Securing bail with a swipe of the card

The new service can also be used to pay fines in criminal cases, by the defendants themselves or their rela¬tives, said Sarawuth Benjakul, a deputy Courts of Justice Office (COJF) secretarygeneral. The cred¬itcard payment has earlier been tried in civil courts.

The "credit cards accepted" courts are the Criminal Court, the Thon Buri Criminal Court, the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court and the Bangkok North Municipal Court. More courts across the country are preparing to accept credit cards in their bailout and finepayment pro¬cedures, he said.

The COJF is now working on mak¬ing the finepayment service avail¬able at courts other than the ones that order the fines. He did not say when this service might be provided.

COJF spokesman Prasong Mahaleetrakool said trial use of cred¬it cardpayment had also been con¬ducted since June 15 at the Civil Court, the Southern Bangkok Civil Court and the Thon Buri Civil Court, and experienced no technical or pro¬cedural problems.

Sangiam Bunjan, secretarygen¬eral of the Law Society of Thailand, which governs lawyers, said he and other lawyers welcomed the creditcard payment, as it was convenient and quick. He proposed that credit cards could be left with court officials without being swiped, and be returned to defendants when they show up at the right time and date.

Guarantees of bail are now made through cash or in lengthy procedures involving proof of land ownership documents. There are many lawsuits between defendants or their relatives and people who make a living as guar¬antors and then lose their money when defendants show up late or escape.