Senate Bill 525 - Summary

• Reduces application validity period from six (6) months to three (3) months for bail bondsman license applicants.

• Changes fingerprint and photograph requirements from two complete sets to one set, and from two photographs to a single credential-size full face photograph.

• Prohibits bail bondsmen from maintaining offices where low-point beer or alcoholic beverages are sold for on-premises consumption, and clarifies marriage or cohabitation with disqualified persons is subject to factual determination rather than automatic disqualification.

• Requires court clerks to post bondsman lists conspicuously near all prisoner telephones and distribute monthly updates to law enforcement, rather than providing lists only upon individual request.

• Establishes detailed bond exoneration procedures including ninety (90) day recovery period for returned defendants, automatic bond exoneration if court fails to timely issue arrest warrants or file forfeiture judgments, and multiple grounds for automatic exoneration by operation of law.