By: Whitmire  S.B. No. 1151
         (In the Senate - Filed February 23, 2023; March 9, 2023,
  read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
  March 23, 2023, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; March 23, 2023,
  sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1151 By:  Whitmire
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the authority of corporations to act as sureties on bail
  bonds.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Article 17.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
  amended to read as follows:
         Art. 17.06.  CORPORATION AS SURETY.  (a) In [Wherever in]
  this chapter [Chapter], if a [any] person is required or authorized
  to give or execute a [any] bail bond, the [such] bail bond may be
  given or executed by the [such] principal and a [any] corporation
  authorized by law to act as surety, subject to all applicable [the]
  provisions of this chapter [Chapter] regulating and governing the
  giving of bail bonds by personal surety [insofar as the same is
  applicable].
         (b)  Before executing a bail bond for the release of a
  defendant, a corporation acting as surety, or the agent executing
  the bail bond on behalf of the corporation acting as surety, shall:
               (1)  collect a premium of not less than 10 percent of
  the total surety bond amount; and
               (2)  submit to the sheriff of the county in which the
  prosecution is pending a sworn affidavit that confirms payment of
  the premium and identifies:
                     (A)  the amount paid for the premium;
                     (B)  the method of payment for the premium,
  including cash, a type of cash equivalent, a property transfer, a
  property lien, or another method; and
                     (C)  the person who paid the premium.
         SECTION 2.  Article 17.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, as
  amended by this Act, applies only to a bail bond executed on or
  after the effective date of this Act. A bail bond executed before
  the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
  the date the bail bond was executed, and the former law is continued
  in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
 
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