DAN MORALES 

.Al-rORNEY GENERAL 

QBffice of the glttornep Qhneral 

Mate of ZEexae 

November 27,199l 

Honorable Tim Curry 

criminal District Attorney 

Tarrant County Justice Center 

401 west Belknap 

Fort Worth, Texas 761964201 

Opinion No. DM-59 

Re: Whether the Tarrant County Sheriff 

may accept bail bond from a bondsman 

not licensed in that county, and related 

questions (RQ-185) 

DearMLcurry: 

You ask “[wlhether the Tarrant County Bail Bond Board has authority to 

require the Tarrant County Sheriff to accept bail bonds (for prisoners held in 

Tarrant County) tendered by out-of-county bondsmen who have already obtained 

the bond’s approval by a Sheriff where the bondsman resides.” Your request letter 

states that you have concluded that “to be eligible and qualified to write a bail bond 

for a case pending in a court in Tarrant County, the person acting as bondsman must 

be licensed by a Bail Bond Board in some Texas county (not necessarily Tarrant 

County) that is governed by Art. 2372~3, regardless of the individual bondsman’s 

county of residence.” 

Article 2372p-3, V.T.C.S., provides for the licensing and regulation of bail 

bondsmen by county bail bond boards. Counties of over 110,800 population must, 

and counties with smaller Ropulations may, establish county bail bond boards. Id 

0 5(a). The boards are composed of enumerated district, county, and municipal 

officers or their designees as well as a bondsman “licensed in the county elected by 

other county licensees.” Id 5 5(b). Article 2372p-3 applies to every county required 

to have, or which has elected to create, a county bail bond board. Ia! 9 3. 

Subsection (a) of section 6 provides: 

Any person desiring to act as a bondsman in any couti of the 

county shah file with the County Bail Bond Board a sworn 

application for a license. (Emphasis added.)’ 

tother prtions of section 6 provide for the rquisites of the application for a bondsman’s 

lkcasc, for an investigation and hearing by the board, and its denial of the application or approval 

cor&ioncd on the applicaat’fa s of the required security deposits. 

p. 295 
Honorable Tim Curry - Page 2 (DM-59) 

The above-quoted language from subsection (a) of section 6 clearly contemplates 

that in order to act as a bail bondsman in a county having a bail bond board a 

person must be licensed by that county’s bail bond board. Thus we disagree with 

your conclusion that in order to write bail bonds for a case pending in a court in 

Tart-ant County a bondsman must be licensed in some Texas county but nor 

necessari& in Tamant County.2 

It follows that the Tarrant County board is not authorized to require the 

sheriff to accept bail bonds from bail bondsmen not licensed in the county.. While 

the board is given broad authority in section S(f) to exercise powers “incidental or 

necessary to the administration of,this Act,” it does not have authority to vary the 

requirements of the act. See Attorney General Opinion JM-1057 (1989), and 

authorities cited therein.3 

We aIso note that subsection (a) of section 3 provides in relevant part: 

In ? county that Itas a board, a0 person may act as a +rIsmaa except: 

(1) person licensed under this Act, and 

(2) persons licensed to practice law in this state who meet the 

rquirements set forth in Subsection (e) of Section 3 of this Act. 

We do not understand you to be concerned about the activities as bondsmen of “persons 

Iiceased to practice IaUr and limit this opinion accordingIy. 

?We agree, however, that there is a0 rquirement that a bondsman, so long as he is Licensed by 

the county’s board, be a resident of that county ia order to write bonds ia that county. See id 0 6 

(requirements of application). It is ako clear that a person may be licensed in more. than ooe county. 

See, e.g., id. 5 4(a) (bondsmae to maintain separate records “for each county in wbkh the bondsman is 

Ikepsed”). 

3Attomey General Opinion JM-1057 in fact largely aawered the question you cow present. 

In responding to the question what authority a board bad io coktieg 011 a bond given in another 

county by a bondsman kensed by that board, the opinion noted, under section 6(a), that a board “is 

not empowered by the act to grant a license to an applicant to act as a bondsman ia another couety.’ 

(The opinion ako cited the language of section 5(f)(l), that the board is empowered to enforce the 

provisions of art& 2372~3-3 “within the county,” in conduding that the board bad no authority in 

cokctieg oa bonds executed outside the county.) See CrLro Attorney General Opinion JM-271 (1984) 

(aceeptaace of bail bond by sheriff ia county of arrest from bail bondsman Liecased in county of arrest 

to obtain release of accused held on out-of-county capius or warrant). 

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Honorable Tim Curry - Page 3 (DM-59) 

We do note that the provisions of article 2372p-3 when first adopted in 1973 

provided in section 12(b): 

Any licensee under this Act may execute bail bonds in the 

county in which his license is issued and, after being certified by 

the sheriff in his county, may present a bail bond to any sheriff in 

the state having custody of the accused person named therein, 

except that a sheriff of a county having a population in excess of 

150,090 according to the last preceding federal census may 

require that all bail bonds be executed by persons licensed in 

that county. 

Acts 1973,63d Leg., ch. 550, at 1525. 

The county population figure in the provision was changed to 110,ooO in 

1979. Acts 1979, 66th Leg., ch. 111, at 202. In 1981, however, a bill which 

substantially rewrote the provisions of article 2372p-3 deleted the above-quoted 

provisions of section 12(b). Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 312, 5 1, at 883. We find no 

exception in the current provisions of article 2372p-3 (save for licensed attorneys as 

provided for in section 3(a)(2) -- see s&a note 1) to the requirement of section 6 

that a person desiring to act as a bail bondsman in a county covered by the article 

must obtain a license from that county’s bail bond board. 

Other provisions of article 2372p-3 are consistent with this conclusion. For 

example, section 9(b)(6) provides that the board may suspend or revoke a license 

for a bondsman’s “failing to pay within 30 days any final judgment rendered on any 

forfeited bond in any court of competent jurisdiction within the county of the licensee.” 

(Emphasis added.) These provisions, we believe, contemplate that a bondsman will 

be doing bail bond business only in those counties subject to article 2372~3 in which 

the bondsman is licensed. Otherwise, there would be provisions for a board’s 

suspending or revoking a bondsman’s licence for failure to pay a forfeiture judgment 

amount in a county other than the one in which the bondsman was licensed.4 

4Notably, prior to the 1981 removal of the provisions formerly in section 12(b), referenced 

abpve - providing for a sheriff’s accepting the bond of aa out-of-county licensee in certain cases -- 

section 9(a)(5) provided for a board’s suspendiig or revoking a license for a ticensee’s failieg to pay a 

forfeiture judgment rendered “ia any court of compeient jurisdiction within this stute.” Acts 1973, 63d 

Leg., ch. 550, at 1524 (emphasis added). 

p. 297 
HonorableTim Curry - Page 4 (DM-59) 

You also ask “[wlhether the Tarrant County Sheriff is required to accept a 

bail bond from a bondsman who resides outside Tarrant County and is not licensed 

by any Texas county.” (Emphasis in original.) It follows from the foregoing that the 

sheriff may not accept a bond from an unlicensed bondsman. See supm note 2, 

(regarding residence). 

SUMMARY 

Under article 2372p-3, V.T.C.S., a person must be licensed 

by the Tarrant County Bail Bond Board in order to act as a bail 

bondsman in any court of Tarrant County. 

DAN MORALES 

Attorney General of Texas 

WILL PRYOR 

First Assistant Attorney General 

MARY KELLER 

Deputy Assistant Attorney General 

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY (Ret.) 

Special Assistant Attorney General 

RENEA HICKS 

Special Assistant Attorney General 

MADELEINE B. JOHNSON 

Chair, Opinion Committee 

Prepared by William Walker 

Assistant Attorney General 

p. 298