Rule Text
A. A judgment decreeing the forfeiture of a bail undertaking shall not be rendered if it is proven, at or prior to the hearing on a rule to show cause, that the defendant, principal on the bail undertaking, failed to appear in court because of any of the following:
(1) The defendant was serving in the armed forces of the United States.
(2) The defendant was a member of the Louisiana National Guard called to duty pursuant to R.S. 29:7.
(3) The defendant was prevented from appearing due to a state of emergency declared by the governor.
B. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the calling of the defendant to duty pursuant to R.S. 29:7 prevented the defendant, principal on the bail undertaking, from attending court.
Amendment history: Acts 1983, No. 370, §1; Acts 1993, No. 834, §1, eff. June 22, 1993; Acts 1995, No. 989, §1; Acts 1999, No. 676, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1272, §1; Acts 2010, No. 914, §1; Acts 2016, No. 613, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017.
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
If someone paid bail money to get out of jail and then misses their court date, the court usually takes that bail money as a penalty. This rule explains three situations where the court will not take the bail money, even though the person missed court.
The court won't forfeit the bail if the defendant can show they missed court because they were serving in the U.S. military, they were a Louisiana National Guard member called to active duty, or a state of emergency declared by the governor kept them from getting to court. The defendant needs to prove this before or during the hearing where the court decides whether to take the bail money.
The rule also gives extra help to National Guard members. If they were called to duty, the law assumes that duty call is the reason they missed court. This means the burden shifts to the state to prove otherwise, rather than the defendant having to prove it themselves from scratch.
