State of Utah Eliminating Financing of Bail Bonds?
In 2010 the Utah Department of Insurance added language to Rule 590-164-4 to require all bail bond companies to charge customers a minimum of 10% on the total amount of the bail. Prior to this change the law limited bail bond companies to no more than 20%. While this law appeared to “even the playing field” for the bail bond companies it actually hinders the free market system by imposing strict guidelines on how bail bond companies operate.
Now the Department of Insurance is once again attempting to negatively impact the free market system by eliminating financing of bail bonds. This hurts the consumers, the bail bond companies and the tax payers of the state of Utah. Here are just a few ways eliminating financing on bail bonds hurts the state of Utah.
- Without the ability to post bail suspects will be incarcerated until they see a judge. This means they will lose their ability to make money at their jobs. This will lead to them being laid off or fired. Then we have an individual who otherwise could have maintained employment – unemployed and likely unemployable for the foreseeable future.
- While they are incarcerated they need to eat and have shelter provided – this of course is paid for by tax revenue.
- When jails become over crowded individuals are released to tax funded programs like PTS or Over Crowd Releasing.
- When individuals fail to appear in court there is no bail company being held accountable and thus no bounty hunter to track down the criminal. It then becomes the responsibility of warrant officers or local police agencies to locate these criminals, thus resources are now dedicated to chasing known criminals as opposed to preventing and investigating new crime.
With the next legislative session right around the corner we ask that you closely examine the proposed change that would eliminate financing of bail bonds. Once you have done this then speak with your state legislators in the House of Representatives and Senate to determine if you also believe, like we do here at Bad Boys Bail Bonds, that the proposed changes are in fact bad for the state of Utah.
Once you have examined the language and made your determination please let us know if you too believe that the proposed change to Rule 590-164 is unnecessary and in fact bad for the State of Utah.
