Yes, you can sue someone for writing a "bad" (bounced/NSF) check, and you may be able to recover the original amount plus additional damages, bank fees, and court costs. In addition to civil lawsuits, intentionally writing a bad check is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions, which can lead to police involvement.
If you are the victim of a worthless check but the State Attorney cannot pursue the matter by prosecuting the crime, filing a civil suit in small claims court may be your best option. You should contact the Clerk of the Court for the county in which you accepted the check and he or she will assist you in the process.
In any jurisdiction you can sue for a bad check, in most jurisdictions you can go to the local prosecutor and file a criminal case against the writer if they knew the checks were not good the day they were written.
Yes, you can sue someone who owes you money if you have clear proof of the debt and the amount falls within your state's small claims court limits. You'll need to file a complaint, serve the defendant, and present evidence in court.
Legal action
Depending on the dollar amount involved, this could include Small Claims court. Each province and territory has a set time limit during which you can initiate legal action. You may wish to obtain legal advice on your rights and options in order to determine the best course of action for you.
It is also a crime to forge a check or write a fake check. If you believe you are a victim of a crime, report this to your police department, sheriff's office, or district attorney's office. You may also sue someone who writes you a bad check without having a valid reason for doing so.
If someone writes you a bad check and you cash it, the check may bounce and you could face overdraft fees, a negative account balance, or even be suspected of fraud—especially if the check was fraudulent.
Time Commitment and Delays
Legal cases take time – often months or years, depending on complexity. A lawsuit involves meetings with attorneys, producing evidence, depositions, procedural delays, and eventually trial if necessary. Plaintiffs must be committed for the long haul.
Some common damages you can sue someone for includes:
If an account has insufficient funds, and a bank bounces a check, it charges the account holder an NSF fee.
Penalties
If filed as a misdemeanor, the maximum sentence is a year in jail and substantial fines. If filed as a felony, the potential sentence is three years in prison. A bad check case will always be a misdemeanor if all of the following conditions are true: The amount of the bad check was $450 or less.
Bouncing a check is bad because it leads to multiple fees (from your bank and the recipient's), damages your banking reputation (potentially getting you blacklisted by ChexSystems), strains relationships, and can result in legal trouble (civil or criminal charges) for intentional fraud, making it difficult to open new accounts or pay bills. While it won't directly hit your credit score like a missed loan payment, the indirect effects, like debt collection, can hurt it.
The standard in civil cases is the “preponderance of evidence,” meaning the plaintiff must prove that their claims are more likely valid than not. According to the Legal Information Institute, “51% certainty is the threshold” for meeting the preponderance of evidence standard in most civil cases.
Yes. A debt collector can sue you for any amount, whether it's $1,000, $10,000, or more. There's no legal minimum required for them to file a lawsuit. In fact, many debt collectors sue for small balances because the cost to file a lawsuit is minimal, especially when they do it at scale.
Penalties, Sentencing, and Consequences of Drafting a Bad Cheque. Violating PC 476a is a California misdemeanor if an individual's bad check worth does not exceed $950 and you do not have any previous convictions. Other times, the crime becomes a wobbler, and the prosecution can file it as a felony or a misdemeanor.
How to get money back from someone
According to recent surveys of Canadian lawyers, it can cost upwards of $10,000—$25,000 to take a lawsuit through the traditional litigation process and a trial. Small claims actions cost considerably less and often involve little more than a small filing fee and another fee to serve documents on the opposing side.
The "777 rule" in debt collection, also known as the 7-in-7 rule, is a CFPB regulation (Regulation F) limiting calls: collectors can't call more than 7 times in 7 days for a specific debt, nor call within 7 days of a conversation about that debt. It aims to prevent harassment, applying to calls, texts, and emails, though exceptions exist, and the presumption of compliance can be rebutted by aggressive call patterns like rapid succession or highly concentrated calls.