Surety Companies

A surety company is an insurance company. It provides financial support and backing to the bail agent and certifies to the courts that funds are available to pay the full bail amount if the defendant doesn¹t show.

The courts view the surety company as the ultimate source of payment, because the surety company issues the actual bail bond. Like the bail agency, the surety company is a business and needs to earn a profit. That won¹t happen if the surety company is constantly paying on forfeited bail bonds, particularly without receiving anything in return. Therefore, before it will write a bond or guarantee payment on behalf of a client, the surety company wants indemnity.

Indemnity is a term used often in the insurance industry. It means security or protection against loss. As such, the cosigner of the bond is sometimes called the indemnitor. Before agreeing to back a bail agent, the surety company might request indemnity in the form of collateral plus a written guarantee from the bail agent that he will follow good practices. The surety company wants to ensure that the bail agent is not likely to run up too many forfeitures.

A bail agent can be appointed to more than one surety company, provided he meets the requirements of each. Why would an agent want to be backed by more than one surety company? Different companies offer different financial products, and a bail agent might want more variety to choose from. For example, some surety companies issue only bail bonds while others also write different types of bonds, such as immigration and civil bonds.

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