Colorado Legislative Council Staff

NO FISCAL IMPACT

TITLE:            CONCERNING COURT ADMINISTRATION OF BAIL BONDS ISSUED BY COMPENSATED SURETIES.

Summary of Assessment

            The bill establishes a "board system" in all of the courts in Colorado, on which the courts would post the names of bonding agents and bail insurance companies (compensated sureties) who have a bail forfeiture judgment against them that remains unpaid or is not otherwise discharged within a certain period of time. The bill prohibits the acceptance of appearance bonds from any compensated surety posted on the board and establishes procedures for the operation of the board. The bill also makes changes to the regulation of bail insurance companies and bail bonding agents by the Division of Insurance, Department of Regulatory Agencies. The bill would become effective July 1, 1999, and would apply to bonds forfeited on or after that date.

            The bill requires clerks of the court to maintain "a board" to publicly disseminate the names of defaulting bail bond agents and bail insurance companies. The creation of the board system will reduce the number of hearings for bond forfeitures, offsetting any fiscal impact to the courts of creating the board system.

            Over the past two years, the workload of the Division of Insurance to process bail bond forfeitures has reduced significantly due to the increasing penalties and fines levied against insurance companies who underwrite the bail bond agents. Although the bill will further reduce the number of forfeiture cases, it will not have a significant impact on the workload of the division. This bill will not impact any other state agency, or unit of local government. Therefore, this bill is assessed as having no fiscal impact.

Departments Contacted

            Judicial           Regulatory Agencies