I will once again take this opportunity to welcome each of you to the 2014 TAPBA Continuing Education Class. Legislation was passed in 2013 that will be of great benefit to our Tennessee bail industry.Rural judges were using TCA 40-11-138 to hold Tennessee bonding companies on cases to collect fines and costs or have defendants complete public work days. The amendment of that statute by deleting part of the last sentence has solved the issue, but not without controversy. Davidson County issued local rules by-passing the new amendment. Local bondsmen along with TAPBA filed a request for a hearing which went before the same judges who wrote the local rules. Of course they upheld the court’s position. We filed an appeal and now wait for a ruling from the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

Memphis has also amended the Shelby County local rules and we along with local bonding companies have taken issue with their amendments. The law firm of Moseley & Moseley, in concert with the legal counsel for the American Bail Coalition, has asked for a comment hearing and awaits response from the Shelby County Criminal Court Judges.

On January 10, 2014 the Criminal Court of Appeals ruled on the Hummons case brought by our Vice President, Danny Blankenship and TAPBA through Joel and Jay Moseley. This case was in the Circuit Court of Madison County and was on point in regard to our detainer bill TCA 40-11-201. The appellant bonding company was exonerated by order of the Criminal Court of Appeals which should benefit all Tennessee bonding companies.

I mention the above so you may understand that the TAPBA directors and legal staff continue to work on behalf of the industry throughout the year. You may not always be aware that TAPBA is constantly assisting our members and non-members alike with issues statewide. I’m sure these and other topics of interest will be covered during your continuing education class.

This year our July class will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Our class will be in conjunction with the Professional Bondsmen of the United States’ (PBUS) summer convention. PBUS will give each TAPBA class attendee a free one day pass for their event. You can attend either the day before our class or the day after our class. This would normally cost $150 per person per day! I hope you will take advantage of this great opportunity to see first-hand what PBUS is about and how they assist the bail industry on a national level.

I look forward to another successful year serving TAPBA.

Thank you,
CHARLES W. WHITE, SR.
President TAPBA