In People v. Chavarria-Sanchez, 2008 WL 540624 (Colo.App. March 5, 2009) the Court construed a 2007 statute, §16-3-503 C.R.S. 2008, that addressed bail for persons illegally present in the United States. The statute provided that if the defendant is deported, the court will return the documents signed by the bail agent and the bail agent will surrender the fees received. In effect, if the bond was provided by a commercial surety, deportation of the defendant does not cause forfeiture of the bond amount. Instead, the bond transaction is rescinded, and the state gets the fees paid by or on behalf of the defendant. The Court held that returning the surety's documents meant there could be no forfeiture of the bond, but it also held that the statute did not apply retroactively. Since the bond was posted and the defendant failed to appear before June 1, 2007, when the statute took effect, the surety was not entitled to relief. A dissent argued that the statute was procedural and should have been applied retroactively.

Our Thanks for the information to:
William B. Carmichael
President & CEO
American Surety Company