Bounty Hunter Lingo

Suggested by: Wendy

@AETelivision posted a very cool link (in my opinion) about bounty hunter lingo….

Bail bondsman
a person who guarantees bail for prisoners, usually charging them a 10% nonrefundable deposit, and who is responsible for paying bail if they flee

Bail enforcement agent
another term for bounty hunter

Bounty
money paid for the return of a criminal, typically ten to twenty percent of the total bail bond

Custodian
term for a person put up for bail instead of money (under old British and pre-constitutional American law) who could be punished – even hanged – in the accused’s place if he fled

Eighth Amendment
Constitutional Amendment that guarantees the accused the right to reasonable bail

FTA
failure-to-appear, the technical term for skipping out on bail

Fugitive
from the latin fugere, meaning “to flee,” the word has been with us since Middle English, but could vanish at any moment

Fugitive recovery agent
another term for bounty hunter

Harvey, Domino
daughter of English actor Laurence Harvey, who left her privileged background to become a Los Angeles bounty hunter; she died of drug overdose in 2005, shortly after being portrayed by Kiera Knightley in the film of her life

Illinois
the only state where bounty hunting is not allowed at all, and where a bond agent of another state may not operate even with a warrant

Judas
bounty hunter slang for a person who feels wronged by the accused (often because they put up the collateral for the skipped bail) and is willing to rat them out

Midnight run
bounty hunter slang for an easy capture, which also lent its name to a 1988 film starring Robert De Niro

NABEA
the National Association of Bail Enforcement Agents, a group that provides services and legislative advocacy for the bounty hunter community

1984 Bail Reform Act
act allowing courts to hold prisoners without bail if they are too dangerous to release

Power of attorney
what a bounty hunter must acquire from a bail bondsman (which was signed over to him by the prisoner) before hunting down an accused

Responsibility Act of 1999
a failed congressional bill that sought to impose on bounty hunters the same civil rights restrictions that apply to police

Skips
informal term for people who fail to make their court dates

Skiptracing
the act of tracking someone down, usually through indirect methods such as hiring investigators or outsourcing to debt collectors

Taylor v. Taintor
an 1873 Supreme Court case often cited as having established that a bounty hunter has greater rights than a normal police officer, such as to enter a house without a warrant, or to apprehend a fugitive without reading him his Miranda rights.

Originally Found at:
http://www.aetv.com/dog_the_bounty_hunter/glossary/index.jsp?vid=AETV_Marketing_Twitter_ae