Jayc4929 wrote:
Lately their recovery agents are picking up forfeitures from the courthouse without the consent of the bondsman and then re bonding them through their bonding company.I was just thinking that it was not ethical at all and seems to me that it is illegal.please correct me if i am wrong.
This practice has been documented in central and northern Virginia, as I understand it, if the indemnitor doesn't come up with all or some of the premium on the bond they RA locks the defendant back up... I can't figure out how they manage this without some sort of repercussion but it does in fact occur.
Our industry is filled with licensed bondsmen and Recovery agents that even though legally licensed, still bend and break the laws and apparently do it with immunity... illegal practices takes many avenues and I guess all we can do is try and be honest and up front with our personal organizations and actions.
When an individuals business begins to falter, whether it be from economic, political or personal reasons, the persons involved in the business will unfortunately begin to do things that drag them deeper and deeper into activities that are initially just shady and then over time become downright illegal. Often times these folks stay under the radar and continue to operate with apparent immunity. We all know of persons and organizations that fit this profile. What to do about it is apparently above my pay grade. Someone much wiser than I will have to attempt a fix on this problem.
Quick story related... yesterday I wrote a small bond on a girl out of Richmond who was stopped on her way to a family funeral... she had an outstanding warrant for FTR (failure to return a rented car on time) the only indemnitors were from Maryland and I told the family I needed someone that owned property in Virginia or at least a large amount of cash for collateral... her grandfather surfaced, owned a nice farm locally and came in to sign for her... they don't hold females in the local jail she was in and LE was going to transport her to another jail... I spoke to the grandfather (and determined that he was ok) and told him that I was going to go ahead and get this girl out BEFORE the family got to the jail... since if we had waited she would then be 50 miles away... anyway, after I bonded her, the family showed up and there were a large number of pretty rough looking "dudes" with the grandfather... they filled out the forms, paid the money and after all was over made the following statement to me... grandfather said:
"Mr. Marx, I sincerely appreciate you getting my grand daughter out before we could get over here... you are not the run of the mill bondsman and I will remember this action and anytime anyone I know needs these services, you may rest assured you will be the one I recommend." The girls brother, one of the rough looking "dudes" said to me:
"Mr. Bill (sometimes they call me that) I am from Baltimore and I can tell you, bondsman up there are not like you... you really helped us in a timely manner and it makes me think there are still some good businessmen out there."I just told them that I tried to treat everyone the same and although I had been burned in the past, I still figured there was good in everyone and I was just doing my job. These types of statements, coming from our customers really make us feel that we are providing a service and made me feel very good.
I guess what I am saying here is that we cannot control the actions of the ones in our business that want to operate outside the rules, we can only control our own actions and try and make sure that we do the right things and stay as up front as possible and in that small way, we may be able to show the general public that .... there are still some of us out here that try to do it right and treat the public in a fair manner.
Sorry to get so long winded here... just wanted to get this out.
