Using the bail insurance playbook of legal arguments, the bail industry in California lost a big case the other day in San Francisco.
You may remember this case. When it was brought claiming constitutional violations through the use of money, all the defendants agreed and refused to fight it. But the bail industry didn't agree, and so the judge allowed the CBAA to intervene so it could provide its best arguments and experts. Unfortunately, it looks like the arguments and experts were provided by ABC and the insurance lawyers.
ABC has already downplayed the opinion, and said the industry will ultimately win, but they've been saying this a while now. I don't blame ABC for using two what we call "interloc" appeals to make you think everything is going your way. It's true that in two opinions we had some bad language. My side was worried about that language, too, but I'm not. I used to write court opinions, including quick ones in fast appeals that didn't have the benefit of thorough briefing and record, and I'm seeing a trend. Anytime a judge spends time on these cases, it always goes against money as a detention mechanism. I've seen this now for a while. When people don't know much about bail you see one kind of opinion, and when they do know about bail you see another kind. Buffin was the kind of opinion you get when someone learns about bail.
Plus, these cases are not the only things exerting pressure to change. In fact, if a jurisdiction simply decided to do release and detention on purpose, it would cause a chain reaction of things to happen that would end up with the elimination of money. And guess what? That's what's happening all over America. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, then ABC has been leaving you all out of the discussion.
By the way, bail agents, in this opinion you can see -- once again -- a court publicly trash the bail industry's expert witness by calling his testimony and research flawed. This guy has been a friend to ABC for a long time, so I get whey they like him and want to give him a bunch of money. But he's really hurting your cause.
