Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: uttering and publishing

(a) If the amount payable in the check, draft, or order is less than $100.00, as follows:

(i) For a first offense, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.

(ii) For an offense following 1 or more prior convictions under this section or a local ordinance substantially corresponding to this section, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both.

(b) If the amount payable in the check, draft, or order is $100.00 or more but less than $500.00, as follows:

(i) For a first or second offense, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or 3 times the amount payable, whichever is greater, or both imprisonment and a fine.

(ii) For an offense following 2 or more prior convictions under this section, a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than $2,000.00, or both. For purposes of this subparagraph, however, a prior conviction does not include a conviction for a violation or attempted violation of subdivision (a).

(c) If the amount payable in the check, draft, or order is $500.00 or more, a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than $2,000.00 or 3 times the amount payable, whichever is greater, or both imprisonment and a fine.

Re: uttering and publishing

I have to disagree with the information cited by the first attorney's response. He seems to have given you information re: the various levels of "Non-Sufficient Check" charges.

But your question asked only about Uttering & Publishing (MCL 750.249). I am unaware of any $___ amount that is too low to use to charge this crime (legally) ... although a prosecutor's discretionary authority to choose among several possible charges would probably result in a less serious charge if the bad check was for $0.01, as an extreme example. Could U&P be issued for that amount? Yes. But most PAs would probably look at NSF Under $100 (a misdemeanor) for the smaller checks. In fact, many office have internal policies that checks under a certain value will not be charged. Why? Even though they are still crimes, PAs have to choose which cases will use up precious office/court resources to prosecute, and a $0.01 bounced check case probably isn't one of them. (Would you want to be on a jury deciding a crime like that??!!!)

Another reason why U&P does not have a dollar limit is because U&P can cover non-check cases. It only has to be a "record, deed, instrument or other writing". So, for example, if a person presents a Will to the Probate Court to file "with intent to injure or defraud" and with knowledge that it is "false, altered, forged or counterfeit" [e.g., the signature has been forged] and "utters and publishs the document as being true (legitimate)", then a U&P has been committed.