presentment
In commercial law, a presentment is a formal demand for payment or acceptance of a negotiable instrument, such as a promissory note or bill of exchange, when it becomes due. Under the Uniform Commercial Code § 3-501, presentment is “a demand made by or on behalf of a person entitled to enforce an instrument (i) to pay the instrument made to the drawee or a party obliged to pay the instrument, or, in the case of a note or accepted draft payable at a bank, to the bank, or (ii) to accept a draft made to the drawee.”
In criminal law, a presentment is a formal written accusation issued by a grand jury on its own initiative, without a prior request or bill of indictment from a prosecutor. In State v. Womack, 120 So. 3d 419 (Fla. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 2013), the Court held that grand jury statements in a presentment alleging misconduct by public officials were permissible when factually supported and relevant to the investigation, and therefore could not be suppressed or expunged.
[Last reviewed in October of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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