Appeals court hears challenge to Hickman County suspension of bonding company

The Tennessee Court of Appeals heard arguments over an appeal of a trial-court order that suspended a bonding company and required court approval before the company could write certain bonds. Defense counsel for the bonding company argued the local rule conflicts with state law and that court procedures denied the company a fair hearing; the state countered that the local rule is a notice requirement that does not make a bonding agent act as an attorney.

The dispute centers on Local Rule 12/2 for Hickman (and related counties), which requires any bonding entity desiring to write a bond of $100,000 or more "shall provide notice to the court and the district attorney general, whereupon hearing will be set by the court," and Tennessee Code Annotated 40-11-126.5, which prohibits a bonding agent from "participat[ing] in the capacity of an attorney at a trial or hearing of one on whose bond the person is a surety." Defense counsel (representing the bonding company) told the court that the company was suspended for violating the local rule after it provided proof of funds in what the defense describes as a source hearing and that the…