4.1 Title 10 CCR 2053–2104 Bail Transactions

Title 10 CCR 2053–2104 Bail Transactions

Quick Answer: Title 10, California Code of Regulations, Article 2 (10 CCR 2053–2104) is the Commissioner's transaction code for every Chapter 7 bail license. You may collect money only for the five purposes in 10 CCR 2081. You must deliver a numbered written statement (2083), hold collateral as a fiduciary (2088), keep records open to CDI at the principal place of business (2100), and may destroy those records only five years after final completion of all parts of the transaction (2104). CIC 1814 makes a violation of Chapter 7 or of any commissioner rule a public offense.

CDI's consumer bail page lists three bodies of law: CIC 1800–1823, Title 10 CCR 2053 through 2105.19, and Penal Code 1299 through 1320.5. Chapter 3 of this guide is the Insurance Code. This section is the Title 10 transaction article — Article 2 of Chapter 5, Subchapter 1 — issued under CIC 1812. CIC 1814 then makes violation of any foregoing provision of Chapter 7, or of any rule of the commissioner made pursuant thereto, a public offense punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000, imprisonment pursuant to Penal Code 1170(h) or in the county jail not exceeding one year, or both. Title 10 is not optional office policy. It is a criminalized rulebook.

How Article 2 is built

10 CCR 2053 is the construction section. The article applies to license applications filed after its amendments, to transactions or severable portions occurring thereafter, and to the keeping of records of those transactions. Provisions that are substantially the same as the prior text are restatements, not new enactments. 10 CCR 2054 imports Insurance Code definitions that fit. Three Article 2 definitions show up on exam items:

Article 2 then splits into five subarticles: Preliminary (2053–2054.7), License Regulations (2055–2059), Partnerships and Employees (2060–2063.3), Conduct of Bail Licensees (2064–2092), and Filings and Records (2094–2104). Gift, jail, and solicitation rules in 2074–2080 are the next section. Filed-rate mechanics get a full chapter later. This section is the transaction skeleton: who may act, what you may collect, what paper you must hand over, and what you must keep.

Capacity, names, and unlicensed hands (2064–2068)

10 CCR 2064 requires every bail licensee to conduct business so the public knows the capacity in which the licensee is acting. Dual capacity — employee of an agency in the morning, individual producer in the afternoon — is lawful only if each transaction is run so nobody is confused about who is on the paper. 10 CCR 2066 is the default: except for CIC 1724.5 fictitious names and the 2066.1–2066.3 name rules, every bail licensee shall do business in the licensee's own name.

10 CCR 2068 is the unlicensed-person wall. No bail licensee shall directly or indirectly permit any person on the licensee's behalf to solicit or negotiate undertakings or bail bonds, to effect undertakings, or to issue or deliver bail bonds unless that person is properly licensed — even if the person acts in a purely mechanical or ministerial manner or renders the services gratuitously. A cousin who "just walks the bond to the jail window" for free is still transacting. The regulation's narrow exceptions are the mail, a messenger or delivery generally used to file an already-executed undertaking or deliver a bail bond, and filing or delivery by the arrestee's attorney or other agent. No person in the employment of the licensee shall act as an agent of the arrestee for those acts. You cannot launder an unlicensed runner by calling the runner the family's messenger.

Pre-arrest deals and the attorney cluster (2070–2073)

10 CCR 2070 forbids any agreement whose purpose is guaranteeing or assuring anyone, in advance of the commission of any offense, that bail will be furnished if that person is arrested. It also forbids any act that will encourage any person to violate the law. A standing "we'll always get you out" arrangement with a club, a union hall, or a weekly cash client is the classic violation — even if no crime has been committed yet.

10 CCR 2071 forbids suggesting or recommending any attorney to any arrestee or person purporting to act for an arrestee. 10 CCR 2072 forbids receiving, accepting, collecting for, or transmitting to any attorney any money or item of value for attorney's fee, costs, or any other purpose. A licensee lawfully holding collateral may, on release of that collateral, honor an assignment to an attorney only if the licensee took no part in negotiating the assignment and did not furnish forms or otherwise aid it. 10 CCR 2073 forbids preparing, making, or assisting in a petition for habeas corpus; the only opening is mechanical ministerial work, without charge, under the specific directions of the arrestee's attorney.

What you may collect: 10 CCR 2081 and 2082

10 CCR 2081 is the money rule. No bail licensee shall, in any bail transaction or in connection therewith, directly or indirectly charge or collect money or other valuable consideration from any person except for five listed purposes.

(a) Premium or filed charges. Pay the premium at the rates established by the insurer and set forth on the undertaking of bail, or pay the charges for the bail bond at the rates filed under 10 CCR 2094. Do not invent a statutory 10 percent California premium. CDI's Rate Regulation Branch reviews surety filings; agents representing a surety must charge that surety's filed rates. Proposition 103 rebating of a lower fee is a separate consumer-page rule, taught with the premium chapter. 10 CCR 2094 itself is the permittee filing: every bail permittee shall file a schedule of charges, file any change at least five days before it is effective, and those filings are public records.

(b) Collateral. Collecting collateral is permitted. Holding it is a fiduciary job under 2088.

(c) Actual, necessary, and reasonable expenses of that individual transaction, including but not limited to: guard fees after the first 12 hours following release of the arrestee on bail; notary and recording fees; necessary long-distance telephone (calls billed as long distance, not message-unit local calls); telegram charges; travel expenses and verification of collateral outside the county where the bail was arranged; and a reasonable posting fee charged by a licensee operating in a county other than where the bail was arranged. No charge shall be made for travel from the licensee's office to post bail in an area where the licensee advertises in the yellow pages unless the advertisement specifically so states. When travel charges are permitted, they shall not exceed the amount allowed as a travel expense under the federal Internal Revenue Code and regulations, or the amount the State of California allows its employees to claim for mileage, whichever the licensee chooses. Do not freeze a dollar mileage figure the regulation does not publish.

(d) Breach expenses. Actual reasonable and necessary expenses incurred and caused by the arrestee's breach of the written agreement under which the undertaking was written. Reimbursement may not exceed the penal amount and may include a reasonable charge for services of the licensee, employees, partners, or other persons associated with the licensee in that transaction.

(e) Forfeiture add-on. If a forfeiture occurs and is not set aside, the expenses under (c) and (d) incurred within 180 days of the forfeiture may be charged in addition to the amount of the forfeiture.

10 CCR 2082 closes the back door: except to the extent 2081(c), (d), and (e) permit, no additional service charge on top of the filed premium or 2094 charge. A "document fee," "after-hours fee," or "jail run fee" that is not an actual 2081(c) expense is a 2082 violation.

Paper, collateral, surrender, and records

At the time of obtaining release, or immediately thereafter, 10 CCR 2083 requires a numbered document delivered to the arrestee or, if negotiations were not with the arrestee, to the principal person with whom negotiations were had. The list is exam-dense: surety name (if an undertaking); licensee's name and address; arrestee's name; date of release; date, time, and place of required appearance; amount of bail; offenses charged; premium or charge; itemization of 2081(c) and (d) expenses supported by vouchers and receipts or true copies; total charges; amount received; unpaid balance; and a description of and receipt for any collateral, plus any conditions and a copy of any written collateral agreement.

10 CCR 2088: collateral is received in a fiduciary capacity and, prior to any forfeiture, shall be kept separate and apart from any other funds or assets of the licensee. 10 CCR 2088.2 requires return to the person who deposited it (or that person's assignee other than the licensee) as soon as the licensee is advised the secured obligation is discharged, and immediately upon an order terminating liability if the collateral secured a bond. CDI's consumer page restates the operational timing: collateral or liens are not released until the bail has been paid and the case is settled with the bond exonerated.

10 CCR 2090 is the pre-forfeiture surrender rule. Surrender before the time specified in the undertaking for appearance, or before any other occasion when the arrestee's presence in court is lawfully required, requires return of all premium paid, unless judicial action, information concealed or misrepresented by the arrestee, or other reasonable cause — any one of which was material to the hazard assumed — substantially increased the hazard, in which case the licensee may retain incurred out-of-pocket 2081(c) and (d) expenses. Surrender because the arrestee is again in custody for an offense for which a greater penalty may not be imposed, or surrender at the guarantor's request, shall never, in and of themselves, be reasonable cause. On any early surrender the licensee must tell the arrestee about Penal Code 1300(b) rights to petition the court on return of premium. CDI's consumer FAQ is consistent: premiums are generally nonrefundable even if charges are dropped; 2090 is the surrender exception.

10 CCR 2091 forbids misleading or untrue representations to a court or public official to avoid or set aside a forfeiture, or to obtain own-recognizance release after the licensee has already posted. 10 CCR 2092 requires truthful answers to the commissioner or the commissioner's representative about bail transactions or the conduct of the bail business, subject only to lawful constitutional rights against self-incrimination.

10 CCR 2100 requires complete records of all business done under the agent's or permittee's license or under the license of any employed solicitor, agent, or permittee. Those records, including documents and copies, shall be open to inspection or examination by the commissioner at all reasonable times at the principal place of business designated in the license. The minimum fields include arrestee identity; arrest date, charge, penal amount, premium or charge, filing date, and court; who furnished information leading to the solicitation, when, how, and the relationship; who negotiated if not the arrestee; how the arrestee reached the licensee if the arrestee did; every person paying, promising, or guaranteeing premium, guard fees, extraordinary charges, or collateral; any licensee from whom business was accepted or to whom commission was paid; anyone promised any portion of premium, guard fee, charge, or commission; any non-money consideration; the attorney on a writ bond; and a separate book record of collateral received, described, and returned. 10 CCR 2104 is the destruction clock: five years after the final completion of all parts of a bail transaction, a bail licensee may destroy the records pertaining to that transaction.

California scenarios

Inglewood posting fee. A Compton agent arranges a $25,000 undertaking. A Ventura licensee posts it and invoices a "convenience fee" plus local cell-phone minutes. 2081(c)(2) allows a reasonable posting fee to a licensee operating in another county. It does not allow message-unit local calls, and 2082 forbids a generic convenience fee on top of filed premium.

First-night guard. A family wants a guard on the arrestee "until morning" and is willing to pay. 2081(c)(1) allows guard fees only after the first 12 hours following release. The first 12 hours are on the licensee.

Riverside records. A CDI investigator arrives at a weekend kiosk in a strip mall. 2100 requires the records at the principal place of business designated in the license, not wherever the agent happens to be standing that night.

Early surrender. An indemnitor in Fresno calls 10 days after posting and says "take him back, I changed my mind." 2090 is explicit: surrender at the guarantor's request is never, by itself, reasonable cause to keep premium.

Traps

• 2081 is a closed list. If the charge is not (a) through (e), 2082 forbids it.
• Guard fees start after 12 hours, not at release.
• Travel from the office to a yellow-pages advertising area is not chargeable unless the advertisement specifically says so.
• 2094 is the permittee charge schedule; agents live on the insurer's filed rate set forth on the undertaking.
• 2104's five years runs from final completion of all parts of the transaction, not from the booking date.
• 2068's "gratuitous" and "ministerial" language is a prohibition, not an exception.
• Do not treat CDI's consumer remark that cost is "most commonly ten percent" as a statutory premium. The legal collection rule is 2081.