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Archive for the ‘Nationwide Bail Bond News’ Category

What are Skip Tracers?

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

A skip tracer is, essentially, a bounty hunter. Before you start thinking of bounty hunters as they existed in the Old West, realize that this is not the reality of the situation. In fact, in a rather rare instance of this, some of the reality television shows that followed bounty hunters around gave a good idea of what they do.

It Starts with Bail

Skip Tracers generally work with bail bondsman. A bail bond company puts up a surety bond for someone who needs money to get out of jail on the contingency that the person makes their court date. Ideally, the person makes their court date and the bail bond is exonerated right then and there. There are people, however, who decide to skip out on their court date and to, to put it in common terms, open up a can of worms that they never wanted to deal with.

When the defendant skips their court date, the court will issue a warrant for their arrest right away. At the same time, the bail bond company that put their trust in the person to show up for their court date suddenly becomes liable for the full amount of the bail required to get that person out of jail in the first place. As you might’ve guessed, this can sometimes amount to tens of thousands of dollars or even more.

The bail bond company will engage the services of skip tracers, in some cases, to find the person who absconded from their court date. These are professional individuals who are not law enforcement agents per se, but who do have quite a few powers that allow them to go after the person who skipped out on their court date.

In the best case scenario, the tracers working for the bail bond company manage to track down the person, bring them back to jail and resolve the whole situation. In fact, contrary to what people who go on the run likely think, these professionals end up catching the people who skip out on their bail more than 90% of the time.

People who keep their commitments to a bail bond company never have to deal with bounty hunters or, as they generally prefer to be called, skip tracers. They only come into play when somebody fails to hold up their obligations and puts everyone around them in a bad situation, and the consequences for doing so are generally rather severe.

How Long Does it Take to Post Bail

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
Bail Bonds Jacksonville

Ryan Wells -
Lic #: P105790

When you’re working with a bail bondsman, remember that they cannot speed up the legal system. They’ll be ready to go—provided you have the right paperwork and information for them—once the defendant is eligible to be bailed, but you’ll have to remember that there are some circumstances that can make this take a long time. Here are some things to consider.

Jail Occupancy

If the person you’re trying to bail out happened to be arrested when the jail is very busy, it may take a long time before they’re even booked. People do tend to disappear into a sort of limbo for a while when they’re being processed, so it may take three or four hours before you have all the information you need to bail them out. Be patient about this. The jail will usually be fairly accurate when they give you an estimate of how long it will be, so you don’t need to call them every 10 minutes and make everything take even longer.

Busy Nights at the Bond Office

There are busy nights at bail bondsman offices, as well. There may have been some sort of an incident that resulted in a lot of people being arrested—a protest, for example—and there may be a lot of people who are having their bail bonds processed at the same time that you’re trying to get someone out of jail. The bail bonds companies are usually very fast at processing, however, and they’ll be able to offer that speed day or night, so this isn’t usually the problem.

Other Circumstances

If you’re bailing someone out that you thought you knew very well, keep in mind that there may be circumstances that you’re not aware of. For instance, that person may have a lengthy record and that may mean that it could take some time to process them. They may not be eligible for bail at all if they’ve committed a serious crime or have a lot of past instances of committing crimes.

Posting bail can take several hours.  The Tallahassee, Gainesville, Stuart, and Fort Myers bail bond process have been the quickest.  It also may turn out that it costs a lot more than you thought, if the person arrested has a checkered past. If either is the case, talk to the bail bonds company about what you can get done while you’re waiting. There is a lot of paperwork involved, and getting that done as soon as possible will speed up the entire affair.