Al-Rawi: Court fines payable from May 15

ATTORNEY GENERAL Faris Al-Rawi expects people to be able to pay their court fines electronically by May 15, he told Newsday recently.

The Judiciary also said it will soon begin accepting payments.

With over eight months of successive deferrals in fine payments such as those incurred for not wearing masks against covid19, the AG hoped the measures would encourage mask-wearing.

Al-Rawi said on Thursday he will ask Cabinet to give the nod for President Paula-Mae Weekes to proclaim the Electronic Payments into and out of Court Act 2018, as recently amended.

"That will then allow us to cause most of the payments to be done electronically. I'm asking for the proclamation to be effective on Tuesday, and then the Ministry of Finance and the Judiciary can arrange the final steps. The intention is to have the system go live on May 15.

"You can have, in these pandemic conditions, multiple options to pay, including online payments in multiple ways – debit card, credit card, etcetera."

The AG said the method of paying electronically will be included under the 2018 act as amended.

"Secondly, the information side of payment – tracking who paid, where it goes to, etcetera, is done on a particular piece of software called CourtPay, which runs alongside the electronic payment structure. That is the Judiciary's internal reconciliation processes, so that there is always accountability in accordance with the law."

Newsday asked if he hoped the pending fact of the immediacy of fine payment would motivate people not to break the law on mask-wearing.

"We anticipated electronic payments as far back as 2017. You'll notice the Government wasn't caught sleeping in covid."

He said things like virtual courts had come into operation long before covid19, as the Government had been very proactive.

He named the AG's Office, Judiciary and Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT.)

"If you look at what happened in the U-Turn system, where the traffic tickets are being paid by TTPost, there's been a significant amount of compliance.

"So I am of course very, very hopeful that this will assist in further compliance in mask-wearing.

"I'm buoyed by the experience we had in the similar structures we put in for the U-Turn system for motor vehicle and traffic offences."

The Judiciary told Newsday last Wednesday the payment of court fines has been deferred to the period of May 15-July 25 (owing to covid19 restrictions), when Newsday had asked how people fined for not wearing masks could pay their fines.

Court protocol and information manager Carl Francis, in an e-mailed reply, said, "The collection of the payment of mask fines is deferred. Please see attached a copy of the relevant Practice Direction of His Lordship The Chief Justice for details."

The practice direction (in the Gazette volume 60 no 59, dated April 23) said, "The payment of all fines due during this period is suspended until May 14, 2021. Any public health fixed penalty notices issued on or before May 14, 2021, may be paid from May 15 to July 25, 2021."

Previous deferrals were also announced on March 26; and in 2020 on December 31; November 30; October 25; October 18; September 16; and August 17.