O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 17-6-58 (2019)

Penalty for violation; liability

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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(a) Any bail recovery agent who fails to register with the local sheriff or who is otherwise unqualified to act as a bail recovery agent but who nonetheless attempts to apprehend or capture a principal on a bail bond or a fugitive or who succeeds in apprehending or capturing such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor upon conviction for the first violation and shall be guilty of a felony upon conviction for the second and all subsequent violations punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

(b) Any bondsman or bonding company owner, surety, or agent who hires a bail recovery agent who is not qualified to act as a bail recovery agent pursuant to Code Sections 17-6-56 and 17-6-57 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor upon conviction for the first violation and shall be guilty of a felony upon conviction for the second and all subsequent violations punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or a fine of not more than $10,000.00, or both.

(c) No bail recovery agent shall wear, carry, or display any uniform, badge, shield, card, or other item with any printing, insignia, or emblem that purports to indicate that such bail recovery agent is an employee, officer, or agent of any state or federal government or any political subdivision of any state or federal government. A violation of this subsection shall be punished upon conviction as a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or a fine of not more than $10,000.00, or both.

(d) A bail recovery agent who enters the wrong property, causes damage to said property, or causes injury to anyone thereon is liable for all damages.

History

Code 1981, § 17-6-58, enacted by Ga. L. 1999, p. 546, § 1.1.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Fair notice required. - When a bond recovery agent was registered as an agent in Fulton County in 2000 but had not renewed that registration for 2001 when the agent apprehended in that county a principal on a bond issued by a professional bondsman who employed the agent, the failure of the county to maintain a system for the registration of individual agents precluded a successful prosecution of the agent for violating O.C.G.A.

§ 17-6-58, and the agent could not be held vicariously liable for the bondsman’s alleged failure to register the agent in violation of O.C.G.A. § 17-6-56(c). Additionally, § 17-6-58(a) did not provide the agent with fair notice that the agent could be held criminally responsible for acting as a bail recovery agent in Fulton County if the agent failed to renew the agent’s registration in that county. Perkins v. State, 277 Ga. 323, 588 S.E.2d 719 (2003).

ARTICLE 3 PROCEEDINGS FOR FORFEITURE OF BONDS OR RECOGNIZANCES

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 1 case, 2003–2003 · leading case: Perkins v. State, 588 S.E.2d 719 (Ga. 2003).

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Perkins v. State, 588 S.E.2d 719 (Ga. 2003). · cites it 28× “Thereafter, the Solicitor General of the State Court of Fulton County filed an accusation, charging that Perkins violated OCGA § 17-6-58 (a), which provides, in relevant part, that [a]ny bail recovery agent who fails to register with the local sheriff .”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.