Legal Question in Criminal Law in Indiana

Is it fraud if you had permission to sign?

Is it check fraud if you were told to sign someone elses name on a check? My ex-boyfriend often requested and allowed--name removed-- to sign his name on checks to pay the household bills for the home we shared. My money was also in the account. I never did it without his expressed approval and always asked him to do it first. The reply was always "I don't want to, you sign it". Now that he had broken up with me he is threatening to prosocute me. I have some documents proving my point, but it is weak evidence. Is there a statute of limitiations on this kind of thing? Am I in trouble?


Asked on 11/20/98, 10:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Marvin Coffey Marvin E. Coffey Attorney at Law

Re: Is it fraud if you had permission to sign?

Last year I had an identical case ...except she went one step further and signed up for credit cards too...signing his name. He sued and we defended the action. He can authorize someone else to sign his name and it is the same as if he signed it hiself. He can also adopt the signature as his own and he can ratify the signature. The real problem is not whether it happened, the real problem is proving it. It is not as insurmountable as it may first seem. I would ask if you ever wrote checks for debts that were purely his debt. If you were forging checks without authority, why would you do this just to pay his debt. It shows that he was in a habit of allowing you to sign his name and authorized it. If he sues hire a lawyer, it is not as difficult as it seems.

Marvin Coffey

Marvin E. Coffey Attorney at Law

8202 Clearvista Parkway Suite 6-D


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Answered on 1/06/99, 2:03 pm


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