AUSTIN — The Office of the Attorney General of Texas has issued an opinion after Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz asked several questions about attorney-surety bonds.
Provisional Attorney General of Texas John Scott said in the June 12 opinion that a court would probably interpret attorney sureties as providing "commercial bail bonds" when they offer their bonding services for a fee or commission.
Scott wrote that the collection of forfeited attorney surety bonds will be carried out by district and county attorneys, clerks of district and county courts, sheriffs, constables, and justices of the peace as per Code of Criminal Procedure article 103.003(a).
"Code of Criminal Procedure article 103.0031 generally permits a county or a municipality to enter into a third-party collection contract to recover money owed on certain items in criminal cases, including forfeited bonds," the opinion stated. "The reference to a nonexistent “section” in Code of Criminal Procedure article 103.0031(h), providing that '[t]his section does not apply to commercial bail bonds,' is a scrivener’s error that creates an absurdity, such that a court would likely construe its exception to refer to article 103.0031."
Scott wrote that attorney sureties are subject to the same prohibitions on conduct as non-attorney sureties.
"This suggests that sureties generally sell their services," he wrote. "To the extent they sell their bonding services for a fee or commission, a court would likely thus conclude that attorney sureties executing bail bonds are engaged in 'commercial bail bonds."
In his request, sent Dec. 13, Saenz reported that the Cameron County Bail Bond Board had informed him that several attorney-surety bail bonds had been forfeited and judgments were awaiting collection.
Saenz wrote that while collections of judgments against traditional sureties were specified within procedure, dealing with attorney sureties was somewhat ambiguous.
Saenz sent five questions for the attorney general to answer. He wrote he wanted the attorney general's guidance in the matter.