A $12,000 Bond, a Thin Wallet, and a Stack of Invented Fees
Bond is set at $12,000 for Tanya, who is charged with felony DWI. Her brother, who will be the indemnitor, has $700 in cash. The agent quotes premium of $1,200 - 10% of the face amount - and the brother says he cannot pay it all today. The agent proposes: $700 down and $500 over four months; a $150 "processing and filing" charge; a $25 monthly "installment service" charge; and a $200 "court appearance fee" for each of the four scheduled hearings, payable whether or not the agent attends. The brother signs an indemnity agreement, a payment plan, and hands over the title to his 2009 pickup as additional security. The agent has him sign the seller's signature line on the title and leaves the buyer's line blank "so we can fill it in if he runs." Tanya appears at all four hearings and the case is dismissed in November. The agent tells the brother the title stays until the last $25 installment is paid in December, plus the four appearance fees, which he says total $800.
1. Which of the charges in this transaction are permissible and which are not? Show the arithmetic.
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Start with the statutory ceiling: the premium on a bail bond is capped by Missouri law at a percentage of the face amount, commonly 10%, so the most this agent may earn on a $12,000 bond is $1,200. Everything else in the proposal has to be tested against that ceiling rather than against what the indemnitor is willing to sign. The $700 down plus the $500 installment plan totals exactly $1,200, which is the cap - and therefore the plan is full payment, not partial payment. The $150 processing charge, the $25 monthly service charge, and the four $200 appearance fees are not separate services; they are compensation for the same act of writing and servicing the bond, relabeled to escape the cap. They are not collectible. If Missouri allows reimbursement of actual, documented out-of-pocket expenses, that is a narrow exception requiring receipts, and it will not support a flat $800 appearance charge - verify the current statutory language before billing a penny above $1,200.
2. Evaluate the agent's handling of the pickup title.
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The pickup title is collateral, and collateral is held, not owned. The agent's first error is documentary: he should have given a written receipt identifying the vehicle, the VIN, the bond it secures, and the conditions of return, and he should have placed the title in a segregated file. The second error is far more serious. Having the indemnitor sign the seller's line and leaving the buyer's line blank hands the agent the apparent power to transfer the truck to himself or anyone else. That converts a security interest into a potential conversion, creates a document that looks forged on its face, and gives the indemnitor a ready claim that the agent intended to take the vehicle all along. The correct approach is to leave title in the indemnitor's name, document the security interest in the indemnity agreement and a separate security agreement, and never accept a signature on a blank transfer line. Nothing about "if he runs" justifies it - the remedy for flight is a forfeiture proceeding, not self-help repossession of a blank-signed title.
3. When and how must the collateral and any unearned money be returned after the November dismissal?
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The dismissal discharged the bond, and with it the obligation the pickup secured. From that moment the agent is holding property he has no continuing right to keep, and Missouri law requires return of collateral within a set period after exoneration - the agent should confirm the current deadline in the statute and beat it rather than test it. The $25 installment and appearance-fee theory cannot extend the hold, because those charges were never lawful compensation; a contract term that lets an agent retain collateral for unlawful fees is unenforceable. Practically, he should send written notice that the bond is exonerated, return the title in the same condition received, obtain a signed receipt, and provide a written accounting showing the $1,200 premium fully earned and paid and any excess refunded. If the title was already signed over or the truck moved, he should return it immediately and document the chain of custody before the indemnitor files a complaint.