Paying a Court Fine? Now You Can Say, ‘Charge It’

Getting out of jail or paying a traffic ticket can be as easy as whipping out the plastic in Van Nuys Municipal Court, which now allows bail and other court fees to be paid with Visa or MasterCard.

The service started July 23 and court officials said that 15 people have said “charge it” when paying a variety of court-related fees. A total of $1,339 in fees had been charged through Wednesday, court officials said.

“It’s just an additional convenience for people,” said Mark Hill, assistant division chief of the Van Nuys Municipal Court clerk’s office.

Court officials said Van Nuys was the first of the 24 Los Angeles County municipal courts to accept credit cards, with the Glendale Municipal Court following quickly behind on Aug. 1.

Torrance, Valencia and several other municipal courts in the county are planning to install the system within a few weeks.

Sheila Gonzalez, court administrator in Glendale Municipal Court, said people would rather owe the credit card companies because they “don’t issue arrest warrants if you don’t pay the bill. We do.”

Anyone can pay bail, fines, traffic citations or even the $34 filing costs for civil cases with a Visa or MasterCard.

The cards can be used for any fee within the limit of the card. Thus, a person with a $5,000 bail and a credit card with a $2,000 limit would be unable to use the system unless he could come up with the balance in cash. Bail bondsmen can still be used for the 10% plus collateral that is sometimes accepted for bail.

Accepting charge cards will allow people to pay their fines sooner and save bookkeeping time and other record-keeping costs, Gonzalez said. It will also allow people who do not have a large amount of cash readily available to get their friends or relatives out of jail, she said.

Funds Net Inc. of Dallas now offers the service free to the Van Nuys court but will begin charging $60 a month after a six-month trial period, officials said.

The user is charged a nominal service fee on a graduating scale, depending on the amount of the fine or bail. The fee is paid to the company that runs the operation.

“All we’re doing is allowing people to wire money to themselves and charge it to their Visa or MasterCard,” said Herb B. Barrett, government relations manager for ComData Network, the Nashville, Tenn., company that operates the Glendale system. The Funds Net system works the same way at the Van Nuys courthouse.

Robert Kuhel, administrator for Orange County Central Municipal Court, said a similar credit card system has been operating at his courthouse for more than a year. Kuhel estimated that only about 1% of all people owing money for fines and fees use credit cards to pay them.

Charge card use in law-enforcement agencies and other governmental bodies is on the increase, said Barrett.

Fearing a potential loss of business, some bail bondsmen have given the company some “flak” about the system, said Russ Bowden, a ComData salesman.

But the company says such fears are unfounded. He said almost all the people who use the credit card system face small fines and probably would not go to a bondsman.