Video: Being a Bail Bondsman

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- The holidays are a time for joy, but they can also be a time for jail.

Being a bail Bondsman can be pretty busy this time of year.

It may sound like a simple job.

“It’s not the big hype that it’s put up to be,” owner of Dawson’s bail Bonding, Dawson Johnson said.

But there’s much more to it than just getting a person out of jail and collecting money.

“Once a person is arrested, one of the ways they can get out of jail is through a bonding company, they pay me a fee to get out of jail, and then my job is to make sure that individual does come back to court,” owner of Montgomery’s National Bail Bonding Company, Kenneth Montgomery said.  “If they don’t appear in court, I’m liable for that bond, and it’s on me to go pick them up and bring them to the jurisdiction of the court.”

There are four ways a person can be bonded out of jail.

“They can be bonded out on a property bond, a cash bond, a bonding company, or an recognizance bond,” Montgomery said.

Many defendants aren’t able to post their bail, and that’s when the bondsman steps in on their behalf.

The defendant then has up to 18 months to pay off their debts to the bondsman.

“Bond prices are state mandated,” Johnson said.  Anything for a bond is from 50 dollars to one thousand dollars is state mandated and automatically 175 dollars. Anything over that is 10 percent and if you’re from another state, it’s 15 percent.”

Dawson Johnson is a licensed bondsman in the golden triangle area.

He said this business can be a risky, especially when trying to get a defendant to appear in court.

“We just caught a guy back here right before Christmas and we had been looking for him for about a year and we finally apprehended him over in Georgia,” he said.

Johnson said ultimately, it comes down to a trust factor, when deciding whether or not to bond a person out.

“You want to get at least about two or three co-signers, somebody that can help be responsible, and help be responsible for that person,” Johnson said.
Johnson says the biggest misconception about a bondsman, is they are often times confused with bounty hunters.

Categories: Local News

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