Bill Text: MS SB2902 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Bail agents; revise license requirements and prohibit certain acts.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2011-02-01 - Died In Committee [SB2902 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2011-SB2902-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2011 Regular Session
To: Judiciary, Division B
By: Senator(s) Clarke
Senate Bill 2902
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 83-39-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE LICENSE REQUIREMENTS OF BAIL AGENTS, AND TO EXEMPT FROM CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS CERTAIN LICENSED PROFESSIONAL BAIL AGENTS WHEN RENEWING ANOTHER TYPE OF BAIL AGENT LICENSE; TO AMEND SECTION 83-39-13, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE EACH LICENSED PROFESSIONAL BAIL AGENT TO MAINTAIN AN OFFICE PHYSICALLY LOCATED WITHIN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI IN ANY COUNTY WHERE RECORDS ARE KEPT FOR BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OF THE AGENT; TO AMEND SECTION 83-39-25, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT FEES FOR MONITORING SHALL NOT BE CONSIDERED PART OF THE PREMIUM OR FEE CHARGED UNDER THIS SECTION; TO AMEND SECTION 83-39-27, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROHIBIT THE PAYING OF A FEE OR REBATE TO ANY PERSON, OTHER THAN A SOLICITING BAIL AGENT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROCURING A BAIL 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 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 any person who has ever been convicted of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude. No license shall be issued to any person or who has not been a resident of this state for at least one (1) year unless presently licensed for bail bonds, 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 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. Every license, except for temporary licenses, issued between June 1, 2007, and September 30, 2007, shall expire on September 30, 2009. Each license issued after September 30, 2007, shall expire on the last day of September of each odd-numbered year.
(5) The department shall prepare and deliver to each licensee a certificate 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 certificate, 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, may 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. Once the prelicensing education required under this paragraph (a) is successfully completed, this requirement is deemed to have been met for any subsequent application for a different license, provided that the applicant has successfully completed the continuing education requirements under subsection (8) for any time periods between the completion of the prelicensing education and the submission of the application, and provided that such license has remained in effect without any action taken against it.
(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 another type of 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.
(9) No license as a professional bail agent shall be issued unless the applicant has been duly licensed 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 March 1, 2011.
SECTION 2. Section 83-39-13, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-13. (1) Each professional bail agent licensed under this chapter, under oath, shall report annually to the department on forms prescribed by the department. This report shall be made on a calendar basis before June 1 of each year.
(2) For purposes of applicable examinations, each licensed professional bail agent shall maintain an office physically located within the State of Mississippi in any county, whether or not the agent does business in that county, where records are kept for all business activities of the agent. This office location shall be designated on each application for issuance or renewal of a license. Any change in the physical location of such office shall be reported to the department within ten (10) business days. The location of a professional bail agent's office shall be subject to all applicable local ordinances; provided, however, that a professional bail agent's office shall be allowed in any area or district in which law offices of attorneys are permitted.
SECTION 3. Section 83-39-25, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-25. (1) A professional bail agent or his agent shall charge and collect for his premium, commission, or fee an amount of ten percent (10%) of the amount of bail per bond posted by him, or One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), whichever is greater, except on a bond on a defendant who is charged with a capital offense, or on a defendant who resides outside the State of Mississippi, in which case the premium, commission or fee shall be fifteen percent (15%) of the amount of bail, per bond posted by him, or One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), whichever is greater.
(2) A professional bail agent or his agent shall also charge an additional Fifty Dollars ($50.00) processing fee on each bond issued by him.
(3) Nothing herein shall prohibit a professional bail agent or his agent from holding collateral or taking a security interest in collateral for the purpose of insuring the payment of the premium of the bond posted or indemnifying the professional bail agent for losses incurred due to a forfeiture of a bond or the costs of apprehension and surrender of the principal.
(4) Any fee charged by a professional bail agent or his agent for any type of monitoring including electronic monitoring, drug testing, or similar or related items shall not be considered part of the premium or fee charged under this section.
SECTION 4. Section 83-39-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
83-39-27. It is unlawful for a licensee to engage in any of the following activities:
(a) Specify, suggest or advise the employment of any particular attorney to represent his principal.
(b) Pay a fee or rebate or give or promise to give anything of value to a jailer, policeman, peace officer, clerk, deputy clerk, any other employee of any court, district attorney or any of his employees or any person who has power to arrest or to hold any person in custody.
(c) Pay a fee or rebate or give anything of value to an attorney in bail bond matters, except in defense of any act on a bond, or as counsel to represent such bail agent, his agent or employees.
(d) Pay a fee or rebate or give or promise to give anything of value to the person on whose bond he is surety.
(e) Pay a fee or rebate or give or promise to give anything of value to any person, other than a soliciting bail agent, for the purpose of procuring a bail bond.
(f) Accept anything of value from a person on whose bond he is surety, or from others on behalf of such person, except the fee or premium on the bond, but the bail agent may accept collateral security or other indemnity.
(g) Coerce, suggest, aid and abet, offer promise of favor or threaten any person on whose bond he is surety or offers to become surety, to induce that person to commit any crime.
(h) Give legal advice or a legal opinion in any form.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2011.
