What constitutes forgery in Texas?

Posted By Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass || 26-Jun-2015

You might hear the word "forgery" and shudder, remembering the time you signed your husband's name on a credit card receipt at a Dallas restaurant or used your sister's gym membership. Yet is that really forgery? Most assume forgery to be signing someone else's signature on a document. The Texas Penal Code specifically outlines what the state considers to be forgery to help eliminate any potential confusion.

According to the law, anything that you write that's meant to imply the action of another is considered forgery. It also lists writing that misrepresents the date or sequence of an action or wrongly claims to be an original document as a forgery. The law qualifies any of the following as writing:

This definition may seem to leave little to question, yet the law goes on to say that a violation occurs when the intent is to harm or to perpetuate fraud. This raises the question of whether or not it's lawful to act as someone's agent in order to help them, but without their expressed permission. Examples of this could be a endorsing your spouse's check to deposit in his or her bank account or signing for a package for your vacationing neighbor. In such a case, you may be able to argue that you believed to be acting in good faith on behalf of the one you signed for.

You should know, however, the law specifies that malicious intent is assumed if you sign another's name more than once on government documents (i.e., driver's licenses, patent letters, property titles).