Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Missouri

Re: Personal Check writing

How smart of you! I like your thinking.

Alternatives (which aren't any better):

1) You could also put a stop payment on the check, at

some huge expense to yourself because banks like to

charge about $25 for that!

2) If the payee was refused by her own teller,

tell the payee to just try some other bank(s)

with sleepy tellers or deposit to a bank machine;

I've cashed stale checks before many a time. But

I would check first carefully with your own bank

to be sure that they would overlook the date if

presented with the check.

3) Best answer yet:

Tell her that this isn't worth the fuss, leave

a message on her answering machine (which she could

then save for her own protection) telling her that

you 'authorize' her to change the date herself. I

once left a restaurant after paying with a credit

card and they phoned me up at home and told me that

I had to come back down there to sign. It was late,

I was full and sleepy, they were far away, and I just

told the guy to scribble something illegible on the

signature line for me. He refused, I refused to come

back down there (though I was probably wrong, legally,

in that case, since it was my duty to pay and I had not

really paid!), and then I told him to write on the

signature line "T.O." as an abbreviation for a telephone

order, which I'd been told once when I was a credit

card merchant, was acceptable when the client wasn't

present to sign personally. As long as I didn't

challenge the charge when I got my bill, he'd be paid

and everyone would be happy. That's how that got

resolved.

Stuart Williams

Law Offices of Stuart J. Williams

21 Walter St.

Re: Personal Check writing

Continuation of last message ...

Then check your next statement to be sure she didn't

change the amount, too!

4) You could stiff her (just button up and refuse to pay, arbitrarily), but I

personally would rather not see you do it. It isn't the legal thing to do and

it could blow up a relatively small matter into a larger one.

---------

To answer a few more questions which must be in your mind:

a) You're probably not violating state check bouncing

criminal statutes if you don't honor the check at this late

date; you 'tendered' good payment and the payee did the

equivalent almost of losing the cash, if you see what I mean.

But that is merely argumentative on my part and I cannot

speak authoritatively about your state's laws!

b) Even though she called often, you don't really have a

good legitimate right to offset what you once owed her

(and to stiff her) because she's annoyed you. If that

got to be MUCH worse, you could start with criminal

telephone harassment charges -- at least we have those

here in MA, anyway -- but that requires a lot of documented

calls, usually at odd hours and/or involving nasty language

or the like. Civilly, you could make such an argument, but

I'm fairly confident that you wouldn't win an award of $23 or

more for the emotional distress the calls caused. In general,

creditors have the right to make a reasonable number of calls

at reasonable times to people that owe them money.

c) You do, still, legally owe the money. No doubt.

But practically speaking, what does that mean?

She could sue you for it and win perhaps the money plus a small

filing fee after she spends half a day of your time and

hers in court ... not a wise choice for either side.

There ... you just got $75 legal advice on a $23 issue!

Good luck. I'd appreciate it if you would tell me what

happens, please. Write directly to me at [email protected] and

be sure to make reference to your $23 stale check as a reference

point, otherwise I won't know who you are.

G'luck!

Stuart Williams

Law Offices of Stuart J. Williams

21 Walter St.

Re: Personal Check writing

You're correct, unless there are additional facts.

If the check was returned because it was stale, you need not worry about criminal prosecution- some states make it a crime to bounce a check, but normally that would prevail in circumstances where the person writing the check knew there were insufficient funds to cover it.

Do not pay the money until you receive the old check back, otherwise you could find yourself involved in legal proceedings demanding that you pay twice.

Good luck!

Susan Freiman

The Legal Clinic

P.O. Box 9407, Herzlia Street 29