Forgery Laws
Forgery is a criminal offense that is categorized as a felony. As a result anyone charged with it will have the information on their criminal record for the rest of their life. This can prevent them from being able to get a decent job, get a loan, and even hold various positions in the community. The laws are very clear when it comes to forgery so if you aren’t guilty as charged you need to obtain the assistance of an excellent attorney that knows all of the laws relating to forgery.
In order for forgery to be proven, there has to be an intent to cause fraud. They must have knowledge that what they are doing is depriving someone else of that element. Any type of fraud that includes signing someone else’s name to a document, identify theft, or changing a document falls into the element of intending to defraud.
The document that was changed or signed inappropriately must be reasonable to make people think that it is a legitimate document. For example, changing a check you got from someone from $10 to $100 and attempting to cash it at the bank shows intent to defraud.
Creating some type of document from an original one for fun such as changing that check to $100,000,000 and keeping it at home on your wall doesn’t show that you intended to defraud anyone. In fact, you didn’t even take the $10 they actually paid you on the original check.
You will find the area of forgery to often be clouded and that is where a judge has to interpret the laws. Some people find themselves in a nasty situation involving forgery when they did not intend to defraud. For example, a couple may be dating and one party tells the other to sign their name to a check and to go pay a bill or to go buy some groceries.
Later on when the couple is no longer together that party may try to press charges of forgery against them. However, based on such circumstances it isn’t likely to hold up in a court of law. If the party used the check book without the legal owner’s knowledge though, it can be pursued as forgery.
In order for forgery to be proven, there has to be an intent to cause fraud. They must have knowledge that what they are doing is depriving someone else of that element. Any type of fraud that includes signing someone else’s name to a document, identify theft, or changing a document falls into the element of intending to defraud.
The document that was changed or signed inappropriately must be reasonable to make people think that it is a legitimate document. For example, changing a check you got from someone from $10 to $100 and attempting to cash it at the bank shows intent to defraud.
Creating some type of document from an original one for fun such as changing that check to $100,000,000 and keeping it at home on your wall doesn’t show that you intended to defraud anyone. In fact, you didn’t even take the $10 they actually paid you on the original check.
You will find the area of forgery to often be clouded and that is where a judge has to interpret the laws. Some people find themselves in a nasty situation involving forgery when they did not intend to defraud. For example, a couple may be dating and one party tells the other to sign their name to a check and to go pay a bill or to go buy some groceries.
Later on when the couple is no longer together that party may try to press charges of forgery against them. However, based on such circumstances it isn’t likely to hold up in a court of law. If the party used the check book without the legal owner’s knowledge though, it can be pursued as forgery.
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