Check Fraud Lawyer in New Brunswick, Middlesex County

Reviewed by William A. Proetta, Esq. · Updated October 2026

Writing a check, or authorizing an electronic funds transfer, while knowing the bank will not honor it is the offense of passing bad checks under N.J.S.A. 2C:21-5, and it runs on its own dollar scale: under $200 is disorderly persons, $200 up to $1,000 is 4th degree (up to 18 months), $1,000 up to $75,000 is 3rd degree (3 to 5 years), and $75,000 or more is 2nd degree (5 to 10 years). A forged, altered or counterfeit check is a different crime: forgery of a check is 3rd degree under N.J.S.A. 2C:21-1 at any amount, and the cash it produced can support a separate theft by deception count graded by value.

A bad check under $200 stays in the town’s municipal court, for instance Piscataway Municipal Court at 555 Sidney Road or New Brunswick Municipal Court at 25 Kirkpatrick Street. Larger bad checks, and all forged-check charges, are screened by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and litigated in Superior Court in New Brunswick. We handle check cases from our Edison office; over 15 years of trial work, I have seen many of them start as a bookkeeping mistake.

Three Different Check Crimes

Insufficient funds or a closed account (2C:21-5). The check is real and the signature is the writer’s own. The crime is knowing, at the moment the check was issued or passed, that it would bounce. In State v. Kelm, 289 N.J. Super. 55 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 146 N.J. 68 (1996), the court held that this knowledge at the time of issuing is what the State has to prove. An earlier decision, State v. Passafiume, 184 N.J. Super. 447 (App. Div. 1982), described fraudulent intent as required, and the model jury charge cites both cases.

Forged or altered checks (2C:21-1). Forgery requires a purpose to defraud or injure, or knowledge that you are facilitating a fraud, plus one of three acts: altering someone else’s writing without authorization; making or completing a writing so it appears to be the act of someone who did not authorize it; or uttering (passing) a writing you know is forged. “Check washing,” where ink is lifted and a new payee or amount written in, is an alteration. Signing an employer’s or relative’s name without permission is the second type.

Counterfeit checks and mobile deposits. Printing checks that appear to come from a real business or a person who never issued them is forgery. Depositing one by phone, then withdrawing the money before it bounces, can add a theft by deception count under N.J.S.A. 2C:20-4 for the amount withdrawn. Making or keeping equipment or software adapted for forging, intending that it be used, is its own 3rd-degree crime under 2C:21-1(c).

The presumptions in a bad check case

The statute lets the State presume the writer knew the check would not clear in two situations. First, the writer had no account at that bank when the check was written. Second, the bank refused payment for insufficient funds or a closed account on a check presented within 46 days, and the writer did not make it good within 10 days after receiving notice (or after notice was sent to the last known address). Neither presumption applies to a post-dated check. Paying in full inside that 10-day window removes the presumption, which is why the first call should come early.

Check Fraud Grading

The $1,000 line for 3rd degree is higher than the $500 line in ordinary theft. The bad-check statute grades by the amount of the check and has no aggregation clause, but when several checks are charged as theft under one scheme, the theft statute lets the amounts be added together, which is how several small checks can become one indictable count; our explainer on fourth-degree crimes covers the middle tier.

Consequences

• Restitution to the bank or payee is ordered when there is a loss and the defendant can pay.
• Jail presumption. A first offender convicted at the 3rd or 4th degree is presumed not to go to prison under N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(e); no check-fraud exception exists.
• Not applicable: NERA, mandatory minimums and driver’s license consequences.
• Expungement. Bad checks and forgery are not barred. See our page on expungement waiting periods.
• Immigration. Under federal immigration law, a forgery conviction with a sentence of one year or more, or a fraud conviction where the loss topped $10,000, can count as an aggravated felony. Any non-citizen should have an immigration lawyer review the plea.

How Check Cases Move Through Middlesex County

A check case usually reaches police in Edison, Woodbridge or Piscataway through a merchant, a landlord, or a bank’s fraud investigator, and arrives as a summons rather than an arrest. Bank investigators supply the deposit image, the account opening documents, ATM or branch footage and the IP address of a mobile deposit. That file often decides whether the charge is framed as a bad check, forgery or theft by deception, so we read it closely.

A bad check under $200 is handled by the municipal prosecutor. Above that, the MCPO at 25 Kirkpatrick Street reviews the complaint. For a 4th-degree or low 3rd-degree bad check, one possible resolution is full repayment followed by a remand to the municipal court as a disorderly persons offense, which needs the county prosecutor’s consent. Forged-check cases are more likely to go to a grand jury in New Brunswick and proceed at the courthouse at 56 Paterson Street, described on our Middlesex Superior Court page.

Some mobile-deposit cases involve an account holder who was approached online to “lend” an account for someone else’s deposit. When someone else supplied the check and the account holder received little, that history matters to the prosecutor, to PTI and to restitution.

Diversion

Conditional dismissal under N.J.S.A. 2C:43-13.1 is available on a disorderly persons bad check charge to someone with no prior conviction or diversion, typically with repayment as a condition. For 3rd- and 4th-degree charges, PTI applications go to the Middlesex Criminal Division before the first case disposition conference after arraignment. A 2nd-degree charge faces a presumption against PTI.

Defenses to Check Fraud Charges

• The check was good when written. A later withdrawal by a spouse, a bank hold or an automatic debit is not knowledge.
• Post-dated or held by agreement. The presumptions do not apply, and an agreed hold undercuts intent.
• Timely repayment. Making good within 10 days of notice defeats the presumption.
• Authorization. A signer with permission, such as a bookkeeper or family member, did not forge.
• No knowledge the item was forged. Uttering requires knowing the check was false; recruited depositors often did not.
• Amount and aggregation. Each bad-check count is graded by its own amount, and separate checks charged as theft may not be one scheme, so the grade can fall below $1,000 or $200.

Talk to Us About a Check Charge

Keep your bank statements, the notice of dishonor and any messages with the payee or the person who gave you the check. Our Edison office answers (732) 659-9600 around the clock, or you can write to us here. Related pages: forgery charges, theft by deception and the Middlesex theft and fraud overview.