Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Changing a check amount

Penal Code 470(d) makes altering a check forgery. It is a second crime (uttering a forged instrument) if you present an altered check for deposit or cashing. The prosecutor has the option of charging the crimes as misdemeanors or felonies. Penal Code section 473.

One of the reasons the law does not allow self-help in settling private debts is that the amount owed or the time payment is due can be subject to bona fide dispute, and the court, not the streets, should be the place where such disputes are decided. Another reason is that self-help is disruptive and dangerous. How do you know there is $650 in the account? There are cases where lenders of things or money have resorted to what looks like burglary to recover the thing, or to look for money. These lenders are considered burglars despite the fact that they have the excuse that they were only retrieving their own items, or "repaying" themselves. Sometimes they are bitten by the homeowner's dog, or shot. So, self-help is not an excuse.

Crimes usually require an element of criminal intent, what is known as the "mens rea" (legal Latin for criminal intent) of the crime. In forgery, the necessary intent to commit the crime is present when you alter the instrument to have a higher value than the maker had in mind with the knowledge that the check now appears to have a higher value. The mens rea of uttering a forged instrument is knowing or intending that the cashier will give you more.

If I were the prosecutor, I would probably charge you with two misdemeanors - forgery and uttering - and plea bargain it down to one misdemeanor and a suspended sentence if this is a first offense, due to your apparently mistaken belief that you had a right to alter the check. I cannot assure you that a real prosecutor would be so lenient.

Re: Changing a check amount

You have committed a very serious crime, and probably more than one. You need to get a lawyer right away, and you should not admit what you have done to anyone other than the lawyers you consider hiring.

The fact that someone owes you money does not entitle you to take it from them yourself, whether by altering a check or by any other means. Altering a check is a crime regardless of what justifications you might be able to offer.