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July 27, 2010

Maryland Bail Bonds needs Reform

Currently in Maryland there are far too many bail bondsman working with a longer criminal history than many of the inmates they bail out. In todays bail bonds market it is hard to distinguish between the legitimate and those that are not. I have heard countless horror stories of people claiming to be bondsmen working for some obscure company knocking on people's doors asking for bail money. Unfortunately, this takes place every day and there is little to no action to put an end to all of it.

The bail bonds industry in Maryland is one that is poorly regulated. The Maryland Insurance Administration does not have the man power to check on the "ma and pa money laundering bail bonds" shops on what seems like every corner in Baltimore City. We now even have disbarred attorneys joining the Bail Bonds fraternity in Maryland. (And somehow this makes the front page of the Baltimore Sun). It seems like everybody is or wants to be a bail bondsman today and unfortunately for the general public most all treat the bail bonds business like a street game rather than focusing on what Bail is intended for.

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Some bail bondsman do not even require paperwork be done or issue receipts for money they have been given for bail. How can this be allowed to go on? How much longer can we let unlicensed bondsmen get away with murder in this industry? Who is going to take a stand and stop the people that help shed such a negative light on peoples view on bail in Maryland? Some of these questions are more difficult to answer than others.

In order to help reform the bail industry, the families pursuing the bondsmen need to take their time in making clear and concise decisions on which bail bonds company to deal with. Many people are ignorant to the way the bail system works and for this reason should not get involved with a particular company too hastily. The insurance administration itself needs to own up to what is going on and not ignore the illegal practices of a large majority of people claiming to be licensed bail agents. Most importantly "bail agents" should be held accountable for posting their own bails and be liable for their defendants to appear in court. Currently a significant number of bail bondsmen are not responsible for either of the two previously mentioned items.

Bail Bondsmen in Maryland are often viewed in the same light as many of the alleged criminals that we bail out by highly ranked state officials, judges, and commissioners. When bail is executed in the fashion it was intended we become a vital part of the community by securing the appearances of the defendants we bail out. And for those that fail to appear, we apprehend them in a timely manner providing public safety to the community at large.

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May 14, 2010

For Baltimore Bail Bondsmen - Bail Review is a Double Edged Sword

Bail Bondsmen in Baltimore City are constantly faced with many challenges on a daily basis. One of the most difficult aspects of the bail bonds business is satisfying our clients by successfully posting bail for a defendant before there bail review hearing. For those that do not know, all inmates that are arrested are given a bail by a district court commissioner and if they aren't bailed out by the following business-day they appear in front of a judge where their bond can be raised, lowered, or remain the same. Many families are concerned about bails being raised which put more pressure on the bondsman to make the bail happen before bail review time.

Unfortunately for Maryland Bail Bondsmen there are many factors that make dealing with bail review a nightmare. Recently, our Anne Arundel County Bail Bonds office had a client come in to bail out her son. Her son was arrested the previous day and she came in at approximately 9:30am the following day to do paperwork and arrange for the $25,000 bail to be posted. The cut-off time for bail to be posted in Anne Arundel County is 10:30am. The client finished everything with our Anne Arundel County Bail Bondsman by 10am which gave us roughly 30 minutes to post the bail before her son would be taken in front of a judge for bail review.

Our Glen Burnie Bail Bondsman successfully posted the bail in just 15 minutes after our client left our Anne Arundel County Bail Bonds office. You might be thinking that impeccable service was provided in this instance by Big Boyz Bail Bonds. The only problem that occurred was that even though the bail was posted they still took our clients son to his bail review hearing. At the hearing, our client's son was released on his own recognizance. Since the defendant was released at bail review our client demanded our paperwork be canceled and asked for a refund. Unfortunately since the bond was paid prior to bail review we were unable to give her a refund.

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One might think that this is unfair for our client. From the perspective of a customer it is undoubtedly unfair. However, for a bail bondsman, what are we to do? Our job is to provide prompt and reliable service. Bail Bondsmen are not mind readers. What if the bail was raised to $100,000 prior to us posting the bail? Then our client would be even more upset to have to pay more money. Bail Review is nothing but a catch 22 for a Maryland Bail Bondsman.

In Baltimore City we had a customer that wanted to bail someone out on a $2,600 bond. We had a Baltimore City Bail Bondsmen at central booking from 8:30am all the way up until the time we were finally given the go ahead by the records department to post the bail at 12:55pm. The only problem aside from having to wait for the jail to give us our paperwork after 4 hours of waiting was that they took the defendant to bail review at 12:45pm. At the bail review hearing the judge raised the bail to $75,000. Unfortunately, this was too high for our customer to post and even though we were there and ready to post the bail at $2,600 the jail was not ready with the paperwork for us to be able to post it.

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March 29, 2010

District Court of Maryland, Court Commissioners are now allowed to change preset bails previously ordered by a Judge

Recently the District Court of Maryland changed its policy regarding preset bails on warrant cases that were previously set by a Judge. For the most part these preset bails are fair and reasonable with some exceptions, but to change this policy and to allow the District Court Commissioners the ability to change the bails that the Judge's previously ordered is quickly appearing to be a very frightening problem.

I think that the commissioners and sometimes the judges fail to understand some very important things here i.e. (THE PURPOSE OF BAIL). The SOLE PURPOSE of BAIL is to ENSURE OR GUARANTEE THE DEFENDANT'S APPEARANCE IN COURT. The Judges and or the Commissioners should not concern themselves with what percentage a Bondsman accepts to release a Defendant more so that the Defendant is not a danger to the community and that he or she not flee the Jurisdiction of the Court.

This is why it is so important for Defendant's to be released on bail. A Bail Bondsman has a strong financial incentive to apprehend and return the Defendant to court should he or she fail to appear. A Bondsman never stops looking for an individual that failed to appear on their bond because once they locate that person they are released from liability and or they recover their bond money that they forfeited to the Court.

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I submit to you that a District Court Commissioner CANNOT ENSURE the Defendant's appearance in Court if he or she fails to appear thus making that individual a possible danger to the community with only the Police to search for them with very limited manpower.

I have been doing warrants for 13 years now and I can tell you for certain and I am positive that the Police would back me when I say to you that some of my most dangerous cases are Defendant's with misdemeanor charges. Now the Police Departments warrant system will triple soon and the tax payers will cover the cost once everything gets out of control which it will should this continue.

Bail Bondsman arrest and commit 97% of bail jumpers. The pretrial services of Bail Bondsman are privately funded with no red tape delays. The great citizens of Maryland as well as Baltimore City with all of the recent budget cuts to the Police Department will be happy to know that the great number of Fugitives will greatly increase very soon!

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March 28, 2010

Baltimore County Judges setting absurd Failure to Appear Bails

It has been a known fact for some time that any person that goes in front of a Baltimore County Judge, and appears late to court is in for a rude awakening. At a court proceeding a Judge will call your name when it appears on the docket, if you do not raise your hand or walk up to the stand the Judge will automatically issue a failure to appear (FTA) bench warrant. Once an FTA is issued you have the option of turning yourself into the police, writing a letter to the Judge to explain the situation, contacting an attorney so that they may try and get the warrant recalled, or coming into Big Boyz Bail Bonds and allowing us to help facilitate the entire process for you.

In the past, Judges have given some leniency with regards to FTA's. However, lately the Judges are setting extremely high bails on individuals even if they are five minutes late to court. It is very common practice that a Judge will set a bail in the $15,000-$35,000 range for a first time FTA. Once the bail is set, the Judges have been very reluctant to recall the warrant or to lower the bail. In the end, you are stuck with an extremely high bail for something that could be as minor as driving on a suspended license.

Recently, Big Boyz Bail Bonds posted a bail for an individual on February 14, 2010. The individual contacted our office on Saturday March 20, 2010 regarding his scheduled trial date of March 24, 2010. He advised us that he would not be able to make this trial date because he was currently hospitalized. Upon hearing this, Big Boyz Bail Bonds decided that we would assist the individual with this matter, something that no other Maryland Bail Bonds Company would do.

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Upon our request we had the individual's Doctor immediately fax documentation to us supporting this claim. The individual also provided us with his phone number in the hospital room, which we verified to be accurate. We wrote a letter (shown above) to the Judge on the individual's behalf stating that the individual was hospitalized and that we were requesting a postponement of his trial. After going through all of these steps, and providing a very good reason why the individual would not be able to make his trial date the Judge proceeded to deny our request and issued a bench warrant in the amount of $35,000.

Recently, Baltimore County district court commissioners have been given the authority to change a Judges pre-set bail. In the past, when a Judge issued a pre-set bench warrant, the court commissioner did not have the authority to change a Judges pre-set bail; merely they could advise an individual of the bail amount. Perhaps one of the reasons that this was changed was because of certain Judges setting outrageous preset bails. Therefore, if a Judge now sets a pre-set $35,000 FTA bail, the court commissioners now have the option to change that bail.

This newly instated policy can be both beneficial and detrimental to both an individual as well as the bail bondsman. On the positive side, commissioners are now able to lower bails or potentially release individuals on simple FTA matters. For example, if an individual was five minutes late to court and the Judge set a $35,000 bail, the commissioner now has the option to change that bail when the individual is served on the warrant.

On the negative side, one of the very beneficial services that Big Boyz Bail Bonds provides to our clients is our turn-in service. In the past, we have been able to arrange turn in bails for clients without concern of whether the bail might get increased when they see the commissioner. Because the Court Commissioners now have the ability to change a Judges pre-set bail, this will certainly impact our ability to provide this service.

Missing a court date used to be a very simple problem to deal with. However, with all of the changes that have been taking place lately and Judges abusing their power by setting extremely high bails on individuals; it has become increasing more complicated to deal with FTA's. With all this being said, Big Boyz Bail Bonds is still available to help anyone who needs assistance with an FTA. We will still be able to provide our clients with a turn-in service, although it may require a little more flexibility. If you have any questions or want to inquire about a possible bench warrant for an FTA please call us at any time: 410-534-6070.


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February 17, 2010

1% Bail Bonds Company Posts $500,000 Bond in Baltimore City

Big Boyz Bail Bonds posted a $500,000 bond in Baltimore City last night for a defendant who had been forced to sit and wait 11 days for his bail review hearing. Due to the record snow fall that hit Baltimore City this winter so many court cases and bail review hearings were forced to be put on hold.

When the defendant went in front of the district court commissioner in Baltimore City for his initial bail hearing he was denied bail. Fortunately for the defendant, his family was able to retain the service of a qualified private attorney. The result of his bond review hearing was a $500,000 bond.

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Most bondsmen in Maryland have difficulties getting a bond of this magnitude posted. Many bondsmen don't even have the ability to post a bail of this size. Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to give the family member signing for this bond an approval within 30 minutes of completing the bail application.

Needless to say, Big Boyz couldn't have made it any easier for the family and the defendant to get released on the half-a-million-dollar bond. Many bondsmen require that 3-6 people sign on a bail or this size, but Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to execute the bond with just 1 person signing for the bail.

If you discover that one of your close friends or family members is detained on a bail of this size or close to it, contact us and we will be happy to work with you to get the person released as quickly as possible.

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February 11, 2010

Maryland Bail Review Hearings Delayed due to Major Snow Storm

When a defendant gets arrested in Maryland and given a bail by a district court commissioner, they have the right to go to a bail review hearing the following business day. With the heavy snow storms that have engulfed the State of Maryland the last few days, inmates bail review hearings have been put on hold.

In many cases, the bond will get reduced at a bail review hearing particularly if the defendant doesn't have much of a prior criminal history. At the same token, the bail could get increased all the same so many people have been given extended time to try and come up with additional money in order to post bond prior to their bail review hearing.

Recently, The Baltimore Sun wrote a great article in regards to this problem that we are having currently in our criminal justice system. In addition to the bail review hearings being delayed, trials for cases are being postponed and one might have to wait many more months for a new trial date.

The storm has put a lot of our clients on edge wondering when the courts will be open next and if their court date is still on schedule. Of course if one of our clients out on bond fails to appear for court due to inclement weather they will be held accountable and a bench warrant can be issued for their arrest. So we have had many phone calls from our clients during this storm asking about the status of their trials.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds never closed during the duration of the record snow storm that took place. Even though many court commissioners were closed which made it virtually impossible to post bails we were here to help with your situation.

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December 4, 2009

Posting a Bail Bond for an Inmate in Towson Maryland

When one gets arrested in Baltimore County they are eventually transported to the Baltimore County Detention Center located at 720 Bosley Avenue in Towson Maryland. It is here that they will be held in a facility that has a release policy like no other detention center in Maryland.

The Baltimore County Detention Center is the only Detention Center in Maryland that has a cut-off for when they can accept releases for bail bonds. Every day this cut-off is at 8pm. In other words, if a Baltimore County Bail Bondsman does not have the bail posted and the release handed into the detention center by 8pm sharp then the defendant will have to wait until the following morning to be released.

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It is important to understand that a bail bondsman can post a bail in Baltimore County 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The only restriction here is in the specific time period the jail is willing to accept the release. For example, if someone comes in to post a bail for Baltimore County at 9pm (after the cut-off) we will have to explain to the family that the bail will be posted immediately but the release will have to wait until the following morning at 8am. This can be a very frustrating fact for a family member or friend who is eager to get somebody released on bail.

In addition to the cut-off, it is one of the few places in Maryland that requires the bail bondsman to hand-deliver the release to the detention center. Fortunately, the court house where we post the bail is only a few blocks away from the Baltimore County Detention Center. But still, this has caused bail bondsmen's fair share of close calls as to whether they get the release handed in on time or not. If a bail bondsman gets the release at 8:01pm they are not going to accept the release.

So when contacting a Baltimore County Bail Bondsman concerning a bail for Baltimore County keep this info in mind if you expect to get your loved one released within the same day.

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November 19, 2009

Big Boyz Bail Bonds Posts $200,000 Bail for Dorchester County

Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore Maryland was able to successfully post bond for a defendant held on $200,000 bond in Dorchester County detention center. The most significant factor about this particular bond is that it was posted for a mere 1% of the bail bond as a down-payment. To make matters more beneficial for our client, she did not have to travel to Baltimore from her home in Dorchester County to complete any paperwork. Information for the bail was taken over the telephone and signatures were obtained via fax.

In talking with the defendant's mother (who signed for the bail bond) it was clear that she did her research in evaluating all of her options available to her for getting her son released from custody. Rather than calling a bail bondsman initially for information she contacted the courts to find out what her options were. The courts explained to her that she had the option to use Maryland Real Estate, Cash, or a Bail Bondsman. This person had Maryland Real Estate, but did not have enough equity in the eyes of the court systems to secure the bail with her property.

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Eventually she contacted our 24-hour Maryland Bail Bonds office for additional information about posting the bail bond. Rightfully so, she had a lot of questions due to her lack of experience in dealing with this particular type of situation. Since she never had to use a bail bonds service before, she inquired in great detail about her responsibilities as the signer for the bail bond.

When a family member or friend gets arrested it is important to not act too hastily or irrationally. It is important to act as this person did and do research into all of your possible options. Certainly when choosing a bail bondsman in Maryland there is literally hundreds if not thousands of options. It is important when contacting a Maryland Bail Bonds company to ask all the questions necessary. They do not teach bail bonds in school systems so don't feel like any question is a stupid question. As long as you are contacting a legitimate-licensed-bail-bondsman you will obtain 100% accurate answers to your questions.

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November 10, 2009

Posting Bail for Out of State Residents

One of the toughest tasks for bail bondsmen in Maryland is helping clients who reside out of state. The reason for this is quite simple, any time you are dealing with clients who don't live in state you are taking on a much higher level of risk. Most bail bondsmen in Maryland will not even consider a bail with out of state ties to it. If you are looking to get someone released from custody in the state of Maryland and you live out of state, look no further than Big Boyz Bail Bonds. Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds was able to successfully execute a bond for a family who all reside in the state of North Carolina.

The situation for the family in North Carolina was quite intriguing. The defendant was originally arrested in Virginia when pulled over for speeding. During the routine traffic stop, the officer ran her name and discovered she had an arrest warrant from 2005. She was held in Virginia for almost 10 days and then extradited to Baltimore County to be served on the warrant. We were contacted by the family who spent a lot of time contacting other bail bondsmen in the area who were unable to service their bail due to the North Carolina information.

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A licensed bail agent was dispatched to meet the family at the Baltimore County Circuit Court to do paperwork and post the bail. The family was unaware that the warrant was issued and had they been they would have turned their family member into authorities. The defendant originally lived in Maryland when the charge originated but soon after re-located to North Carolina to attend school and be closer to home. After speaking with the defendant after her release she informed us that to her knowledge she had already been to court for this particular charge. According to court records she did appear for a court date and the charges were dismissed. But she was unaware that she had this charge still pending to go to court.

The defendant retained criminal defense attorney Brian G. Thompson of Silverman Thompson Slutkin and White. Anytime an out of state defendant retains a local attorney it certainly makes the bail bondsman feel a little more comfortable about taking on the liability. It will probably be at least 3-4 months before this defendant must return to Maryland to appear for court so until then we will be sure to stay in touch with our defendant, and make sure she and her family is aware of her court date.

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November 3, 2009

Maryland Bail Bondsmen Performing Warrant Checks

Maryland Bail Bonds Company Big Boyz Bail Bonds takes numerous calls daily from people wanting to check if they or one of their friends or family members has a warrant. Many people think that bail bondsmen in Maryland have the same system to check warrants as the police do. This is not the case.

In truth, bail bondsmen in Maryland can only see certain types of warrants. We can see warrants for failure to appear (FTA) and violation of probation (VOP). When an FTA or a VOP occurs at the district court level, often times a preset bail will be set. These are the warrants that we can see for our clients. If an FTA of VOP occurs at the circuit court level the preset bails cannot be verified. The defendant must be served on the circuit court warrant and appear before a judge.

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Many people call inquiring about arrest warrants which are much different than the previously mentioned types of warrants. In today's world it is rather simple for someone to go and get an arrest warrant out against somebody. All you need is a police report number, general information about the person you're trying to get detained, and venture to the commissioner's office to fill out the necessary paperwork. These warrants are kept from the public. Commissioner's decide whether to issue the warrant or not; and if they do, they give the information to an officer to attempt to locate the defendant and make the arrest.

Next time you want to contact a bail bonds service that provides warrant checks keep in mind the warrants we can actually see. If you try to contact your local police department or precinct they are going to tell you to come in no matter what so they can make the arrest if you do in fact have a warrant.

Very few bondsmen in Maryland will actually perform warrant checks for their clients because most work off their cell-phones in their vehicles and are sleeping when you need them for something. If you want detailed information concerning a possible warrant it makes sense to contact a reputable bail bonds company such as Big Boyz Bail Bonds. We always have multiple employees in an office by a phone and a computer to look into a situation.

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October 20, 2009

Big Boyz Bail Bonds Transports Defendants to Court

Yesterday, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore was contacted by a defendant in regards to needing transportation to court. We posted a $10,000 bond for the defendant in Baltimore County back in April of this year and she was finally due for court here in October. This defendant was considered a "high-risk" bond for us because on her commitment papers she used an address in Beaumont Texas.

Her court date was set for 8:30am so we had her at the Towson District Court House in Baltimore County by 8am. She was one of the first citizens to enter the courtroom that day and was very appreciative of this service. She successfully utilized our fundamental purpose as a bail bonds company in Maryland, which is insuring the defendant's appearance for court.

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We urge more defendants out on bail to call their bail bondsman if they are having difficulties making it to court. One of the most common excuses this day in age for a Failure to Appear (FTA) is lack of transportation. We hear stories all the time about the bus showing up late, or their car broke down, and nobody ever thinks to call their bondsmen who bailed them out.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds is ready and available with agents standing by to provide this service to our clients in need. If your bail bondsman is unwilling to provide this service for you then they are not a quality bail bonds service and should not be in the business at all. Most people have the misconception that our sole duty is to release the defendant from custody. In reality, our responsibilities go far beyond just bringing someone back home.

Unfortunately for this particular defendant we took to court, she was re-arrested while in court because there was an arrest warrant for her. They took her into custody and issued her a $20,000 bond. Big Boyz Bail Bonds is ready and eager to post this bond for her because she has a great understanding of our purpose and the importance of appearing for court and "facing the music."

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October 16, 2009

Posting Bails in Carroll County Maryland

The Carroll County Detention Center is located in City of Westminster fifteen minuets from the Owings Mills/ Reisterstown area. When picking up a family member when bail is paid, the address to come to is 100 North Court Street directly across from the Carroll County District Court.

After the Defendants bail has been paid if he/she is already upstairs the typical wait time is around two hours for their release. The defendant will be released from the same area where they allow visitations. If you're lucky and the defendant is in the Central Booking area the wait time is only five to ten minutes and he/she will get released from the bottom area of the detention center.

Overall, the employees in the detention center are very nice to deal with and will answer any question you have. If you feel you have a question regarding picking an inmate up or posting a bail bond in Carroll County, please contact us any time. We are available to post bails in Carroll County 24 hours a day. 410-857-9440.

Carroll County release process can take longer on the weekends than the weekdays. On the weekends, the Carroll County Commissioners are on call. This means when your Carroll County Bail Bondsman arrives and the Commissioner is out of the office, the commissioner must be paged to come and process the bail. The commissioner has up to one hour to come to the detention center once being paged. After arriving the usual wait time is an extra five to ten minuets for them to get logged in to their systems. This is largely due to the fact that there is not a very high volume of crime in Carroll County.

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October 12, 2009

Bailing out of Jail while having a Detainer

Many people that are attempting to bail out one of their family members or friends want to know if the defendant incarcerated has any outstanding warrants or detainers. You might now be asking, what is a warrant or detainer? Most simply, a warrant is another charge that the defendant could have that has not been settled in court or could possibly hold the person in custody. A detainer is a warrant that can be placed upon the defendant and make it so the defendant gets transferred to the location the detainer is for.

Regularly, Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore helps people deal with these situations. Good bail bondsmen in Maryland will call down to the detention centers the defendant is being held in to verify their bail information. This will usually give the bondsmen a good idea if there is anything else outstanding that could possibly hold the defendant in custody. It is not always a 100% guarantee however that the information we get from the detention center is correct. Warrants can pop up at any moment and there is no way any bondsmen can get 100% accurate information.

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In some instances a detainer may have a pre-set bail for a failure-to-appear for court (FTA) or a violation of probation (VOP). If there is a pre-set bail for a detainer a family can pay that in advance and when the defendant gets transferred to the location the detainer is for, Big Boyz Bail Bonds can post the bail. In some instances a detainer can be pre-set at "no bail" which means the defendant would not be able to get out on bail once the detainer has been served on the defendant. In most cases it does not make sense to post a bail while somebody has a detainer unless they plan on paying the bail for the detainer as well.

However, we have had cases where a family will post a bail, while knowing about a detainer with no bail simply to get the person re-located to a different facility. Most people who have been through the system once or twice before would rather sit in Baltimore County detention center versus Baltimore City Central Booking if they had the choice for example. So they may want to post the bail in Baltimore City so they would be transferred to Baltimore County to be served with their detainer.

This very rarely occurs but the benefit of posting a bond in these circumstances speeds up the process of getting a court date.

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September 23, 2009

Big Boyz Bail Bonds Makes Sure Defendants Appear for Court

As has been mentioned many times before in our Maryland Bail Bonds Blog, the primary purpose of bail in the state of Maryland is to guarantee the defendants appearance in court. If a bail bondsman does not perform this duty then they are failing at their service to the state.

Something that can make it difficult to appear for court is if you have multiple violations in multiple jurisdictions. If you fall under this category it can be difficult to keep tabs on the dates and times of your multiple court dates. It is important as a defendant out on multiple bonds to stay in contact with their bail bondsman on a regular basis. Court dates are subject to change, and people are subject to move and never change their address with the courts. This is a recipe for disaster as bench warrants are inevitable in these circumstances.

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Recently, Big Boyz Bail Bonds had a similar situation in that we had a client locked up in Baltimore County on four separate bonds. They were all for failing to appear in court and each charge had a different address location on his paperwork. In addition, each charge was for a different location. So the defendant was locked up in Baltimore County but was served on charges based out of Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County. This defendant had a lot on his plate to say the least.

Since all of the bails were served on the defendant in the county we were able to post all four bails in the same location. Many people might think that since they were bailed out of one location, they will appear for court in that same location. This is not the case! The defendant will still get four court dates for four different locations.

When the defendant reported to our bail bonds office to sign paperwork for his bail we made sure to break this down for him so he fully understood the situation he was facing. We will also be calling him in the days leading up to each one of his court dates as a reminder. And as an additional service we would even provide transportation to court if he needed us in an emergenc

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August 30, 2009

Becoming a Licensed Bail Bondsman in Maryland

Many people call Big Boyz Bail Bonds to inquire about how to become a licensed bail bondsman in the state of Maryland. Most think that you need some sort of prior police training or have some prior education in criminal justice. Neither of this is true. In fact, you might be surprised as to finding out what exactly is needed to become a licensed bail bondsman in the state of Maryland.

Because bail bondsmen in Maryland powers of attorney or surety agents and backed by insurance companies it is required by law to obtain a Property & Casualty insurance license. To obtain this certification contact your local insurance company and see if they offer a class. The insurance company that Big Boyz Bail Bonds has used in the past for licensing its employees is Nationwide Insurance.

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Once you have completed the course you are required to take a state exam. There is a fee for every time the test is taken and you can attempt the test as many times as you want; however, there is a waiting period between each attempt. After you have passed the Maryland State Property and Casualty insurance exam you can sign on with a Maryland Bail Bonds company.

As you study for the insurance exam you will be surprised to find out how little Bail Bonds is mentioned. In your text book there might be half of a page to a page dedicated to Bail Bonds. When I took the test I don't even think they asked a single question pertaining to bail bonds at all.

The good thing about the process is once you pass you don't have to worry about remembering a single thing from your studies. You can forget about it for 2 years until you are required to take a continuing education course renewing your Property & Casualty insurance license.

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