Question: I caught a drunk driving charge in Roswell, Georgia, and I know I’ll have to pay a fine, fees and other charges to the court, I get that. I also know that I’ll have to pay money even if I get the DUI charge reduced to something else.
Recently I’ve been trying to use Bitcoin to pay for everything I can. I use it to buy stuff online and I try to only go to stores that take Bitcoin (which is obviously hard, at least now). I basically really want to support the cryptocurrency in any way I can and use it as much as possible.
So I’m writing to see if I can use Bitcoin to pay any of my court costs and probation fees. As a Roswell DUI lawyer, I figure you'd know the answer.
What happened was that I was driving to a party in Roswell at a friend’s house; we wanted to watch some college football and have some drinks. A Roswell police officer got me for speeding. He said I was going something like 40 miles per hour above the speed limit, which sounds way too fast for me. But I admit I was speeding to some extent.
The cop said he could smell alcohol and he probably could. I didn’t want to lie and I admitted I had a couple of drinks. I did some tests next to my car and I even took a breath test on the street. The cop finally arrested me and he took me to jail.
The weird thing is that I was on my way to a party; I wasn’t coming home from it. So I never made to the party because I got arrested for DUI.
I’d like to schedule a consultation to talk about DUI defense, but I’d like to know if I can use Bitcoins to pay what I’m sure will be at least some money that I’ll owe the court.
K.D. in Roswell, Georgia
Answer: Yes, there are fines and fees associated with a DUI charge. And even if the DUI charge gets reduced to something like Reckless Driving, there are fees associated with that charge too.
With the emergence and popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash, and Dash, we are getting some questions about using them to pay fines and other court-related expenses, like probation fees.
Bitcoin has been in the news a lot lately as its price has been rapidly moving higher (and, of course, there are fears that its price may drastically fall because some say it’s a “bubble”). And as Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies gain popularity and greater acceptance they will, at some time, I suspect, be accepted to pay courts, just like credit cards, checks and cash.
However, I don’t know of any courts in the Atlanta metro area that accept any cryptocurrencies as payment. I have asked court clerks and they say that if they get approval to accept them, they certainly will. Although they all stated that they have no plans in place to accept them in the near future.
Interestingly, some court clerks stated they have had people ask recently if their courts accepted cryptocurrency.