Advocate or anyone [Archive]

Tim

02-03-2009, 08:26 PM

That would be a criminal. The crime is larceny.

"Passing" bad checks is illegal, and the crime can range from a misdemeanor to a felony, depending on the amounts involved and whether the activity involved crossing state lines.

Checks that are returned stamped "Stop Payment" may, under certain circumstances, be subject to criminal prosecution, but Stop Payment Orders are, in the majority of cases, not criminal and may be a legitimate means of dealing with a contractual dispute. Checks returned for Stop Payment generally must be resolved in a Small Claims Court civil suit.

Florida law gives the authority to prosecute the crime of Passing Worthless Bank Check to the State Attorneys of Florida’s 20 Judicial Circuits. The proper judicial circuit for the prosecution of this crime is usually the circuit in which the check was presented and accepted. Florida law requires that certain steps must be taken by the recipient of a Worthless Check before the State Attorney may prosecute the crime of Passing Worthless Bank Check.

If you are the victim of Passing Worthless Bank Check you should contact the State Attorney for the judicial circuit in which you accepted the check and they will assist you in this process.

If you are the victim of a Worthless Check, but the State Attorney cannot pursue the matter by prosecuting the crime of Passing Worthless Bank Check, you may wish to resolve the matter by filing a civil suit in Small Claims Court.

You should contact the Clerk of the Court for the county in which you accepted the check and they will assist you in this process.

What can I do to try and protect myself against being victimized by a Worthless Check?

You do not have to accept a check as payment for goods or services. You may insist upon cash or certified checks or money orders. If you decide to accept a check you should follow these guidelines:

Do not accept checks that are post-dated. (Post-dated checks are checks dated for future or indeterminate dates, such as February 31 or 02/__/2012, or checks with no date listed on them.) Post-dated checks cannot be prosecuted for the crime of Passing Worthless Bank Check if a bank dishonors them, but such checks may be resolved by a civil suit in Small Claims Court.

Do not agree to hold a check, even for a few hours. Accepting a check and agreeing to hold it for any period of time gives you notice that there are insufficient funds available in the checking account when the check is given to you, and because of that circumstance, if the check is dishonored by the bank, it cannot be prosecuted for the crime of Passing Worthless Bank Check. Such a check may be resolved by a civil suit in Small Claims Court.

Do not accept third-party checks. :eek: The person who wrote the check is not the person giving it to you for payment. You may be accepting a forged or stolen check.

When accepting a check, ask for some type of picture identification. The identification should be either a Driver’s Licence or a card issued by a governmental agency. Look at the card carefully to make sure it has not been altered, and the person on the ID is the person you are accepting a check from. Remember that ID cards can be purchased through the mail and at flea markets. Examine the card carefully to insure that it is a legitimate, reliable ID card.

Personal identifying information of the person writing the check should appear on the check. If it doesn’t appear on the check you can write it on the front of the check. Such information includes:
Name
Home address
Home telephone number
Date of Birth
Race
Height
Place of employment
Employer’s telephone number

Make sure that information appearing on the check is the same as the information appearing on the ID card.

Be sure there is a signature on the check. Compare the signature on the check to the signature on the ID card. Make sure they are similar.

Review the check carefully. Make sure the check is made out in the proper amount, and that the amount of the check, as written by numbers, is the same as the amount as written by words.

If the check presented to you is a company check, or a temporary check with no name or apress printed on the check, have the person presenting the check PRINT their name under the signature line.

You can call the financial institution that maintains the account the check is being drawn on to verify whether there are sufficient funds available to honor the check, and most institutions will provide that information. However, it remains possible for there to be sufficient funds in the account at the time of a call, and for those funds to be withdrawn from the account before the check is processed by the financial institution, in which event the check will become a worthless check.