Joint Account

[Guest-1659]

I wrote a check to a toy store a little over a year ago and unfortunately it was dishonored at my bank. The store sent notice addressed to my wife, though both of our names were on the check and I signed the check. I believe this was because my wife was listed in the store's mailing list. At the time the notice was received, my wife and I were separated, and she lived in another state. We subsequently reconciled, but did not receive any other notices from the store. Given the events going on in our lives, this was not at the top of our list of priorities, for better or worse.

Last week, my wife received a summons from the local district justice charging her under Pennsylvania's statutes for writing a bad check and tacking on almost $250 in fines and fees to the original $100 check.

Since my wife did not write this check and in fact the police report specifically identifies my driver's license which had been written on the check as well as my social security number (not sure how they got that), how should we proceed? Ideally, we would like the charges against her dropped and then I simply make restitution with the store. How would we go about this?

[David A. Szwak]

I wrote a check to a toy store a little over a year ago and unfortunately it was dishonored at my bank. The store sent notice addressed to my wife, though both of our names were on the check and I signed the check. I believe this was because my wife was listed in the store's mailing list. At the time the notice was received, my wife and I were separated, and she lived in another state. We subsequently reconciled, but did not receive any other notices from the store. Given the events going on in our lives, this was not at the top of our list of priorities, for better or worse.

Last week, my wife received a summons from the local district justice charging her under Pennsylvania's statutes for writing a bad check and tacking on almost $250 in fines and fees to the original $100 check.

Since my wife did not write this check and in fact the police report specifically identifies my driver's license which had been written on the check as well as my social security number (not sure how they got that), how should we proceed? Ideally, we would like the charges against her dropped and then I simply make restitution with the store. How would we go about this?

I do not know if PA law permits ther tacking of such a fee and costs,  The charge of IWC requires that she be the one who wrote the check.  How can she be criminally liable if she did not write the check?  If you wrote it and it bounced, you might be but it requires proof that you knew or should have known that your account lacked funds.  When did the account go down?  Did other checks clear causing it to go down?  Other auto-drafts? Etc.?

You need to call Cary Flitter [listed on our member attorneys - see front page of site] and relates these facts to him.