Texas Bail Bond Forfeiture Payment-Deadline Calculator

Payment-deadline calculator

Enter the date your final judgment of forfeiture was signed. If a timely motion for new trial or notice of appeal was filed, check the box and enter the date it was overruled — the 31-day clock then runs from that date instead.

How this calculator works

The tool adds 31 days to the date you enter, because Occupations Code section 1704.204 requires a surety to pay a final forfeiture judgment by the 31st day after it is signed. If a timely motion for new trial was filed, the clock instead runs from the date that motion was overruled.

The calculation is deliberately simple because the statute is. Section 1704.204 sets a single, fixed interval: payment is due no later than the 31st day after the final judgment is signed.¹ The tool takes the date you enter and returns that 31st day, then lays out your two options and the consequence of missing the date.

The motion-for-new-trial branch

If a timely motion for new trial or a notice of appeal was filed, the deadline does not run from the signing date — it runs from the date the motion for new trial was overruled.¹ Check the box in the tool and enter that date, and the calculator recomputes the 31-day window from there.

What is the 31-day payment rule?

Section 1704.204 of the Occupations Code requires a licensed bail bond surety to pay a final forfeiture judgment by the 31st day after it is signed, unless a timely motion for new trial is filed. In lieu of paying, the surety may deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the judgment amount to appeal.

The rule a Texas bondsman has to plan around lives in section 1704.204 of the Occupations Code. A licensed surety must pay a final judgment on a forfeiture no later than the 31st day after the judgment is signed, unless a timely motion for new trial is filed.¹ If a motion for new trial or notice of appeal is filed, payment is due within 31 days after the motion is overruled.

The supersede-to-appeal alternative

Paying is not the only way to meet the deadline. In lieu of paying, the surety may deposit cash or a supersedeas bond in the amount of the judgment in order to appeal.¹ That deposit secures the judgment and is what keeps the county from collecting while the appeal is pending. Our forfeiture appeal guide covers that route in full.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

Two things. The county may enforce the judgment by execution as in civil actions under article 22.14, and — the consequence that hits a bondsman first — the board notifies the sheriff, who may not accept new bonds from that surety until the judgment is paid.

Missing the 31-day date does more than expose property to a writ. Under section 1704.204, when a surety fails to pay within the time allowed, the county bail bond board notifies the sheriff, and the sheriff may not accept a bond from that surety until the judgment is paid.¹ For a working bail bond business, that no-new-bonds bar is the consequence that bites first.

Collection by execution

Separately, the judgment is enforceable like a civil one. Article 22.14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a final forfeiture judgment is collected by execution as in civil actions, with a separate execution available against each party bound on the bond.²

Does the amount grow while the clock runs?

No. Unlike an ordinary civil money judgment, a bond-forfeiture judgment is penal: it cannot exceed the bond's penal sum and bears no post-judgment interest. The number on the judgment is a fixed ceiling, not a balance that compounds while a surety decides whether to pay or appeal.

This is the reassurance behind the deadline. A judgment on a bond forfeiture is penal in nature and, under Bailout Bonding Co. v. State, “must not exceed the penal sum fixed by the bond” and it is error for such a judgment “to bear postjudgment interest.”³ The figure the calculator works from does not climb day by day. To see the penal-sum ceiling and the remittitur routes that can lower it, read our guide on the forfeiture judgment amount.

Other post-judgment calculators

Plot the rest of your deadlines with these companion tools. Each shows the statute behind every interval and is informational only, not legal advice and not a prediction 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.

Explore the post-judgment forfeiture guides

In-depth guides for sureties and bondsmen facing a forfeiture judgment.

Related guides: post-judgment bond forfeiture · bail bond company defense · bond forfeiture defense · surety bond defense.

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.