Bill Summary for S 550 (2021-2022)

Printer-friendly: Click to view

Summary date: 

Sep 8 2021

Bill Information:

View NCGA Bill Details2021
Senate Bill 550 (Public) Filed Monday, April 5, 2021
AN ACT TO MODIFY QUALIFICATIONS AND TESTING PROCEDURES FOR BAIL BONDSMEN AND RUNNERS AND TO MODIFY VARIOUS PROVISIONS RELATED TO BAIL BOND FORFEITURES AND BAIL BOND SURETIES.
Intro. by Britt, Craven, Lazzara.

View: All Summaries for BillTracking:

Bill summary

Senate committee substitute amends the 1st edition as follows. 

Revises the proposed changes to GS 58-71-50, which add documented US citizenship to the qualifications for licensure of bail bondsmen and runners, to instead include legal residency or documented US citizenship as a qualification.

Amends Section 3 of the act as follows.

Adds charitable bail organization to the defined terms for Article 26, set forth in GS 15A-531. Defines the term to mean an organization that solicits or accepts donations from the public for the purpose of depositing money to secure appearance bonds required under GS 15A-534(a)(4) (which provides for the execution of an appearance bond as a condition of pretrial release).

Amends GS 15A-544.2, which states information required to be entered on each executed bail bond, to include the name and mailing address of any surety executing the bond and the name and mailing address of the charitable bail organization any surety acted on behalf of, if any. 

Further amends GS 15A-544.3, which provides for court-ordered forfeiture of a bail bond for failure to appear. Adds to the information that must be included on the forfeiture the name and address of the charitable bail organization for which any surety on the bail bond acted on behalf of, if any.

Moves the proposed changes to GS 15A-544.5, which expands the grounds for setting aside the forfeiture of a bail bond, to Section 3.

Directs the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to compile specified data, including the total number of bail bonds executed and forfeited and those executed by a surety acting on behalf of a charitable bail organization and the number of those that were forfeited. Requires AOC to annually report the data with a statistical analysis and a compilation by county to the specified NCGA committee beginning February 1, 2023.

Makes the proposed changes and directive of Section 3, as amended, effective December 1, 2021 (was, effective on the date the act becomes law).