Electronic money

[Jon Ribbens]

On Wed, Dec 03, 2014 at 08:20:15PM +0000, Nicholas Bohm wrote:
> On 03/12/2014 18:51, Jon Ribbens wrote:
> > Indeed, it appears that the courts do not necessarily actually accept
> > legal tender, so the concept appears to be utterly dead and buried
> > and of no meaning whatsoever anymore.
>
> This surprises me - do you have a source for it?

As well as what Frances said, this web page:

  https://www.gov.uk/pay-court-funds-office

suggests no ways of paying in money except by cheque, or - with
permission of the judge and arrangements in advance - electronic
transfer or banker's draft.

Apart from that I have only highly anecdotal reports of people being
told by the office at county courts that cash is not accepted, such as:

  From: Judith <jmsmith2011 at hotmail.co.uk>
  Newsgroups: uk.legal.moderated
  Subject: Legal Tender in England at County Court.
  Date: Wed, 07 May 2014 11:06:52 +0100
  Message-ID: <qa1km9lvnhl72m29rt0vbogic403vh9cdl at 4ax.com>
...
  I have just phoned the court and told them that I need to pay a court hearing
  fee  (not actually true): could I pop in and pay cash

  I was told there is no facility for payment at the court buildings "they have
  taken our counter service off us".

  I asked were they then refusing legal tender: the person from the court
  management office said  - "a good point - it all is rather stupid".

  Who will have made this decision - and can they really refuse legal tender?

  (I phoned another couple of County Courts in different area - and there was no
  problem with cash payments)