A recent article in Technorati and the Las Vegas Review Journal called into question a practice by the City of Las Vegas that relates to warrants being cleared for a fee. Typically if someone doesn't pay a traffic fine or appear in court as scheduled, they may have a warrant issued for their arrest.

When the warrant is issued for someone's arrest, this is a business opportunity for a Las Vegas bail bondsman . They can post a bond with the Las Vegas court and essentially bond the defendant out, even though that person hasn't been arrested.

The city of Las Vegas, sensing an opportunity to generate revenue, is now having Las Vegas marshals contact traffic violators with warrants and "assisting" them in clearing the warrant by paying an amount of money to the court.

To many Las Vegas bail bonds agencies, this seems like the city is stealing business to augment their own revenue generation activities. In addition, local bail bondsmen are claiming this activity violates Nevada state bail laws.

With the economy in such dire straights and not only bail bondsmen, but also municipalities looking for revenue anywhere they can find it, neither side wants to back down.

Las Vegas bail bonds are pretty established, but other areas in the country are just now learning how to manage their local bail bonds industry. In San Angelo, Texas for example, a new bail bonds regulatory board has implemented to reign in the local bail bonds industry.

The new board is in the information gathering phase. However, most believe the net result of its implementation and oversight of local bail bondsmen will mean a more difficult process for starting a new bail bond operation and less competitive for established bondsmen. Essentially, it is believed the new bail bonds board will make the county "closed". Meaning an outside bondsman won't be able to come in and write bail bonds.

Is this anti competition and protectionism? Or is it prudent oversight and regulation? What if this level of oversight was brought to bear on Las Vegas bail bonds? Would that be a good thing? Would love to hear comments.

been established in town as a growing-pain result of Tom Green County's population increase

Many outside of the bail bonds industry don't realize that there are stringent regulatory requirements for bail bonds solicitation. Bail bonds are regulated on a state by state basis, so the laws of course vary. However, many states severly restrict the manner in which both bail bonds and legal representation can be solicited or referred.

Recently, a California bail bondsman was convicted of soliciting attorney referrals and inmate business in an illegal bail bond referral scheme. He was sentenced to three years of probation, one year in jail and is barred from practicing bail bonds for six months.

First, it strikes me as odd that a bail bondsman can't refer an attorney or vice versa. I mean know it is the law and am not suggesting any break the law. However, I just can't understand why a bail bondsman who has a good working relationship with a criminal defense attorney or vice versa should be barred from helping their clients with additional resources. Obviously, if money is being exchanged between a criminal defense lawyer and a bail bondsman for referrals the chance for a conflict of interest is obvious.

It seems counter intuitive that a bail bondsman who bails somebosy out of jail can't help his or her client with a referral for a worthwhile attorney.

Further along the lines of illegal solicitation practices, a bail bondsman is not allowed to solicit bail bonds business in a jail. This always struck me as funny. What other place would have so many people in need of bail bonds services? Most importantly, as odd as these laws may be it is obviously important for bondsmen to obey them or face imprisonment themselves.

As you may have guessed, I have been busy writing articles for technorati about the bail bonds industry. I am going to start feeding my blog directly onto the technorati site. This is just a short blog for them to verify as we are getting it set up. They've asked me to put up this token code to verify the blog:

R2853RNERTSS

Look for me soon. Thanks!

Yet again, someone from the right side of the law is being accused of doing something on the wrong side of the law. Former police Las Vegas police officer, William Ronald Webb, had bail set at $400,000 for an alleged conspiracy with a convicted felon to kill Webb's girlfriend. The defendant's attorney said that Webb wouldn't be posting bail and presumably wouldn't hire a bondsman to help post Las Vegas bail bonds. So the former cop now sits in a Clark County detention facility awating trial.

Presecutors had asked for a larger Las Vegas bail amount citing his potential to flee, resistance during arrest and possible threat to the community. Even so, a $400,000 bail amount equates to a fee of $60,000 to have the Las Vegas bail bonds posted by a bondsman. That amount seems to be prohibitive for the time being and the cop who once sent people to jail is now experiencing that from the other side of the equation.

Professional boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. was arrested for grand larceny charges last week. After posting a $3000 bail, he was released that same day.

The troubles for Mayweather started after Jose Harris, the boxing superstar's former girlfriend, reported a domestic violence complaint against the boxer.

She alleges that Mayweather attacked Harris and stole her iPhone during a dispute. She claims this occurred in front of their three children at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Harris added Mayweather threatened to kill her Thursday after learning her relationship with another man.

Mayweather was charged with grand larceny, a felony crime that carries a maximum of five years state imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Richard Wright, Mayweather’s attorney, downplayed Harris’s allegation, claiming she lost her cell phone.

A man was recently arrested after trying to rob the Orleans hotel and casino. All in all that isn't too weird, but the details make this one of the odder stories I've ever heard of. The man claimed he was trying to get enough money to bail his girlfriend out of jail. Pretty dumb thing to do. Even dumber if you consider the man could have called a Las Vegas bail bondsman and would have only been responsible for the bail bondsman fees. He wouldn't have had to come up with the full bail amount. The question now is, who is going to bail him out?

Vince Neil, former lead singer for Motley Crue, just posted his own Las Vegas bail after being arrested for suspicion of DUI. After leaving the Las Vegas Hilton on 6/28/10, he was pulled over after police officers spotted his Lamborghini near the Las Vegas Strip. They administered a field sobriety test and then arrested the 49-year-old VH1 reality star. He was booked into Clark County Detention Center just before midnight. Posting bail without a Las Vegas bail bondsman's help probably did little to keep the rocker out of the limelight. Although, attempts were made to keep the arrest from being in the spot light, you can bet everyone in Las Vegas will be watching the case.

Retrieving bail bond jumpers is never a fun thing for bail bonds agents. It is dangerous, time consuming and expensive. And sometimes it goes bad in a big way.

Crime rose last year in metropolitan Las Vegas; Bail Bonds business to see a spike? The FBI just released their 2009 crime statistics for the Las Vegas area. Overall violent crimes increased last year in the area. North Las Vegas and Henderson saw increases in robberies. Some speculate that is due to the protracted economic slump. However, murders in Las Vegas actually dropped. Other bright spots include a drop in rapes in Henderson and a drop of almost 500 auto thefts in North Las Vegas.