Class-action settlement approved against Northern California bail bonds company

A South Bay-headquartered bail bonds company must forfeit $38 million in debt owed by thousands of people across California who allegedly signed misleading and exploitative contracts with the business over the last several years, according to a class-action settlement announced Thursday.

The accord with Bad Boys Bail Bonds — which was founded nearly 30 years ago in San Jose and now operates throughout the state, frequently airing local TV ads — marks an end to years of claims by people who said they were deceived into signing illegal contracts, then harassed for money that they never agreed to pay.

On Thursday, attorneys for those families hailed the agreement as “a victory for low-income families and communities of color who have been exploited by the bail bond industry.”

“For years, Bad Boys preyed on people at their most vulnerable, burying them in debt they never knowingly agreed to,” said Nisha Kashyap, program director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, in a statement announcing the settlement. She added that “the precedent set in this case will help protect countless families across California.”

The law firm claimed that Bad Boys often did not provide a co-signer notice while finalizing bail bonds contracts, meaning that anyone helping someone could of jail could be left on the hook for the entire bail amount, according to the committee’s announcement. Such notices are legally required for those contracts.

As a result, the company must forfeit nearly $38 million in outstanding debt collected from more than 18,000 bail bonds contracts signed from 2017 through 2022, the law firm said.

In addition, the company also must provide those notices in the future, and better train its staff. The settlement also calls for a court-appointed monitor to ensure the company is hewing to the agreement.

“Our settlement ensures transparency, accountability, and fairness where previously there was deception, harassment, and exploitation,” said Niall Frizzell, an attorney with Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a firm that also represented people impacted by the bail bonds contracts.

A message left by the Bay Area News Group to reach Bad Boys Bail Bonds’ headquarters in San Jose was not immediately returned. The company has more than a half-dozen offices across the state, including in San Jose, Oakland and Redwood City.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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