Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: NSF check to landlord

Most DAs would assign low priority to prosecuting an isolated bad check charge. If you have no outstanding warrants, are not on probation or parole, and have a clean history, someone might contact you but prosecution isn't too likely in most counties.

If you are contacted by law enforcement, the issue will be your bad faith or intent to defraud, and showing that the check was an accident (i.e. your bank statements show a balance adequate to cover the check both before and after the date you were NSF) and not a deliberate act will probably get you off the hook.

So, part of avoiding DA interest is having a clean record, and part is showing no criminal intent.

The bad check law is Penal Code section 476a, and if you look it up you will see that intent to defraud is an element of the crime, as is knowing you have insufficient funds. It is not too hard to prove intent to defraud and knowledge of insufficient funds to a jury if your bank balance isn't even close to covering the checks you wrote for an extended period of time. On the other hand if it's an obvious mistake on your part the chances of a prosecution are slim to none unless you have other warrants, etc.