Bond-forfeiture cases are criminal, not civil

Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals has been designating bail-bond forfeiture cases as civil cases with "CV" as part of the cause number -- but not any more. After a three-justice panel of the 1st Court held in a Nov. 7 supplemental opinion in Safety National Casualty Corp., Agent Michael Cox v. State that bond-forfeiture proceedings are criminal in nature, the “CV” will become a “CR” in future cases. The opinion replaces the panel’s April 17 opinion in Safety National, in which the panel determined that interest on a forfeited bond should be calculated for the period between the date the trial court issued the judgment nisi that triggered the forfeiture until the date the defendant was arrested and incarcerated in any jurisdiction -- not, as the state had argued, when the defendant was returned to Harris County. The substituted opinion didn’t change this holding. But what it did change was who has to pay the costs for the appeal. Because the 1st Court panel originally had designated Safety National as a civil case, it assessed the costs of the appeal to the state in its April 17 opinion, because Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 43.4 requires a court of appeals to award appellate costs to the prevailing party. But the rule is different in criminal law, so on Nov. 7, the panel assessed those costs against Safety National, the prevailing party on appeal. According to the opinion, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 22.10 makes the surety on a bond responsible for such costs. Kathleen Braddock, bond forfeiture division chief in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, says the 1st Court panel got it right on the assessment of costs. Ken W. Good, Safety National’s attorney, calls the 1st Court’s opinion “a step backwards.” Good, a shareholder in Tyler’s Kent, Good, Anderson & Bush, represents a number of bondsmen who have sued counties around the state, challenging the assessment of civil filing fees in bond forfeiture cases. The state and Safety National had filed petitions for discretionary review with the Court of Criminal Appeals.  Good says both sides will have to file new petitions.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Comments

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Until the case is resolved ,they keep the money, theers no less flight risk now than there was before..once the case is resolved you get the money back in normally less than 90 days,but only once its resolved.