewed except in compliance with this chapter, and none shall be issued except to an individual. No firm, partnership, association or corporation, as such, shall be so licensed. No professional bail agent shall operate under more than one (1) trade name. A soliciting bail agent and bail enforcement agent shall operate only under the professional bail agent's name. No license shall be issued to or renewed for any person who has ever been convicted of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude or who is under twenty-one (21) years of age. No person engaged as a law enforcement or judicial official or attorney shall be licensed hereunder. A person who is employed in any capacity at any jail or corrections facility that houses state, county or municipal inmates who are bailable, whether the person is a public employee, independent contractor, or the employee of an independent contractor, may not be licensed under this section.
(b) (i) No person who is a relative of either a sworn state, county or municipal law enforcement official or judicial official, or an employee, independent contractor or the contractor's employee of any police department, sheriff's department, jail or corrections facility that houses or holds federal, state, county or municipal inmates who are bailable, shall write a bond in the county where the law enforcement entity or court in which the person's relative serves is located. "Relative" means a spouse, parent, grandparent, child, sister, brother, or a consanguineous aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. Violation of this prohibition shall result in license revocation.
(ii) No person licensed under this chapter shall act as a personal surety agent in the writing of bail during a period he or she is licensed as a limited surety agent, as defined herein.
(iii) No person licensed under this chapter shall give legal advice or a legal opinion in any form.
(3) The department is vested with the authority to enforce this chapter. The department may conduct investigations or request other state, county or local officials to conduct investigations and promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of this chapter. The department may establish monetary fines and collect such fines as necessary for the enforcement of such rules and regulations. All fines collected shall be deposited in the Special Insurance Department Fund for the operation of that agency.
(4) Each license issued hereunder shall expire biennially on the last day of September, unless revoked or suspended prior thereto by the department, or upon notice served upon the commissioner by the insurer that the authority of a limited surety agent to act for or in behalf of such insurer had been terminated, or upon notice served upon the commissioner by a professional bail agent that the employment of a soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent had been terminated by such professional bail agent. Licenses shall expire on the last day of September of each odd-numbered year.
(5) The department shall prepare and deliver to each licensee a license showing the name, address and classification of such licensee, and shall certify that the person is a licensed professional bail agent, being designated as a personal surety agent or a limited surety agent, a soliciting bail agent or a bail enforcement agent. In addition, the license, if for a soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent, shall show the name of the professional bail agent and any other information as the commissioner deems proper.
(6) The commissioner, after a hearing under Section 83-39-17, may refuse to issue a privilege license for a soliciting bail agent to change from one (1) professional bail agent to another if he owes any premium or debt to the professional bail agent with whom he is currently licensed. The commissioner, after a hearing under Section 83-39-17, shall refuse to issue a license for a limited surety agent if he owes any premium or debt to an insurer to which he has been appointed. If a license has been granted to a limited surety agent or a soliciting bail agent who owed any premium or debt to an insurer or professional bail agent, the commissioner, after a hearing under Section 83-39-17, shall revoke the license.
(7) (a) Before the issuance of any professional bail agent, soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent license, the applicant shall submit proof of successful completion of forty (40) classroom hours of prelicensing education approved by the Professional Bail Agents Association of Mississippi, Inc., and conducted by persons or entities approved by the Professional Bail Agents Association of Mississippi, Inc. The hours required by this subsection shall be classroom hours and may not be acquired through correspondence or over the Internet. Any soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent applying for a professional bail agent license must submit proof of successfully completing forty (40) hours of prelicensing education and successfully completing the limited examination by the department for the restricted lines of business at any time prior to applying for the professional license. Any bail agent who applies for the same category of license under a different professional license will not be required to take an additional forty (40) hours of prelicensing education if their current license has remained in effect and the applicant has successfully completed the continuing education requirements under this section for all periods between the forty (40) hours of prelicensing education and the submission of the application for a new license. Prelicensing education is not required for a professional bail agent, bail soliciting agent or bail enforcement agent licensee who applies for a new license if their current license has remained in effect without forfeiture of the applicant's qualification bond and subsequent license revocation and the applicant has successfully completed the continuing education requirements under this section for all periods between the completion of the forty (40) hours of prelicensing education and the submission of the application for a new license * * *.
(b) Beginning on July 1, 2011, in order to assist the department in determining an applicant's suitability for a license under this chapter, the applicant shall submit a set of fingerprints with the submission of an application for license. The department shall forward the fingerprints to the Department of Public Safety for the purpose of conducting a criminal history record check. If no disqualifying record is identified at the state level, the fingerprints shall be forwarded by the Department of Public Safety to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history record check. Fees related to the criminal history record check shall be paid by the applicant to the commissioner and the monies from such fees shall be deposited in the special fund in the State Treasury designated as the "Insurance Department Fund."
(8) (a) Before the renewal of the license of any professional bail agent, soliciting bail agent or bail enforcement agent, the applicant shall submit proof of successful completion of continuing education hours as follows:
(i) There shall be no continuing education required for the first year of an original license;
(ii) Except as provided in subparagraph (i), eight (8) classroom hours of continuing education for each year or part of a year of the two-year license period, for a total of sixteen (16) hours per license period.
(b) If an applicant for renewal failed to obtain the required eight (8) hours for each year of the license period during the actual license year in which the education was required to be obtained, the applicant shall not be eligible for a renewal license but shall be required to obtain an original license and be subject to the education requirements set forth in subsection (7). The commissioner shall not be required to comply with Section 83-39-17 in denying an application for a renewal license under this paragraph (b).
(c) The education hours required under this subsection (8) shall consist of classroom hours approved by the Professional Bail Agents Association of Mississippi, Inc., and provided by persons or entities approved by the Professional Bail Agents Association of Mississippi, Inc. The hours required by this subsection shall be classroom hours and may not be acquired through correspondence or over the Internet.
(d) The continuing education requirements under this subsection (8) shall not be required for renewal of a professional bail agent license for any applicant who is sixty-five (65) years of age and who has been licensed as a professional bail agent for a continuous period of twenty (20) years immediately preceding the submission of the application as evidenced by submission of an affidavit, under oath, on a form prescribed by the department, signed by the licensee attesting to satisfaction of the age, licensing, and experience requirements of this paragraph (d).
(9) No license as a professional bail agent shall be issued unless the applicant has been duly licensed by the department as a soliciting bail agent for a period of three (3) consecutive years immediately preceding the submission of the application. However, this subsection (9) shall not apply to any person who was licensed as a professional bail agent before July 1, 2011.
(10) A nonresident person may be licensed as a professional bail agent, bail soliciting agent or bail enforcement agent if:
(a) The person's home state awards licenses to residents of this state on the same basis; and
(b) The person has satisfied all requirements set forth in this chapter.
SECTION 2. Section 83-39-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-7. (1) Each applicant for a professional bail agent license who acts as personal surety shall be required to post a qualification bond in the amount of Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000.00). The qualification bond shall be made by depositing with the commissioner the aforesaid amount of bonds of the United States, the State of Mississippi or any agency or subdivision thereof, or a certificate of deposit issued by an institution whose deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and made payable jointly to the owner and the Department of Insurance, or shall be written by an insurer as defined in this chapter, shall meet the specifications as may be required and defined in this chapter, and shall meet such specifications as may be required and approved by the department. The bond shall be conditioned upon the full and prompt payment of any bail bond issued by such professional bail agent into the court ordering the bond forfeited. The bond shall be to the people of the State of Mississippi in favor of any court of this state, whether municipal, justice, county, circuit, Supreme or other court. * * *
(2) The professional bail agent shall satisfy the responsibility to return the defendant who has been held by a "Hold Order" in another jurisdiction upon release from the other jurisdiction:
(a) By personally returning the defendant to the sheriff at no cost to the county; or
(b) Where the other jurisdiction will not release the defendant to any person other than a law enforcement officer, by reimbursing to the county the reasonable cost of the return of the defendant, not to exceed the cost that would be entailed if the option in paragraph (a) of this subsection were available.
SECTION 3. Section 83-39-8, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-8. (1) A personal surety agent licensed under this chapter or the executor, trustee or guardian of his estate shall be allowed to transfer the qualification bond required under Section 83-39-7 to another bail agent, provided that the bail agent has at any time prior to applying for transfer, successfully completed forty (40) hours of prelicensing education, successfully completed limited examination by the department for the restricted lines of business, having been duly licensed by the department as a soliciting bail agent for a period of three (3) consecutive years immediately preceding the submission of the application and providing the bail agent assumes all outstanding liabilities of the personal surety agent. The transferee shall be authorized to conduct the business of the personal surety agent existing and pending at the time of the transfer. The transferee shall submit an application with the fee and proof of successful completion of forty (40) hours of education and proof of successful completion of examination by the department required by Section 83-39-5, which application shall be processed expeditiously and with priority by the department.
(2) Upon the death or incapacitation of a professional personal surety agent, a bail agent already licensed as a soliciting bail agent having, at any time prior to submission of application, taken the required forty (40) hours of pre-licensing education, successfully completed a limited examination by the department for the restricted lines of business, having, immediately preceding application, three (3) years required experience and submitting this information on a form designated by the department shall be allowed to operate the professional personal surety agent's business until such bail agent can obtain a personal surety license, either by assuming the qualification bonds as described in subsection (1) or by placing a new qualification bond as required under section 83-39-7. As an alternative to a soliciting bail agent, a professional personal surety agent may designate a bail agent, who has met the same qualifications previously listed in this section, licensed as a limited surety agent on a form provided by the department to assume their business either by transfer of the qualification bond under subsection (1) or by placing a new qualification bond as required by Section 83-39-7. Upon the issuance of the new professional personal surety license, all soliciting bail agents and bail enforcement agents licensed under the previous professional personal surety agent shall be moved to the new professional personal surety agent's license without the need for new application, transfer form, or fee.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2012.
