Over the past several months we have noticed a trend that is occurring around the state regarding the new legislation passed that allows bondsmen ninety days to produce their defendant’s before the courts can move to estreat them.  Over the past few months we have seen an increase in counties starting to look at the ninety day rule.  In some counties we have seen a trend where the defendant is     produced after the 90 days is up, but before the estreatment hearing occurs, and the county still moves to estreat a percentage of the bond.  We are also seeing this from some counties who do not want to produce a bench  warrant list for us because they feel that is the job of the bonding company.  The State of South Carolina is not   required by law to send out any bench warrant notices, so this is where the concern lies.

The goal of our Claims    Department here is to assist you in every way we can with your estreatments and bench

warrants.  We use as many    resources we can to help you find out about any outstanding bench warrants, but if we have not contacted you about a bench warrant that does not mean there are not any out there for your company!  We recommend that in the future you spend time  researching your bench warrants and get them handled in a timely manner so this situation does not happen to you.  Even if your county does not implement this ninety day rule, that does not mean they are not considering it.  If you do run across this problem with the county you write in, we suggest retaining an attorney to assist you in these matters. 

Below is a list of the counties that are now implementing the 90 day rule:

· Greenville County, Pickens County, Spartanburg County, State Grand Jury

 If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please do not hesitate to call our office to discuss it

                                                     

Information regarding the 90 day Bench Warrant Legislation in SC

SPOTLIGHT: Claims Department

Palmetto Surety Corporation

July 30, 2010