District Attorney Files On Bonding Company For Bond Execution Fees

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
Date: Sep 16 2014 10:13 AM

HOUSTON COUNTY:    A civil action has been filed by the Twentieth Judicial Circuit District Attorney against A – Advantage Bonding for bond execution fees which have not been paid.

The Dothan Eagle contacted me on Monday about the issue. I waited to let them do the article first because they contacted me about the issue. To date,  A – Advantage Bonding has not been served the process. We do know and have read the paperwork.

On Friday we paid some of the fees in the case. On Monday the other fees have been paid.

Several years ago the Alabama Legislature passed legislation requiring a $ 35 bond execution fee be paid to the courts on each “incident” which required a bond. At the conclusion of the case, defendants are required to pay 3.5% of the bond amount, or no more than $ 750.00 on each bond made in fines and court costs. The legislation is designed to raise revenue for the court system to include the Clerk of Court and the District Attorney.

If someone signs a property bond, the 3.5% can not be paid until all of the fines and costs are paid to the court. Even if the defendant goes to prison.

A lawsuit was filed regarding this legislation questioning it being constitutional. That persons arrested were required to pay a $ 35.00 fee which went to the District Attorney for prosecution, before they were convicted. One of the plaintiff’s in the lawsuit against the fee is A – Advantage Bonding. At this time I am not sure where that lawsuit sits in the court system. Attorneys from Mobile and Birmingham represent the plaintiff’s.

When the law was passed A – Advantage Bonding set up an Excell Spreadsheet to maintain the information. While the issue seems simple, it is sometimes complicated and very time consuming. It is about 3,500 to 4,000 documents annually to be reviewed and managed.

The $ 35 fee is assessed on ”major” traffic offenses, on separate arrests arising from separate incidents. EXAMPLE:   Dothan Police executed a search warrant at a residence on a Friday. In the search warrant a meth lab was found. No one was arrested on the Friday. On Saturday the defendants were located at a local motel and arrested for Unlawful Possession of A Controlled Substance and Trafficking in Meth. When time for the bond, it was believed by both the jail and bonding company the arrests were from one incident. On Monday when the officers got the arrest warrants, it was determined it was two separate incidents, which went from $ 35 bond fee to $ 70 bond fee.

Had the defendants been arrested at the search warrant location with the pills, then it would have been one incident. But since arrested the next day and had pills, it was two separate incidents. The jails often times do not know and the bonding companies do not know until the warrants are issued which is days later.

The management of the bond execution fees takes about 20 hours per week for A – Advantage Bonding, and in handling multiple jurisdictions. A – Advantage Bonding attempts to make sure that the fee is owed the court before the defendants are charged the fees.

While the information was kept on an Excell spreadsheet, it was my fault we were not backing it up. It accidentally got erased. Behind every good man you will find a good woman, and my assistant, Robin, has gotten it straight for the most part. But there were some errors and duplications and we were behind in getting some submitted.

We had one case where the court said 54 bond fees were to be paid on a particular case. We had to go through each warrant and each case, verifying each incident date. It went from $ 1890.00 owed to like 18 fees owed for $ 630.00.  Sometimes when we look officers have not obtained the arrest warrants which they have a certain amount of days to get the warrants.

The District Attorney was correct in it’s filings. The fees have been paid.  A – Advantage Bonding system has been re-created because of Robin taking it over and getting it straightened out. And in reality, it is the fault of Rickey Stokes for letting it get behind and not being more proactive in the management of paperwork.

But thanks to Robin the system is getting back on track. However it is taking about 20 hours a week of time in the management of something A – Advantage or any other bonding company does not get any revenue for.

The law is set for review by the Alabama Legislature this next legislative session.

 

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