Post-Judgment Bail Bond Forfeiture
A Texas Bondsman’s Options After a Final Judgment
A final judgment of forfeiture has been signed, and your bond business now owes the county. The good news the panic hides: the judgment cannot exceed the bond’s face amount and bears no post-judgment interest. You have a 31-day pay clock, a two-year bill of review, and an appeal route — and choices to make fast.
Legally reviewed by Reggie London, TX Bar #24043514.
If you are reading this, the conditional stage is over. The court has signed a final judgment of forfeiture, and your company — the surety that wrote the paper — is now a judgment debtor to the county. This guide is the post-judgment companion to our overview of bail bond company defense: it picks up where the forfeiture lawsuit ends and covers what the judgment means, what the county can collect, the deadlines now running, and the moves still on the board. Two facts cut against the panic and are worth stating up front: a Texas bond-forfeiture judgment cannot exceed the penal sum of the bond, and it bears no post-judgment interest. The exposure is fixed and finite — the rest of this page is about protecting that ceiling and using the time you have.
What does a final judgment of forfeiture mean?
A final judgment of forfeiture is entered under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.14 when the surety fails to show sufficient cause. It makes the forfeiture absolute against the principal and sureties for the amounts in which they are bound, and it is collected by execution as in civil actions. The conditional judgment nisi has become an enforceable money judgment.
The forfeiture began as a judgment nisi — a conditional, interlocutory declaration entered under article 22.02 when your principal failed to appear. “Nisi” means “unless”: it becomes final unless the surety appears and shows good cause. Once the court determines no sufficient cause has been shown, article 22.14 directs entry of a final judgment against each bound party for the amount of the bond.1 That document changes your status from defendant in a forfeiture suit to debtor on a money judgment.
“Collected by execution as in civil actions”
Article 22.14 says the final judgment is to be “collected by execution as in civil actions.”1 That phrase does real work: the county can pursue the same post-judgment collection tools a civil judgment creditor uses — a writ of execution, abstracts of judgment, and the rest — even though the matter sits on a criminal docket. A bond forfeiture borrows civil procedure while remaining criminal and penal in nature; the proceeding is, in effect, a suit upon the bond.9
Separate executions, multiple sureties
When more than one surety is bound, article 22.14 contemplates that a separate execution may issue against each party for the portion it owes, with costs apportioned among them.1 A corporate surety and its local producing agent, or co-sureties on the same bond, may therefore see the judgment enforced against them individually rather than as one joint obligation — which shapes who pays, who supersedes, and who appeals.
Final by default
If duly cited sureties simply fail to answer, the forfeiture can be made final by default.2 A surety that treated the citation like junk mail can wake up to a final judgment for the full face amount with no defense on the record — avoidable only by acting at the answer stage, which our forfeiture-defense overview covers. By the time you are reading this page, the question is what to do with the final judgment in front of you.
How much can the county actually collect?
Less than many bondsmen fear. A forfeiture judgment is penal, it cannot exceed the bond’s penal sum, and under Bailout Bonding Co. v. State it bears no post-judgment interest. The bond’s face amount is a hard ceiling, and “interest” exists only as a remittitur deduction, never as interest running on the judgment.
This is the single most important — and most often misunderstood — feature of a Texas bond-forfeiture judgment. Because it looks like a civil money judgment and is collected like one, people assume it behaves like one in every respect. It does not.
The penal-sum ceiling
A bail bond is a penal instrument, and the forfeiture judgment on it is penal in nature. The Dallas Court of Appeals held in Bailout Bonding Co. v. State that a penal judgment on a forfeited bond “must not exceed the penal sum fixed by the bond.”9 Whatever the county’s costs or theories, the judgment is capped at the face amount the surety agreed to. A judgment entered for more than the penal sum is error to be corrected — not a number you have to accept.
No post-judgment interest
The same case states the rule plainly: “It is error for a judgment on a bond forfeiture to bear postjudgment interest.”9 The civil post-judgment interest statute — Finance Code chapter 304, the prime-rate scheme for ordinary money judgments — does not apply to a forfeiture judgment. So while a typical civil judgment grows every day it goes unpaid, a forfeiture judgment does not. The number on the judgment is the number, frozen.
Where “interest” does appear — and where it doesn’t
There is exactly one place interest enters a forfeiture case, and it is not as judgment interest. On a remittitur — whether before judgment or by special bill of review afterward — the statute lets the court keep, among the amounts it declines to remit, the interest accrued from the date of forfeiture.4 That is a remittitur deduction measured from the forfeiture date, not interest running forward on the judgment.9 Confusing the two leads sureties to overpay or to fear an exposure that is not there.
| Item | Applies to the judgment? | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Amount above the bond’s penal sum | No — the penal sum is a hard ceiling | Bailout Bonding |
| Post-judgment interest (Fin. Code ch. 304 rate) | No — error for a forfeiture judgment to bear it | Bailout Bonding |
| Court costs | Yes — taxed as in civil actions; deductible only on remittitur | art. 22.14; art. 22.17(a) |
| County’s reasonable cost to return the principal | Only as a remittitur deduction | art. 22.17(a) |
| Interest from the date of forfeiture | Only as a remittitur deduction — never as judgment interest | art. 22.17(a); Bailout Bonding |
For a number-by-number walk-through of the ceiling, the deductions, and a worked estimate of net exposure, see the satellite on how much a bail bond forfeiture judgment can cost and run the bail bond remittitur estimator.
What clocks are running now — pay, bill of review, appeal?
Three. The 31-day payment clock under Occ. Code § 1704.204, the two-year window for a special bill of review under art. 22.17, and the appeal window under arts. 44.42 and 44.44. They run from different events, and missing the wrong one is expensive.
The moment a final judgment is signed, several deadlines start running at once. They are not interchangeable, and a bondsman who watches only the appeal date can blow the pay clock. Here is what each clock is, when it starts, and what it protects.
The 31-day payment clock (Occ. § 1704.204)
This is the most urgent. Section 1704.204 requires a surety to pay a final judgment of forfeiture no later than the 31st day after the judgment, unless a timely motion for new trial is filed.7 If a motion for new trial or notice of appeal is filed, the surety instead pays within 31 days after the motion is overruled — or deposits cash or a supersedeas bond in the judgment amount to pursue the appeal. This clock separates a manageable judgment from a license problem, because nonpayment triggers the no-new-bonds consequence below.
The two-year special bill of review (art. 22.17)
Even after the judgment is final, the surety has a back-end remedy. Article 22.17 lets a surety file a special bill of review within two years of the final judgment, seeking an equitable remittitur of the amount forfeited.4 Two years is a long runway, but not a reason to wait: the equities are easiest to prove while the facts are fresh. The bill of review is its own deep topic, covered in the special bill of review satellite.
The appeal window (arts. 44.42 / 44.44)
A surety may also appeal. Article 44.42 authorizes an appeal from a final forfeiture judgment, and article 44.44 routes such appeals through the rules that govern civil actions — the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure.5 The deadlines are jurisdictional and strict. Because a forfeiture appeal is a criminal matter that nonetheless follows civil appellate rules,10 it is a trap for the unwary, addressed in detail in the forfeiture appeal satellite.
| Deadline | Length | Runs from | What it protects | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payment clock | 31 days | The final judgment (or the date a timely MNT is overruled) | Avoids the no-new-bonds suspension; satisfies or supersedes the judgment | Occ. § 1704.204 |
| Special bill of review | 2 years | The final judgment | A last chance at equitable remittitur | art. 22.17 |
| Appeal | Strict TRAP deadlines | The final judgment (extended by a timely post-judgment motion) | Appellate review of the judgment | arts. 44.42, 44.44 |
To see all three plotted on a single timeline from your judgment date, use the bail bond forfeiture timeline calculator, or visit the forfeiture deadlines hub.
Can I still get the amount reduced?
Often, yes — through remittitur. Before final judgment, a court may grant a discretionary remittitur under art. 22.16(d); the mandatory remittitur once in 22.16(a) is void per Lyles v. State. After final judgment, the path is the special bill of review under art. 22.17, where the surety bears the burden and the court weighs the McKenna factors.
“Remittitur” simply means the court reduces or returns part of the forfeited amount. There are two flavors, separated by whether they happen before or after the final judgment.
Discretionary remittitur before judgment (art. 22.16(d)) — and the Lyles correction
Article 22.16 is captioned “Remittitur After Forfeiture.” An older subsection, 22.16(a), once purported to require remittitur. That mandatory remittitur is void. In Lyles v. State, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that “the mandatory remittitur provisions of [22.16(a)] are no longer valid,” and that remittitur is instead discretionary with the trial court under subsection (d) before final judgment.11 Any demand asserting a right to mandatory remittitur rests on a holding that no longer exists. Before final judgment, the correct ask is that the court exercise its discretion to remit — reviewed only for abuse of discretion.
The special bill of review after judgment (art. 22.17)
Once the judgment is final, the remaining tool is the special bill of review under article 22.17, filed within two years. It is an equitable proceeding: the surety bears the burden, and the court decides how much, if anything, to remit.4 By statute the court may remit the forfeiture less (1) the costs of court, (2) the reasonable and necessary costs to the county for returning the principal, and (3) the interest accrued from the date of forfeiture.4 Those three deductions are the floor the court keeps; everything above them is potentially recoverable.
The McKenna equity factors
What guides the court’s discretion on a bill of review? In McKenna v. State, the Court of Criminal Appeals identified six non-exclusive equitable factors:12
- whether the principal’s nonappearance was willful;
- the degree of prejudice (if any) to the State or the public;
- whether the surety participated in re-arresting or returning the principal;
- the costs, expenses, and inconvenience the State incurred;
- the amount the surety was compensated for assuming the risk; and
- whether enforcing the full forfeiture would cause the surety extreme hardship.
The defense lawyer’s job is to build the record on these factors — documenting recovery efforts, the absence of prejudice, and hardship — because the bill of review is decided on equity, not a formula. And because the amount is already capped at the penal sum and carries no interest,9 the remittitur fight is over a finite, known number.
| Feature | Remittitur — art. 22.16(d) | Special bill of review — art. 22.17 |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Before entry of final judgment | Within two years after final judgment |
| Standard | Discretionary (Lyles: not mandatory) | Equitable; surety bears the burden (McKenna) |
| Who decides | Trial court; abuse-of-discretion review | Trial court; abuse-of-discretion review |
| Statutory deductions | Court’s discretion | Court costs + county return costs + interest from forfeiture date |
| Guiding factors | Equities of the case | McKenna six-factor analysis |
The full mechanics of the bill of review — how the two-year clock is computed, what to plead, and how the six factors play out — are in the special bill of review satellite. Estimate a net-exposure range with the remittitur estimator.
Can I appeal a forfeiture judgment?
Yes. Art. 44.42 allows an appeal from every final forfeiture judgment of $20 or more, and art. 44.44 says such appeals are “regulated by the same rules that govern civil actions” — the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. Per Safety National Casualty Corp. v. State, a forfeiture appeal is a criminal matter that nonetheless follows civil appellate rules. To appeal, supersede with cash or a bond under § 1704.204.
The right to appeal (art. 44.42)
Article 44.42 allows the defendant or the State to appeal from every final judgment of forfeiture where the amount, exclusive of costs, is $20 or more.5 Every commercial bond clears that threshold, so the right to appeal a final forfeiture judgment is essentially universal.
Civil rules, criminal matter (art. 44.44 and Safety National)
Article 44.44 directs that appeals in forfeiture cases “shall be regulated by the same rules that govern civil actions,”6 sending the timetable, record, and briefing through the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. But the matter itself remains criminal. In Safety National Casualty Corp. v. State, the Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed that final jurisdiction over a forfeiture appeal lies with that court — it is a criminal matter — even though art. 44.44 makes it follow civil rules, and that not every civil rule carries over.10 This hybrid is the source of most appellate mistakes: counsel who treats the case as purely civil, or purely criminal, can misjudge what applies.
Supersede to appeal — and watch the deadlines
To stop collection while the appeal is pending, the surety supersedes the judgment: § 1704.204 lets a surety deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the amount of the judgment in order to appeal.7 Two cautions. First, the appellate deadlines are jurisdictional and strictly applied; the liberal extension practice from ordinary civil litigation may not rescue a late notice here. Second, filing a notice of appeal and posting supersedeas is also one recognized way to satisfy § 1704.204 without simply paying. Get the sequence and dates right. The forfeiture appeal satellite and the appeal-deadline calculator lay out the timetable step by step.
What happens if I don’t pay?
The consequence is severe and immediate. Under Occ. § 1704.204, if the surety neither pays nor supersedes the judgment, the board notifies the sheriff and the sheriff may not accept bonds from that surety until the judgment is paid. On top of that, the license itself is exposed to discipline under §§ 1704.252 and 1704.253.
For a working bondsman, the inability to write new bonds is not a fine — it is a shutdown of the business. That is what makes the 31-day clock the most urgent deadline in the whole post-judgment picture.
No new bonds until the judgment is paid (§ 1704.204)
Section 1704.204 ties the right to keep writing bonds directly to satisfying the judgment. If a surety fails to pay within the time the statute allows and has not superseded it to appeal, the county bail bond board notifies the sheriff, and the sheriff may not accept any bond from that surety until the judgment is paid.7 The revenue stops while the obligation stands — which is why paying or superseding within the window is not optional bookkeeping, it is keeping the doors open.
License discipline exposure (§§ 1704.252, 1704.253, 1704.160)
The unpaid-judgment consequence sits next to the broader licensing exposure of chapter 1704. Section 1704.252 lists the grounds on which a county bail bond board may take disciplinary action — discretionary suspension or revocation after notice and a hearing — including violations of the chapter or board rules and failure to maintain required security.8 Separately, section 1704.253 directs the board to suspend a license when the licensee fails to maintain the security required under section 1704.160.8 A large forfeiture that drains a surety’s security can therefore convert into a license problem on a separate track from the judgment.
Because the money judgment and the license run together, they are most effectively handled together. The licensing side — board hearings, the grounds under § 1704.252, and de novo appeal — is covered in the forfeiture license-consequences satellite, which ties back to our bail bond company defense overview.
What should a bondsman do first?
Stay calm and work the clock. Calendar the 31-day pay deadline the day the judgment is signed; decide among paying, superseding to appeal, or a bill of review; preserve every remittitur and equity argument while the facts are fresh; and get counsel involved before the window closes. The exposure is capped — the deadlines are not forgiving.
The instinct is to panic-pay or to freeze; both are mistakes. The amount is already fixed by the penal-sum ceiling and the no-interest rule,9 so the real variable is which deadline-driven path serves your company.
Decide which path fits
- Pay within 31 days
- If the judgment is small, the equities weak, and an appeal unlikely to succeed, paying within the § 1704.204 window ends the matter and keeps you writing bonds — often the right call, just made deliberately.
- Supersede and appeal
- If there is a real error — an amount exceeding the penal sum, improper interest, a service defect carried into the judgment — deposit cash or a supersedeas bond under § 1704.204 and perfect an appeal under arts. 44.42 and 44.44. Move fast; the deadlines are jurisdictional.
- File a special bill of review
- If the judgment is sound but the equities favor giving some back — the principal was returned, the State suffered little prejudice, full enforcement would be a hardship — preserve the two-year article 22.17 remedy and build the McKenna record now.
- Pursue more than one in parallel
- These paths are not always mutually exclusive: superseding to appeal can also satisfy the pay clock, and remittitur arguments may be raised at more than one stage. A lawyer can sequence them so you do not forfeit one option by choosing another.
Preserve the record while it is fresh
Whichever path you choose, the equities are easiest to prove early. Gather proof of any effort to locate, surrender, or re-arrest the principal; the premium charged; and anything bearing on hardship. These are the raw materials of both a discretionary remittitur and a bill of review, and they get harder to assemble as months pass — so get counsel engaged before the 31st day. The step-by-step version is below.
What to do in the first 30 days after a forfeiture judgment
If a final judgment of forfeiture has been signed against your company, the payment window is short and the steps are sequential. Here is the orderly path a Texas surety should follow in the first month — general guidance, not legal advice for your case.
- Get the signed final judgment and calendar the 31-day clock. Obtain the file-stamped judgment. Under Occ. § 1704.204 you generally must pay by the 31st day after the judgment unless a timely motion for new trial is filed,7 so the signing date sets your most urgent deadline.
- Confirm the amount cannot exceed the bond and carries no interest. Verify the judgment does not exceed the penal sum and bears no post-judgment interest — both are error under Bailout Bonding Co. v. State.9
- Decide between paying, superseding to appeal, or a bill of review. Choose a path: pay within 31 days, deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the judgment amount to appeal under § 1704.204,7 or preserve a special bill of review under art. 22.17.4
- Preserve every remittitur and equity argument. Document recovery efforts, lack of prejudice, and hardship now — the facts that support discretionary remittitur (art. 22.16(d)) and the McKenna factors on a bill of review.12
- Note the appeal window and that deadlines are strict. A forfeiture appeal is a criminal matter governed by civil appellate rules under arts. 44.42 and 44.44;10 the deadlines are jurisdictional, so confirm them with counsel immediately.
- Engage counsel before the 31st day. Have a lawyer evaluate payment, supersedeas, remittitur, and the bill of review before the pay clock or appeal window closes. Missing the 31-day deadline triggers the no-new-bonds consequence under § 1704.204.7
Post-judgment forfeiture calculators
Plug your judgment date into these free tools to see the statutory deadlines and estimate your exposure. Each tool shows the statute behind every interval and is informational only — not legal advice or a guarantee of any outcome.
Where do you defend bail bond businesses?
We represent sureties, bail bond companies, and bondsmen throughout North Texas, with a base in Frisco and regular practice in the courts and bail bond boards of Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties, and surrounding jurisdictions.
A forfeiture judgment is entered and enforced in the court where the criminal case sits, and the related license consequences run through the bail bond board of the county that issued the license. Our firm appears across the DFW metroplex — Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, and Hunt counties — and coordinates with corporate sureties and their producing agents wherever the paper was written. From our office at 5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101, Frisco, TX 75034, we handle post-judgment payment and supersedeas decisions, remittitur and bill-of-review practice, forfeiture appeals, and the licensing fallout as one integrated practice.
Post-judgment bond forfeiture FAQ
Common questions from Texas bail bond companies, sureties, and bondsmen after a final judgment of forfeiture has been entered. These answers are general information, not legal advice for your case.
What does a final judgment of bond forfeiture mean in Texas?
It means the forfeiture is now absolute. Under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.14, when no sufficient cause is shown the court enters a final judgment against the principal and sureties for the amounts in which they are bound, and that judgment is collected by execution as in civil actions. The conditional judgment nisi has ripened into an enforceable money judgment, and a separate execution may issue against each party.
How much can the county collect on a forfeited bail bond?
No more than the bond’s penal sum. A bond-forfeiture judgment is penal in nature, and under Bailout Bonding Co. v. State it must not exceed the penal sum fixed by the bond. The same case holds it is error for a bond-forfeiture judgment to bear post-judgment interest. So the face amount of the bond is a hard ceiling on what the county can collect on the judgment itself.
Does a Texas bond-forfeiture judgment accrue post-judgment interest?
No. Bailout Bonding Co. v. State holds that it is error for a judgment on a bond forfeiture to bear post-judgment interest. The civil post-judgment interest statute in Finance Code chapter 304 does not apply to a forfeiture judgment. Interest enters the picture only in the remittitur context: on a special bill of review under article 22.17 the court may deduct interest accrued from the date of forfeiture, but that is a remittitur deduction, not interest running on the judgment.
How long do I have to pay a final bond-forfeiture judgment?
Under Tex. Occ. Code section 1704.204, a surety generally must pay a final judgment of forfeiture no later than the 31st day after the judgment, unless a timely motion for new trial is filed. If a motion for new trial or a notice of appeal is filed, the surety pays within 31 days after the motion is overruled, or instead deposits cash or a supersedeas bond in the amount of the judgment in order to appeal.
What happens if I do not pay the forfeiture judgment?
Nonpayment carries a business-ending consequence. Under Tex. Occ. Code section 1704.204, if the surety does not pay or supersede the judgment, the board notifies the sheriff and the sheriff may not accept bonds from that surety until the judgment is paid. In other words, missing the 31-day clock can shut off your ability to write new bonds, and it also exposes the license to discipline under sections 1704.252 and 1704.253.
Can I still reduce the amount after a forfeiture judgment is signed?
Sometimes. Before final judgment, a court may grant a discretionary remittitur under article 22.16(d); the mandatory remittitur once in 22.16(a) was held void in Lyles v. State, so there is no right to it. After final judgment, the surety’s remaining tool is a special bill of review under article 22.17, an equitable proceeding in which the surety bears the burden and the court weighs the McKenna factors before deciding how much, if anything, to remit.
How long do I have to file a special bill of review?
Two years. Under article 22.17, a surety may file a special bill of review within two years after the final judgment, asking the court for equitable remittitur. The court may remit the forfeiture less the costs of court, the reasonable and necessary costs to the county for returning the principal, and the interest accrued from the date of forfeiture. The surety carries the burden, and the decision rests in the trial court’s discretion.
Can I appeal a bond-forfeiture judgment in Texas?
Yes. Under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 44.42, the defendant or the State may appeal from every final judgment of forfeiture of $20 or more. Article 44.44 says such appeals are regulated by the same rules that govern civil actions, which routes them through the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. In Safety National Casualty Corp. v. State, the Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed that a forfeiture appeal is a criminal matter even though it follows civil appellate rules.
How do I stop collection while I appeal a forfeiture judgment?
By superseding the judgment. Section 1704.204 lets a surety deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the amount of the judgment in order to appeal, which suspends enforcement while the appeal is pending. Because the deadlines are jurisdictional and strictly applied in a criminal-matter appeal, you should perfect the appeal and post the supersedeas security promptly rather than relying on the liberal extension practice familiar from ordinary civil cases.
Is a bond-forfeiture appeal a civil case or a criminal case?
It is a criminal matter that uses civil appellate rules. Safety National Casualty Corp. v. State explains that final jurisdiction over a bond-forfeiture appeal lies with the Court of Criminal Appeals, so the matter is criminal, yet article 44.44 directs that it be regulated by the rules that govern civil actions. Not every civil rule carries over, but the appellate timetable in the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure generally controls.
Can a forfeiture judgment cost me my bail bond license?
It can. Beyond the no-new-bonds consequence of section 1704.204 for an unpaid judgment, a failure to maintain the required security under section 1704.160 triggers a mandatory suspension under section 1704.253, and section 1704.252 lists separate grounds for disciplinary action that a county bail bond board may pursue after notice and a hearing. That is why a forfeiture judgment is both a money problem and a license problem that should be handled together.
Should I just pay the judgment to make it go away?
Not before you evaluate your options. Paying within 31 days ends the matter, but in some cases superseding and appealing, or filing a special bill of review, can reduce or eliminate the exposure. Because the bond is the ceiling and no post-judgment interest accrues, the math is more predictable than many bondsmen assume. The right move depends on the facts, and the deadlines are short, so this is a decision to make with counsel quickly, not a guaranteed outcome.
Talk to a lawyer about your forfeiture judgment
If a final judgment of forfeiture has been signed against your company, the 31-day clock is already running. Tell us your judgment date and what happened, and we will help you weigh paying, superseding to appeal, and a special bill of review. Consultations are confidential and there is no charge to evaluate your matter.
Prefer to call?
(972) 370-5060Speak directly with a Co-Founding Partner. Available 24/7 for time-sensitive forfeiture, supersedeas, and appeal deadlines.
info@landllawgroup.com
5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101
Frisco, TX 75034
Statutes & cases cited
Statutory citations link to the official Texas Constitution and Statutes site. Case citations are provided in Bluebook form.
Statutes
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.14 (“Judgment Final” — final judgment when no sufficient cause shown; collected by execution as in civil actions; separate executions per surety). statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CR/htm/CR.22.htm.
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.15 (final judgment by default when duly cited sureties fail to answer). CR ch. 22.
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.16 (“Remittitur After Forfeiture” — discretionary remittitur before judgment under subsection (d); mandatory 22.16(a) void per Lyles). CR ch. 22.
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 22.17 (“Special Bill of Review” — two-year equitable remittitur; deductions for court costs, county return costs, and interest from the date of forfeiture). CR ch. 22.
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 44.42 (“Appeal on Forfeitures” — appeal from a final forfeiture judgment of $20 or more, exclusive of costs). statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CR/htm/CR.44.htm.
- Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 44.44 (appeals in forfeiture cases “regulated by the same rules that govern civil actions” — Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure). CR ch. 44.
- Tex. Occ. Code § 1704.204 (pay a final forfeiture judgment by the 31st day; pay within 31 days after an overruled motion for new trial, or deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the judgment amount to appeal; nonpayment → sheriff may not accept bonds from the surety until the judgment is paid). statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.1704.htm.
- Tex. Occ. Code ch. 1704 (“Regulation of Bail Bond Sureties” — disciplinary grounds § 1704.252, mandatory suspension for failure to maintain security § 1704.253, required security § 1704.160). OC ch. 1704.
Cases
- Bailout Bonding Co. v. State, 797 S.W.2d 275 (Tex. App.—Dallas 1990, pet. ref’d) (it is error for a bond-forfeiture judgment to bear post-judgment interest; a penal judgment must not exceed the penal sum fixed by the bond; bond forfeiture is criminal and penal in nature; art. 22.10 applies civil procedure, not substantive civil law; prejudgment interest available only when a remittitur is ordered under art. 22.16).
- Safety National Casualty Corp. v. State, 305 S.W.3d 586 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010) (art. 44.42 allows the defendant or State to appeal a final forfeiture judgment of $20 or more; a forfeiture appeal is a criminal matter with final jurisdiction in the Court of Criminal Appeals, yet is “regulated by the same rules that govern civil actions” under art. 44.44; not every civil rule applies).
- Lyles v. State, 850 S.W.2d 497 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993) (mandatory remittitur of art. 22.16(a) is void; remittitur discretionary under 22.16(d) before judgment and via 22.17 after judgment; abuse-of-discretion review).
- McKenna v. State, 247 S.W.3d 716 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) (on a special bill of review under art. 22.17 the surety bears the burden; six non-exclusive equity factors guide the court’s discretion).
About your attorneys
L and L Law Group, PLLC is a Frisco, Texas criminal-defense firm led by two Co-Founding Partners. Post-judgment forfeiture work sits at the intersection of criminal procedure, civil enforcement, and business litigation — the core of what we do for sureties and bondsmen.
Reggie London represents sureties and bondsmen in post-judgment forfeiture matters — payment and supersedeas decisions, remittitur and bill-of-review practice, and forfeiture appeals — across North Texas. He maintains both state and federal practices and is the author and reviewer of record for this guide.
Njeri London handles criminal-defense and bond-related matters for the firm’s clients, including the contract and indemnity questions that surface when a forfeiture judgment reaches indemnitors and collateral-pledgors. She practices throughout the Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant county courts.
Attorney advertising. This page is for general information about Texas post-judgment bail-bond forfeiture law and is not legal advice. No attorney–client relationship is formed by reading it or by sending us a message. Outcomes depend on the specific facts and applicable law of each matter; nothing here is a prediction or assurance of any result. Do not send confidential information before a written engagement is in place. L and L Law Group, PLLC · 5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101, Frisco, TX 75034 · (972) 370-5060 · info@landllawgroup.com.