Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

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.

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.

One of the things that Big Boyz Bail Bonds will stress to all of their clients that they bail out of Baltimore County is to show up at least 30 minutes before their hearing. We know that people don't always miss court on purpose; but rather, they miss court for unforeseen life occurrences. If you're catching the bus to court, the bus might not be on time. Or you might run into some unexpected traffic. There are a multitude of reasons one can be late for court or fail to appear for court all together.

If you are not present when your name is called in a Baltimore County court room they will immediately issue a bench warrant for your arrest. All it takes is to walk into the court room a few minutes late and the court bailiff will take you into custody. Baltimore County District Court stresses punctuality more than any other court in Maryland.

I once witnessed a district court judge in Catonsville issue a $50,000 bail for walking into his courtroom just 5 minutes late and the defendant had no history of failing to appear. In addition to issuing a $50,000 bail the judge said, "If I'm expected to be here on time for somebody else's issue then they better be here on time as well." This is extreme and judges in Baltimore County, for the most part, have little sympathy for excuses.

The only excuses that Baltimore County judges may accept is if you or a close family member was sick or dying in a hospital and you came with the hospital records to prove it. Even this might not excuse you from a bench warrant though. This seems outrageous but it truthfully is the way it is in Baltimore County.

Big Boyz Bail Bonds makes courtesy calls to our clients a few days prior to their court dates reminding them of their court location, time, and room number. And whenever we call for a Baltimore County case we make sure to tell the defendant to appear ON TIME! If you are out on bail and curious about your court date, time and location, please give us a call at 410-534-6070 (24 hour bail bonds service) and we will be happy to look it up for you.

Many people have probably heard the term appeal bond before but few seem to fully understand its function and purpose in the bail bonds world. For those that are unfamiliar, an appeal bond is a bond that is granted by a judge when a defendant has been found guilty of a charge. Keep in mind, when someone is found guilty it is not their right to be issued an appeal bond. It is at the discretion of the judge to allow for an appeal bond to be posted or not.

Appeal bonds are relatively common in Baltimore County, and Big Boyz Bail Bonds services this type of bond on a regular basis. Posting an appeal bond has a much different process than posting a regular bail bond. In order to post an appeal bond, someone must pay an $80 fee to a Baltimore County clerk located at either court house (Towson, Essex, or Catonsville). Once the fee has been posted with the courts, the appeal bond can be posted by a bail bondsman only during regular court hours (8:30am-4pm). Rather than posting the bond with a district court commissioner, we post the bond directly with a clerk and it is typically a pretty quick process.

Many people confuse the purpose of an appeal bond and believe that they can just post the appeal bond, instead of serving the jail sentence issued by the judge. This is not the case. The purpose of the appeal bond is to give you a second chance. If you were unhappy with the initial verdict, or the way your attorney handled the case, you get the opportunity to re-try the case in front of a different judge and with a more qualified attorney.

Recently, Big Boyz posted an appeal bond for a client that was sentenced to just 10 days in jail. She was issued a $3,000 appeal bond which her family member paid the filing fee and posted the bond with our company. Now that the defendant is released on this bond she will be issued a new court date and the opportunity to rid her record from a guilty conviction.

Next time you go to court and you are facing a possible jail sentence, and are eventually sentenced, contact your attorney about requesting an appeal bond. And if you have any further questions about posting an appeal bond, please contact us at any time.
410-534-6070.

This evening I was sent an email with a link to an interesting video on youtube in regards to bail bonds. This video speaks about a county known as Tarrant County, in Texas, that was experimenting with a new Pre Trial Release program that would allow accused criminal defendants the opportunity to pay 3% of their bail to the state instead of 10% to a bail bondsman. This new experimental system of course has guidelines in regards to who was eligible for this program. And it is drastically different then the Maryland Pre Trial Release program.

This Pre Trial Release program would essentially allow defendants to be released on cheaper bail in the hopes that they would return for court. Of course if the person was released on one of these 3% Pre Trial Release bonds there would be no liable party to care enough to hunt down the fugitive. The way the program was originally intended was to allow for non serious crime defendants, with clean records the opportunity to post these bonds.

To be eligible for this program the video mentions that the defendant must have

1. No History of Bond Forfeitures


2. No Previous Felonies


3. No 1st Degree Felony Charges

The interesting thing about this is that Judges, in this county, still have the opportunity to make certain exceptions to this policy at their own discretion. The video discusses specific situations where a defendant violated at least one of the guidelines and was still given the opportunity to pay 3% to the state for release. This creates a major problem because when the person fails to appear for court, who will care enough to look for them?

This is an example of why Baltimore Bail Bondsmen such as the ones that work for Big Boyz Bail Bonds are so important here in Maryland. If Maryland were to adopt a program similar to this there would certainly be a larger amount of fugitives on the run for longer periods of time. With Bondsmen being responsible for the bond it gives them reason to bring the defendant back into custody. Please watch the video to learn more about this wild program that should certainly never come to mention here in Baltimore Maryland.