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Forgery

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bveasy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
If you have a joint bank account with a business partner. Does this give the partner the right to sign your name to the checks, when each partner has their own separate checks?
 


CavemanLawyer

Senior Member
It doesn't give them the right to do that no, but doing it is still not necessarily a crime. The definition of "forge" definitely applies to someone signing your name to a check without your permission but the crime of forgery requires the intent to defraud or harm another. That other person could be you, the person that is going to endorse the check, or a 3rd party.

While generally there wouldn't be many times one business partner would need to forge their other partners signature, since they should have access to the money themselves directly, I can conceive of certain circumstances where it would be easier to just forge your signature with permission rather than track you down to sign something, and the "forgery" doesn't harm or defraud the person that is receiving the check. Spouses do it all the time.
 
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Antigone*

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
If you have a joint bank account with a business partner. Does this give the partner the right to sign your name to the checks, when each partner has their own separate checks?
If this is a joint account, there would be no need for the partner to sign the other partner's name. The actual checks themselves don't matter, it is the signature card on the account that matters.
 

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