"Overall, the net premiums of bail bonds written nationwide declined for the first time last year following five consecutive yearly increases. In 2017, premiums written dropped 3.8% to $119.5 million, according to insurance-ratings firm A.M. Best."
"The A.M. Best Report shows that the total face amount of bail bonds posted in the U.S. dropped to $15.9 billion last year, a 4.4% decline from 2016 and a reversal in the trend from the previous three years."
How's that ABC strategy of fighting everything look to you now? Are you still winning, or is something else going on?
By the way, ABC's focus on "risk assessment" is misplaced. Risk assessment tools only replace other forms of risk assessment. Money is risk management. Other forms of risk management replace money. The insurance companies don't know what they're talking about when it comes to risk assessment, which is kinda weird given that insurance companies use actuarial risk assessment tools all the time (and when we explain this to various stakeholders, everyone laughs with that kind of "wow, how can they be so dumb" laugh). The industry has bought into a strategy by bail insurance companies that are ignorant about basic principles of bail, including the very definition of bail (see Harris County order granting preliminary injunction at footnote 20). Accordingly, I expect to see many more articles like the WSJ article in the future.
