Insurance License Hub

The California Bail Permittee license

Bail Permittee

Permitted to solicit, negotiate, issue and deliver bail bonds. At $1,248 to file and $788 to renew it is the most expensive of California's four bail licenses, on the same twenty classroom hours the bail agent and the bail solicitor take.

Course

20 hrs

The shortest single course route.

Ways in

1

It requires the state exam.

Exam

Varies

Priced per paper. The prices are below.

Every way to qualify

  1. Route 1 Take the twenty-hour classroom course and pass the examination

    State exam required

    Prelicensing course

    • 20 hours of the duties and responsibilities of a bail licensee, including all laws and regulations related to them, the rights of the accused, and ethics, approved by the Department. 20 of those hours cannot be taken at your own pace, so a fully self-paced online course does not satisfy this on its own. The route's own note says which live formats the state accepts

    and bond

    • a bond in the penal sum of $5,000, executed by a California admitted surety

    California Insurance Code section 1802.5 defines a bail permittee as "a person permitted to solicit, negotiate, issue and deliver bail bonds". The Department writes the examination requirement in a way worth quoting because it names who sets the paper: "Applicants must pass the written examination prepared and administered by the Department", and the examination "is based on information and materials covered during the 20 hour prelicensing course". Twelve hours of approved continuing education classroom study renew it. The bond is $5,000 against the bail agent's $1,000 and the bail solicitor's none.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-20

A course is required and nobody sells one

There is nothing a national seller can sell. California's own register holds 17 approved bail courses and every one of them is Contact delivery, the register's word for classroom or live webinar, taught on named dates in Riverside, Glendale and Roseville by the Bail Resource Center and the Bail Education Association. Twenty hours in a room in California is not a product a national seller can put online, and these are the same twenty hours the bail agent takes.