Bad Check Laws in Cobb County, Georgia

• Cobb County is located in the state of Georgia and contains roughly 670,000 residents as of 2010. Counties in Georgia usually defer to state laws regarding the writing of bad checks, but the Cobb County Sheriff's Office, the Cobb Solicitor General, and the county court system have come up with a program that creates an alternative to jail time for writing bad checks.
  
  

Requirements

• In order to avoid criminal prosecution for writing a bad check in Cobb County, the follow conditions must be met. Checks must be under a written value of $500, and the check was not deposited earlier than the post date. The check must be drawn on a bank in Georgia and must not be a payment for credit instruments, such as mortgage payments or credit card debts. The bad check must be returned bearing the stamp "Insufficient Funds" or "No Account." A bad check must be reported within 90 days of receipt or else criminal charges may not be pressed in Cobb County, Georgia.
  
  

Notification

• To press charges, the recipient of the bad check must notify the author of the bad check that the debt must be settled. Paperwork detailing the bad check must be sent by via certified or registered mail to the last known address of the person who wrote the bad check. The writer of the bad check has ten days to make payment on the debt.
  
  

Citation

• If the offender does not make good on his or her bad check in Cobb County, the wronged party may file for a citation at the Cobb County Magistrate Court. The recipient of the bad check must pay a $10 filing fee and fill out paperwork. The Cobb County Magistrate Court will then review the paperwork and approve it if the bad check claim is valid, after which point the citation information will be sent to the Cobb County Sheriff's Office.
  
  

Payment

• After a person who writes a bad check receives the citation from the courthouse, he has fifteen days to make good on the bad check, which includes the amount of the check, court filing costs, and any additional fees that the wronged party incurred. As long as the individual who passed off a bad check satisfies the debt, no criminal charges may be pressed by the wronged party.
  
  

Prosecution

• If the writer of a bad check in Cobb County does not satisfy the terms of the citation, she is guilty of deposit account fraud. The Cobb County Sheriff's Office will put out a warrant against this individual. For amounts less than $100, deposit account fraud results in a prison term of not more than twelve months, as well as a maximum $500 fine. For bad checks between the amounts of $100 and $300, prison terms remain the same and up to a $1,000 fine may be levied in court. Bad checks between $300 and $500 result in a high and aggravated misdemeanor. Any bad checks, which are written for over $500 or to an out of state bank account, do not qualify for the Cobb County citation program. In this instance, violators receive a felony.