I recently sold something to a customer in NY. I sent the item to him COD, and the customers check bounced. I’m in California, and am unsure about how to resolve this. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for your help.
You could try resubmitting to the bank? I don’t know if they will take a check again or not.
I thought COD stood for Cash On Delivery. A check is as good as cash? I thought only certified checks and money orders were acceptable alternatives to cash.
Did you ask the customer to send you the money?
IANAL - You aren’t gonna like this but small claims court is the only way it’s gonna happen.
Bouncing a check is illegal, technically. Only in the worse cases will the police do anything though probably.
By sending you that check, he entered a contract of sorts to give you money. If you can get him to send you another check, he owes you twice as much. A second check does not negate the first one.
I know this due a problem a friend of mine was having in college. She was given a personal check that bounced, was given a second one when she complained. The second check also bounced. The bank got involved as this person made a habit of writting checks on closed accounts. With the bank, came the police. The police had my friend fill out a criminal complaint listing both bounced checks as money owed. The cop didn’t care that both checks were written to cover a single debt. He was arrested for fraud - she never did get any money though.
FYI - This was in Oregon in early 90’s.
Does the amount make a difference on whether the police will get involved?
If you were physically in New York, you could present the check to his bank and it would be paid if the funds were there at the time.
I doubt you could get either California or New York police to make a case of it with you in California and the check writer in New York.
It’s gotta be a federal offense, so you can call the FBI. I’d be surprised if they took action, but I would think they could give you some information.
It could be worth your while to spend some dough persuing it. I did some work for a collections law firm, and in Illinois, according to the statute, if they bounced a check, they are liable for the full amount, plus damages equal to triple the amount of the check, not to exceed $1500 extra.
Check with a CA lawyer to see if you have a law like that. If so, it might be worth getting a lawyer involved.
Thanks again.
Stupid question: have you exhausted the normal channels of contacting the customer and saying “hey, your check bounced!”
?
Agreed: have you tried just calling them?
OK, assuming you have, and assuming this is a big enough debt to warrant making a legal matter of it (your call, of course), it will definitely be a federal matter, as the federal governent regulates interstate commerce and, in interstate commerce, federal laws take precedence over state laws. I can’t cite chapter and verse, but I believe that’s in the Consitution.
I’d call the FBI and see what they can do, or at least what kind of info they can give you. Channels of recourse, etc.
If it bounced because of insufficent funds write to the Attorney General of NY. The cad broke the law and you can press charges. The Att. Gen. can file charges or tell you how to contact the courts.
Open your word processor and a browser window to find Att. Gen. address and start typing - giving particulars, including dates.
Include copies of all paperwork.
You might want to CC the cad to scare him into paying up.
And as suggested a CC to the Feds wouldn’t hurt.
And the local sheriff. Heck every law you can find with an Internet search.
Search also for that Consumer book from Preblo (sp,) Col. too!
I had a similar problem right after I got my Tandy. Learned mail merge and sent out at least a dozen letters. The one agency that replied that it wasn’t their domain but would write a letter to my cad is the one that scared him into line.
FWIW, I’m an attorney in NYC who does collection work. How much was the bounced check for?
This is an amazing thread. I never knew that the Constitution covered bounced checks. Stuffy, good luck with your claim, but please don’t rely on what’s said here. Most of the information is bad. This is not a Federal case. The FBI is not going to help you. Attorneys General are not going to get involved in a one-shot transaction. (If your opponent was in business and regularly fleecing customers, my opinion might be different.) No agency with the ability to press criminal charges is going to do so unless they have a witness available to testify locally. Otherwise, it’s a waste of prosecutorial resources, and they know that.
C’mon, guys. This is GQ. I don’t give medical advice, or tell people how to configure their hard drives. If you have no real knowledge about the legal system, don’t answer these questions with guesses, or what you heard from a friend.
That said, Abe’s[ comments on Illinois law are correct. You get attorneys’ fees, too. (The formula he cites doesn’t apply to very small checks, and there are some hoops you have to jump through to get the extra damages, but otherwise, he’s right on the money.) Maybe Luc can fill us in on whether NY has a similar statute.
I didn’t say the Constitution covered bounced checks, Random; I said (OK, not as clearly as I could have) that the Constitution establishes that interstate commerce is regulated by Congress instead of the individual states.
In other words, interstate commerce. I’m assuming that a bounced check in this situation would technically be considered interstate fraud (a check being a contract of a sort) and therefore regulated by a federal agency.
And how do we know it’s a one-shot transaction? Perhaps the customer has a history of writing bad checks. And perhaps it’s a check for a $70,000 Ferrari (OK, unlikely with a COD) and not a $7 CD on eBay.
On the other hand, you’re absolutely right; I’m not a lawyer and should have kept my mouth shut, which I will now proceed to do. Mea culpa.
You’re absolutely right. Congress does have the power to pass laws regulating interstate commerce, and therefore could pass a law giving Stuffy a remedy here. But it hasn’t.
(As I’ve alluded before, I’m assuming that this is a one-shot deal, and that Stuffy’s dishonest check-writer is not in business, with a practice of defrauding customers.) You could argue mail fraud, I suppose, but good luck getting the Post Office or any Federal agency involved on a one-shot bounced check deal.
In fact, there is Federal law which does cover certain check transactions, such as the Expedited Funds Availability Act, and Federal Reserve Regulation CC. Neither applies here. One governs dealings between a bank depositer and his depository bank, and the other regulates the check clearing process (among banks). IIRC, both EFAA and the statute giving the Fed authority to issue regs were enacted under the commerce clause authority.
Under the facts descibed, this is a civil dispute (and possibly a criminal violation) governed by state law. As I am not licensed in either CA or NY, I have no opinion on what those laws might be, except that the civil dispute would be covered (at least in part) by Article III (and possibly Article II) of the Uniform Commercial Code, which, despite its name, is a state statute.
Hells Angels have been known to help out in situations like this. :rolleyes:
CALL THE BUYER FIRST. They may be willing to pay voluntarily.
Otherwise…
Sounds like a simple contract dispute… governed by state law.
You could sue in federal court depending on the amount of the transaction ($75,000). However, you would probably have a lawyer already instead of asking for advice on SDMB if it was that much.
Less than $5,000 and you’re looking at a small claims action. Given the logictical difficulties of suing someone from another state (serving papers and enforcing the judgment), it may cost you more to collect than the transaction is worth.
Over $5,000, and you’re looking at a Superior Court action, and expect them to raise a lack of personal jurisdiction as a defense to your claim. Get a lawyer, but, again, depending on the amount of the transaction, it may not be worthwhile.
Some California counties have offices that help people collect on bad checks. Go to www.ca.gov or Google and look up your county website to find out.
If the amount is small, report it to your county, see what they can do, and let it go. Demand guaranteed funds in advance next time… lesson learned.
Oh… and if you decide to go to small claims court, most counties have small claims advisors to help you with procedure. Call your local court.
This is worth reading again. Even if California has jurisdiction over the guy in NY (would depend on how much contact NYguy had with Cal.), a small claims judgment does you little good. You’d still have to hire a lawyer in New York to register the judgment there so you could collect it from New York assets.
If any part of this transaction was conducted via the U.S. Mail, a call to a postal inspector might help matters.
Mail fraud IS a federal offense, and postal inspectors are the only part of the mail system that works efficiently.