Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County Area Courts in Canfield and Sebring now accept online payments of fines and court costs in routine cases by credit card under limited circumstances.

By paying online, the defendant is waiving an appearance before a judge or magistrate, admitting guilt and closing the case.

Online payments are processed through PayPal, with a 4 percent convenience fee added to the credit-card payment.

The payments may be made at ecourts.mahoningcountyoh.gov.

Under the new online credit-card payment option, which became available May 1, administrative actions, including forwarding points against the defendant’s driver’s license, will occur.

Cases accompanied by a warrant or capias – an order to arrest a person – are not payable online, and defendants in such cases must contact the court.

The program is the first under which the Mahoning County Clerk of Court’s Office has allowed credit-card use for any purpose in the local courts, said Scott Grossen, clerk of courts office administrator.

About 10 defendants have used this option so far, he added.

Clerk of Courts Tony Vivo said the online credit-card payment program was launched in the two area courts with smaller caseloads, which share the same bookkeepers, and he intends eventually to extend it to the busier courts in Boardman and Austintown.

“This system right now is a convenience factor. The people that get picked up for speeding – they don’t want to come in” to court in many cases, Vivo said.

Grossen said his eventual goal is to be able to accept credit cards for over-the-counter fines and court-cost payments at area courts and for fee payments at the auto-title department.