RALEIGH (AP) — A Wake County judge blocked enforcement Monday of a new law that gave the training and continuing education of North Carolina bail bond agents to a single trade group, calling the new restrictions an unconstitutional monopoly.
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled in favor of the parent company of the North Carolina Bail Academy — the newcomer to the training field — and issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the law from being carried out. The law’s implementation date was Oct. 1.
The academy and the North Carolina Bail Agents Association had been competing providers of bail bonding education earlier this year.  But the General Assembly passed a law — signed July 12 by Gov. Beverly Perdue — saying the association was now the lone provider of training necessary for someone to get licensed by the state Insurance Department and to keep a license.
The academy has said it would have to close if the law was enforced and sued the department, Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and the association.
Stephens wrote in his order the state constitution allows monopolies to be established only for “necessary public services,” but the pre-licensing and continued education for bail bondsmen doesn’t fit that definition and is only an education requirement regulated by Goodwin. There’s no basis to support the Bail Agents Association’s contention that the potentially harmful nature of the vocation requires a single private provider rather than multiple providers to keep the public safer, Stephens wrote in granting the preliminary injunction.
“This court cannot find any factual, logical or reasonable basis that (the law) serves any other purpose other than to eliminate all current and future competition for the benefit of a private corporation or association in violation of the North Carolina Constitution,” he added.
Randy Doffermyre, an attorney representing the Rockford-Cohen Group, the academy’s parent company, said he was pleased with Stephens’ decision. The academy has been offering a better educational product than the Bail Agents Association at a lower price for participants, Doffermyre said.
“It was very clear that the Department of Insurance was playing favorites and took it upon themselves to enact this legislation to basically protect one of their friends” in the association, he said.
Goodwin said in a statement Monday evening that “an overwhelming majority of state legislators enacted this law, not the Department of Insurance. The Department of Insurance will follow the court’s order; however, we maintain that allegations in this lawsuit are false and irrelevant.”
State attorneys filed a motion last week seeking to have most of the allegations struck from the lawsuit. Goodwin is seeking re-election in November.
An attorney representing the N.C. Bail Agents Association didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.
The law would have been among more than 30 new laws that took effect Monday, including those designed to discourage the theft of stolen copper and aluminum and to make it safer for utility workers to perform routine roadside work.
The Legislature approved and Perdue signed a further expansion of the state’s “move over” law, originally passed in 2001.
The law initially directed drivers to move to another lane — or slow down when there’s just one lane — when nearing police cars or ambulances flashing their lights on a road shoulder. The law expanded in 2010 to apply to electric utility workers working in an emergency to restore power. Now it also covers more utility crews doing non-emergency work and government road maintenance operations running their amber lights. Violators could pay $250 fines and court costs.
The Metal Theft Protection Act of 2012 seeks to combat an increase in larcenies of metals from plumbing and air conditioning units as well as from construction sites. Thieves can be charged with felonies when the property loss is at least $1,000 or a person suffers serious bodily injury or is killed as a result of the theft. People who purchase metals must get a permit and identifying information from sellers.