Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Do it as soon as possible. The more you wait, the less likely it is that law enforcement will believe your story.

Mr. Stone is right, every day after today that you wait makes it more likely that you will get nowhere.

I assume the checks were either written to you by a third person and he endorsed and negotiated them, or he took your blank checks and wrote them to himself or his creditors. If the checks were against a joint account where both you and he were owners and signatories, you may still have a remedy, but it is different.

The first thing you need to do is work with your bank. Most banks have very helpful and effective procedures for dealing with fraud against their customers. I have twice had sums of money taken fraudulently restored to my clients upon their filling out the bank's "affidavit of fraud" form, making the defrauded customer whole and transferring the right to press charges or sue to the bank.

One reason a bank may be willing to do this is that they have some responsibility for verifying the signatures, etc. on checks, and it is cheaper for them to pay for their mistakes than to individually compare the handwriting on every check to the signature card.

If the bank accepts your explanation and reimburses your losses, you have little more to do except cooperate in their investigation and maybe change your account number so no more of the old checks get negotiated.

This should not have been posted in real estate, because you have a bunch of real estate attorneys who are not directly answering your question.

If you are going to press charges, that involves having a criminal case filed against him. General forgery is set forth in Penal Code section 470. It is what is known as a "wobbler" meaning it can be charged as a felony, or a misdemeanor.

Forgery is subject to Penal Code section 801.5 for purposes of the limitations period. "Notwithstanding Section 801 or any other provision of law, prosecution for any offense described in subdivision (c) of Section 803 shall be commenced within four (4) years after discovery of the commisison of the offense, or within four years after the completion of the offense, whichever is later." (Pen. Code, sect. 801.5.)

Just because you ask for charges to be filed against him does not mean that the prosecutor is obligated to prosecute him. California law vests the discretion to maintain or refuse to file charges in the discretion of the prosecutor, not the victim.