[Video] A Typical Night in the Life of a Bounty Hunter

Follow Bail Enforcement Agents through an evening as they bring in people who’ve skipped out on their day in court.

One of the questions that came up during the video was, “How do Bounty Hunters operate and under what authority?

A bail bondsman has the established legal right to arrest and re-incarcerate any client of his (that he has bailed out of jail) if they have broken any part of their bail agreement (contract); not showing up for court is ALWAYS a part of that agreement. This was established by the Supreme Court in 1873 in, the now famous case, Taylor vs. Taintor

The bail bondsman may, through a power of attorney, assign this power to another person for the purposes of enforcing this contract. Through this assignment of his power to a bail enforcement agent, we derive the same authority over the defendant and operate on the bail bondsman’s behalf in securing the defendant’s appearance in court.

Some sates have limited the scope of who may receive this authority by requiring licensing or registration with the state. There are no “Federal bounty hunters.” Each state regulates bail enforcement differently; some state have outlawed the bail bond industry altogether, most states require licensing and the remainder of the states do not regulate the industry at all.

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About the Author (Author Profile)

L. Scott Harrell began a full-time career in private investigation and bail enforcement in 1995. He has apprehended over 1,700 bail fugitives and successfully closed several hundred additional skip trace and missing persons assignments. He routinely works with national surety companies and owned two very successful investigation agencies in Louisiana, Texas and now Florida. He is a noted speaker, author and mentor in the bail enforcement and fugitive recovery profession.

Comments (2)

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  1. greg stokes says:

    Hi Scott,
    I have spent the past 7 years working high threat protection or PSD work in Iraq. I am former marine as well. Anyway, I am relocating back to Houston area and wanting to speak with you more about the business to see if this something worthwhile to make 100k annually. Prefer if you can contact me privately.
    Thanks and Semper Fi,
    Greg

  2. David says:

    they are lucky here in Duval 2 agents were shot one killed

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