305dude wrote:
Good afternoon,
I'm new to the business and looking to start my internship. I was looking around in Miami for places but am finding it hard. I have two questions. 1) Why do so many different agencies have the same mailing address's but different names? Are they all the same company and just present themselves as separate companies? How is that legal? 2) Does anyone have any advice on how to go about finding my internship site? The education part I already took care of and now just require the internship. I need to be employed with them for a minimal of 1 year.
thanks
Firstly Welcome ..
Miami is the most corrupt / back stabbing / unethical county in FL to work bail.. its a dog eat dog business here.. alot of misconduct occurs daily..
The reason so many companies have the "SAME" address is that Bail Bond Agents form a Corporation and start their own Bail Bond Company, but write bail under the Main Bail Bond Company listed on the Sign of the Building.. almost like a "SUB" Contractor.. You might have 5 different Bail Bond Companies or more all at one address... Should there be separate entrances at that address for each company .. YES... are there ? ... NO ... The Dept of Financial Services has very minimum manning of employees / investigators to look into this .. there are so many things broken with the Bail Bond Business in Miami .. I would be here for days typing about them ..
The reason why it is so hard to get an Internship now a days .. is because.. an intern .. MUST BE PLACED ON THE BOOKS AND RECEIVE A PAYCHECK... No Bail Bond Owner is going to shell out 120 Hours of pay each month on top of their current bills when they have a Secretary to work the office that they pay .. and Full Agents working on Commission / Execution Fees ... before Interns were required to get pay checks.. it was a tad easier to get into a BB company... there are wayyyy toooo many Agents in Miami .. and a new agent just cuts into the bottom line of the already working Agent's pocket$ sad to say.. Usually out of each Bail Bond Class in Miami there are about 45 to 55 students.. Maybe 1 or 2 of them ever make it to become a Bail Bondsman and stay in the business full time.. If you are thinking of this job as a full time career.. you may be disappointed.. the saying is .. "DONT GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB" .. meaning .. you better have a supplemental income coming in .. otherwise you will be in bad shape depending on Bail Bonds to support your Bills and Living Costs.. I have a Police Pension monthly and also own another business, so If I dont write one bond for the week, month or year .. I could not care less.. (But in reality I write alot of bail) but I am just saying its a hard business to get into Bail Bonds. Not many Bail Bond Companies want the Liability or Payroll of a new agent / intern.. also the Already working Agents definitely DO NOT want a new person coming in to slice the money pie .. bonds in Miami lately have slowed down tremendously in the last few months... I am probably writing about 50 to 70 Bonds less this year monthly compared to other years... Why ? Well for starters.. the Defendants / and Indemnitors have NO MONEY to pay the Premium 10%,, they want payment plans.. ( I do not chase my money..) You either have the full 10% or have a nice day and that ends the call.. Then you have a handful of Bail Bond Companies that have CO's (Housemen) working inside the jails giving out a particular Bail Bondsman's # to get bonded out... you have Inmate (Trustees) also doing the same and giving out certain Bail Bondsman's #'s .. then you have Bail Bondsman who work the computer and find who has been recently arrested and do skip traces to find family and friends to be the indemnitor to bond out the deft .. so they hustle the computer and solicit call all day and night .. then you have the bondsman that bond people out for free... wait for them to be released .. and kidnap them and make them pay the BB Agent the 10%.. if the deft doesn't pay they threaten to put them back in jail (Premium Bond Surrender = WHICH IS ILLEGAL). or the Judge just releases the defendants on Pre Trial Release for free... (Which really is not free in the end). The list of dirty games goes on and on .. but these are just a few of many things that occur in the Bail Bond Industry in Miami ..
Also ... you DEFINITELY want to make sure you do not work for a Miami Bail Bond Company or a Bail Bondsman that has a bad work ethic of doing illegal things cause you might just wind up getting arrested or even sued in court... some companies will make you as an Intern go out on Pick ups and arrest defendants... if you get in some place..and start working .. you better be careful as to not make arrests of defendant's that DO NOT HAVE Active Bench Warrants.. if they have no Warrant more than likely the arrest is because the Owner of the BB company didnt get full payment and wants to put the deft back in jail for non payment of premium .. *ILLEGAL* .. you better run the other way if this happens.. Also you want to make sure if you do go on a Pick up that the Full Agents with you are APPOINTED by the Insurance Company that the Bond for the Deft is written under... alot of times .. these Pick Up Crews of Bail Bondsman are not appointed by an insurance company but still go out and make the arrest .. this is basically (ARMED KIDNAPPING) .. you will go to jail .. and this charge is NOT bondable.. so you will be sitting in Jail until your Arthur Hearing is Granted by the Judge... The best and easiest way to get jammed up in Bail Bonds in Miami or anywhere.. are doing Pick Ups / Arrests.. I do not do any arrests unless the deft has an active Bench Warrant and is listed on the Court Docket.. if it is a Bond Revocation for (Premium Surrender? = RUN THE OTHER WAY!!!... or if they say deft is a Flight Risk - Better have the indemnitor's affidavit to request off bond and notarized) .. there are alot of bad dangerous bondsman that do pick ups / arrests.. use caution .. they will get you in trouble or maybe even hurt.. Yes there are legit bond revocations such as the deft moved without notifying the BB Company or was Re-Arrested on other new charges while out on bond.. these are ok to do obviously .. but don't be pressured to do illegal things that will cost you YOUR LICENSE. I was young and dumb and did some things that I was not comfortable with .. and quit working with a few companies cause of their work ethics that would get me put in jail or I quit them cause I didn't get paid for my work I did for them. ( I am currently suing one BB Company I worked for because they still owe me $$$ ). Anyways.. I need to get up early in the AM.. and hopefully my phone doesn't ring for any bonds tonight.
Good Luck..
