DIFP Refuses to Renew License

The DIFP has refused to renew Phillip Joyce’s bail bond license. This is not the first time in the ring for Joyce. He has been denied a license twice before by the Department and has a 1-1 record with the Administrative Hearing Commission on the DIFP’s decisions.

In the most recent Department action, the DIFP refused to renew Joyce’s license because he was convicted in 1995 of stealing by deceit in Scott County, Missouri, and pled nolo contendere to the same type of charge in Craighead County, Arkansas. The DIFP alleges that Joyce is not qualified for a bail bond license because the Department must apply the current licensing statutes retrospectively, that because of Joyce’s convictions, he does not meet supreme court rule, and that he committed fraud or deception by not disclosing his nolo contendere case in Arkansas on his application. Joyce has 30 days to appeal the Department’s licensing decision.

I wrote about the two previous Joyce decisions last year. Joyce applied for a bail bond license after his convictions in 1995. The Administrative Hearing Commission granted Joyce a license saying the licensing statute was permissive. They reversed the Department and granted Joyce’s license stating that Joyce exhibited a good reputation in his new community, was resolved not to repeat his mistakes, and was candid about his convictions. The AHC concluded that these factors outweighed the felony convictions and granted him a license. Two years later Joyce applied for a general bail bond license and his application was denied by the Department of Insurance for the same felony convictions. Again, Joyce appealed to the AHC. This time the AHC ruled in favor of the Department of Insurance. The AHC ruled that the wording of the applicable statutes and Missouri Supreme Court Rules prohibited the issuance of a general bail bond license. The commission said that a general bail bond agent shall meet the qualifications for surety on bail bonds as provided by Missouri Supreme Court rule..... And the Supreme Court rule at the time stated “that the surety has not been convicted of any felony under the laws of any state or the United States.”