Not at all. But people here seem to be saying that in order to deposit the cheque, a signature is needed as well, which I find very strange.
I don’t know how legal it is, but I have to say that the day I actually sign one of my own tax returns, CCRA is going to be surprised.
(Actually, CCRA is simply not going to notice or care, just as they haven’t noticed or cared that I haven’t signed my own tax return, ever, but it’s a far more amusing image to imagine them caring, calling out a forgery and finding out it was the first time it wasn’t one.)
Random already answered this quite well, but there’s one more point. Bank of America, for example, put a three-day hold on the funds for a large check that I deposited once without endorsing it. Those three days gave them an opportunity to make sure the check was valid.
Bottom line: It’s made out to me, and it’s going into my bank account. Wire transfers go into my account without my signature. Why not checks?
What about if my parents said I could sign a form for them. It was a thing for being Drug Free. They said I could sooo??
As a general rule, you can pretty much sign anything for another person as “His name/XYZ” where “XYZ” are your initials. I’d very much doubt the bank would have a problem with that. But it’s up to them, as they’re the ones who would be on the hook if the signature is fake. The nearly sacrosanct rule of negotiable paper is that if there’s a thief somewhere in the chain of possession, the person who deals with the thief is the one who bears the loss. In this case, that would be the bank.
–Cliffy
I assume this is something for school.
Your school probably wants your parents’ signatures on the form to prove that you showed the form to them and that they agree to (or are at least aware of) the terms of the school’s drug policy. Your signature on the form, even with their permission, would not establish this.
I also have questions about the validity of appointing a minor as a legal agent.
Things are probably different today, but back in my day (when we walked to school ten miles up hill barefoot in the snow both ways), even if a parent were foolish enough to grant such permission (which wasn’t likely), getting caught signing your parents’ names to a school form would have led to prompt expulsion.
Ask your principal if it would be OK with them. The school is free to make its own reasonable rules. If they say it’s OK, then it’s OK with us, too.
I once forged a document to the Medical Examiner’s Office, asking that a suicide friend not be autopsied for (Jewish) religious reasons. The widow was almost completely incoherent that night, and the Rabbi and I proposed to her that it be done (GD not appropriate here). She agreed.
A year later she dragged my ass into court for this, that, and the other, and after $20,000 of lawyer time it was dismissed.
I found this.
[QUOTE=USLegal]
…
There can be no forgery where authority is given to sign the name of another to writing[xix]. Moreover, where one makes or alters an instrument in good faith, there can be no forgery[xx]
…
[/QUOTE]
And also, it’s possible that the rules making it legal to give someone permission to sign your name may only apply to checks, ordinary contracts, and other similar legal documents. If I authorize my brother to go to the DMV and sign a driver’s license application in my name, that might still be illegal (though, possibly for a reason other than forgery).
Also, on many occasions, I’ve myself gotten checks that had an obviously machine-printed signature on them. Certainly that must have been authorized, and my bank didn’t bat an eye regarding them.
This is a broken link.
I used to be a bank teller for a major bank. If I received a check for deposit that was not endorsed, I would verify the name of the payee was an account holder.
If that payee was named on the account, then I could take the check for deposit only, no cash back from that transaction, IIRC, unless the person making the deposit at the window was also on the same account. I would stamp the endorsement with a rubber stamp that basically said for deposit only and had a blank space in the stamp where I could hand write the account number in the endorsement.
Well, not much surprise considering that post is 6 years old.
Anyway, my mom is an accountant, and she says at least that they’re endorsed via email by the owner to sign documents and checks for him if he approves while he’s on leave. The only things they have to do it backup the email to prove his permission for that particular document, and they often also annotate the signature with something like “signed by <initials> by endorsement of addressee” or something similar, but it’s not required to write that.
If Gfactor or anyone else remembers the title of the paper, they can look it up on Google and probably find it. At least, I have always had good luck with that sort of thing.
The paper in question is the eighth link down, written by Marianne Jennings.
I didn’t know zombies use banks.
It wouldn’t be forgery, but not everything in life turns on whether something counts as forgery under the criminal code. Sooooo … the school could still punish you if they found out.