Surety Bond Insider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Effective March 1, Section 240A.120 of the Nevada Revised Statutes requires legal document assistants to post a $50,000 surety bond. This new bond requirement will promote ethical business practices and legal compliance by contractually binding legal document assistants to the Secretary of State and an independent financial agency.

Any breach of the Nevada Revised Statutes will present the opportunity for afflicted parties to take legal document assistants to court, effectively ridding lawyers of some of the liability from potential malicious behaviors appropriated by their colleagues.

Section 240A.030 outlines the following actions as singular qualifiers for the surety bond requirement:

“(1) Preparing or completing any pleading, application or other document for the client

(2) Translating an answer to a question posed in such a document

(3) Securing any supporting document, such as a birth certificate, required in connection with the legal matter

(4) Submitting a completed document on behalf of the client to a court or administrative agency”

Again, this surety bond exists to ensure ethical business practices of legal document assistants. The following professionals may have an exemption from posting the surety bond on a case-by-case basis:

•  secretaries and receptionists who do not handle legal documents
• authorized attorneys
• employees who receive direct compensation from the aforementioned attorneys
• Nevada law students
• government entities and their ambassadors
• nonprofit organizations
• legal assistance assigned during military service
• a person licensed with the United States Government
• a corporation or LLC acting for itself through an employee
• a commercial wedding chapel
• a person who provides computer programs/legal forms that allow others to streamline the legal document creation phase

The newly required Nevada legal document assistant surety bond will have a three-year term, and all applicants should expect to pay a credit-based premium on the $50,000 bond amount. At SuretyBonds.com, applicants with credit scores at or near 700 can secure rates anywhere from 1-5% of the bond amount ($500-2,500).

For a preview of the bond form or to review the frequently-asked questions about this new legal document assistant surety bond requirement, view the bond-specific page created by the Nevada Secretary of State.

Click here to learn more about surety bonds. If you have any questions or wish to get bonded, connect with one of our surety specialists at 1-800-308-4358 or online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year, the Minnesota State Legislature created a new surety bond requirement for professionals in the business of dealing bullion coins.

According to the official language of the law , a bullion coin is “any coin containing more than one percent by weight of silver, gold, platinum, or other precious metal.” A bullion dealer is “any person who buys, sells, solicits, or markets bullion coins or investments in bullion coins to consumers and is either incorporated, registered, domiciled, or otherwise located in this state, or who does business with a consumer domiciled, residing, or otherwise located in this state.”

The Minnesota Department of Commerce will regulate and oversee the bullion coin industry and its surety bond requirement.

Bullion dealers who need to purchase a surety bond in order to continue doing business in Minnesota can expect to pay different prices for their bonds, as the amount of required surety bond coverage for each applicant will vary based on the total volume of their transactions. There are five levels of bullion coin dealer surety bonds:

1. Bullion coin dealers whose total transactions do not exceed $200,000 can expect to post a $25,000 surety bond.
2. Bullion coin dealers whose total transactions range from $200,000.01 – $500,000 can expect to post a $50,000 surety bond.
3. Bullion coin dealers whose total transactions range from $500,000.01 – $1,000,000 can expect to post a $100,000 surety bond.
4. Bullion coin dealers whose total transactions range from $1,000,000.01 – $2,000,000 can expect to post a $150,000 surety bond.
5. Bullion coin dealers whose total transactions exceed  $2,000,000.01 can expect to post a $200,000 surety bond.

Three separate bond forms exist for different types of businesses: Corporation/LLC, Partnernship, and Individual Proprietorship.

For more information about this new bond requirement and bonds in Minnesota or any other state, contact SuretyBonds.com online 24/7 or by phone at 1 (800) 308-4358 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. CST. You’ll be connected with an expert surety specialist who will walk you through each step of the fast, easy and accurate bonding process.

Representatives in Missouri have proposed HB 1182, which would repeal a $2,000-10,000 surety bond requirement for textbook publishers.

Section 170.081 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, the current surety requirement for textbook publishers, currently reads:

“To insure compliance with the conditions under which school textbooks may be sold in the state of Missouri, the publisher shall file with the state board of education a bond of not less than two thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars, to be approved by the state board and the amount to be fixed by it; upon compliance with this and sections 170.071, 170.131 and 170.141, the publisher shall thereupon be licensed to sell school books in this state.”

If the State of Missouri decides to eventually remove this surety requirement, publishers would not need to post a financial guarantee of compliance when entering into textbook contracts. However, a different form of required insurance may come about in the wake of this law’s removal.

HB 1182, sponsored by District 001 Representative Craig Redmon, was referred on January 30, 2014, to the Missouri House of Representatives Rules Committee.

According to a summary of the committee, as posted on the state’s website, “The Committee on Rules shall formulate and present for consideration the rules of the House; shall consider and report upon all propositions to amend or change the rules, which propositions shall stand referred without reading or consideration and without discussion, explanation, or debate to the Committee on Rules, and upon any bill which merits special consideration.”

At this point in time, state representatives chosen to review all forms of proposed legislation are determining which sections of HB 1182 to keep moving forward and which sections to eliminate. If the Rules Committee does not consider Section 170.081 necessary for removal, the current law will remain intact.

To follow the development of this story, check Legiscan or future Surety Bond Insider posts for updates. For more information about Missouri surety bonds, call 1 (800) 308-4358 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. CST or contact us online 24/7.