Max Sound Corp (fka MAXD)

[loniee]

Her you go.
Perjury..Scroll down for Forgery
What is perjury?
by FreeAdvice staff


Type your question here...
Ask a Lawyer

Sponsored Ad
Perjury is the criminal offense of lying under oath. A perjury charge may be brought when someone makes a false statement after being sworn in or promising to tell the truth in a legal situation. For instance, a person giving testimony on the stand during a court case who tells a lie may be charged with perjury. Someone who lies during a deposition, or who lies on a signed declaration or affidavit can also be charged with this offense.

Perjury Laws
Both individual states and the federal government have laws making perjury a criminal offense. While the basic definition of perjury is the same at both the federal and the state level, the penalties may be different. For instance, the federal law against perjury in the U.S. Code classifies perjury as a felony. This means that someone who lies under oath in federal court, or who lies under oath to a person acting on behalf of the federal government may be sentenced to up to five years in jail.

Some states classify perjury as a felony as well. Penalties for a felony are always more serious than a misdemeanor and can include large fines, and a year or more of jail or prison time. In other states, however, perjury may be a misdemeanor. In New York, for instance, whether perjury is a felony or a misdemeanor depends upon the lie that was told and the impact of that lie. Under New York law, simply telling a lie under oath is a class A misdemeanor, but telling a material lie under oath, or an important lie, is a felony.

Elements of Perjury
In order for a defendant to be found guilty of perjury, the prosecutor must prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

Although the elements of perjury vary between individual states and federal law, the elements of perjury are similar. In order for a person to be charged with perjury, he or she generally must have 1) been sworn in or made a solemn legal promise to tell the truth; and 2) made a false statement or told a lie on purpose. Prosecutors can sometimes prove that a defendant lied by showing inconsistency in prior statements made by the defendant. For instance, if a person testifies one way in a deposition and another way in court, and the statements conflict with one another, this is solid evidence of perjury even if the prosecutor cannot prove which of the statements was untrue.

Most states and the federal government have an additional requirement, that the misstatement was material or important to the proceedings in which it was made. If a witness was testifying in case about a robbery of a diner, for example, lying about whether he saw the defendant at the diner would be material since seeing the defendant at the scene of the crime would be relevant to the defendant's guilt or innocence. Lying about what he ate for breakfast, on the other hand, usually wouldn't be a material misstatement that would result in a charge of perjury.

Defenses to Perjury Charges
Perjury charges are usually very difficult for prosecutors to prove because perjury is a crime of intent. This means that a defendant charged with perjury can only be found guilty if the prosecutor shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he or she intended to make the false statement under oath, or, that the witness told the lie on purpose. As such, criminal attorneys often defend their clients by arguing that the defendant did not intend to lie, or that the party believed the statement to be the truth at the time they made it.

Making a mistake or remembering facts inaccurately is not an intentional misstatement, so if a defendant successfully argues that he simply made an error he cannot be found guilty of perjury. It tends to be difficult for a prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the misstatement wasn't just a mistake, so this defense is often successful.

Lawyers defending clients accused of perjury also typically make the arguement that the misstatement was not material or relevant to the proceedings. However, this defense requires attorneys to show that the statement was actually irrelevant; it is not enough to show that the defendant believed his lie was not relevant. Courts have consistently held that a person's belief about whether his statement was material or not isn't the important factor. Instead, the important factor is whether the statement pertained to an issue viewed as objectively material by the court.

Another good defense to perjury charges is proving that the false statement was corrected before it had an impact. For instance, if a party said something untrue under oath but recanted before the statement had any legal effect, such as before the jury considered its truth during the trial, then the defendant could not be found guilty of perjury.




https://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/white_collar_crimes/perjury.htm
Forgery
Forgery Laws and Penalties
The penalty for forgery, counterfeiting or, altering documents and instruments often varies according to the type of document altered, with important government documents at the top of the penalty list.
Share on Google Plus Share on Facebook
Defend your rights. We've helped 95 clients find attorneys today.
Please answer a few questions to help us match you with attorneys in your area.


When was the alleged crime committed?
Forgery Laws & Penalties
Forgery (also known as "uttering a false instrument") is a serious offense, punishable as a felony in all fifty states and by the federal government. Forgery involves the making, altering, use, or possession of a false writing in order to commit a fraud. It can occur in many forms, from signing another person's name on a check to falsifying one's own academic transcript. When the subject of forgery is currency, it is also called counterfeiting.

Our society relies heavily on the ability to produce and exchange legitimate and trustworthy documents. Forged documents can have serious and far-reaching negative consequences on businesses, individuals, and political entities. This is why forgery is punished harshly.

Traditionally, the crime of forgery consisted only of making or altering a false writing. Possessing, using, or offering a false writing with the intent to defraud was a separate offense, known as "uttering a forged instrument." For example, if someone used a false identification card in order to obtain a line of credit, he would be guilty of uttering a forged instrument, even if he did not actually make the false ID card. Today, most states treat both offenses as the single crime of forgery.

What is Forgery?
To secure a conviction of forgery, the prosecution must prove several elements, or factors. These include the following.

Making, altering, using, or possessing
The first element of forgery is that a person must make, alter, use, or possess a false writing. When they think of forgery, many people think only of making false writings, such as forging letters or certificates, but altering an existing writing may also be forgery if the alteration is "material," or affects a legal right. For example, forging another person's signature on a document is a material alteration because it misrepresents the identity of the person who signed the document, which has serious legal consequences. Deleting, adding, or changing significant portions of documents may also be "material" alterations, if these changes affect the legal rights or obligations represented in the documents. Additionally, as discussed above, using or possessing false writings also constitutes forgery, although in some jurisdictions this is known as "uttering a forged instrument."

A false writing
Not all writings meet the definition of forgery. To serve as the basis for forgery charges, the writing in question must have both legal significance and be false, as discussed below.

The writing must have apparent legal significance. In order to be punishable as forgery, the writing in question must have apparent legal significance. This includes government-issued documents such as drivers' licenses and passports; transactional documents such as deeds, conveyances, and receipts; financial instruments such as currencies, checks, or stock certificates; and other documents such as wills, patents, medical prescriptions, and works of art.

To have legal significance, a document need not necessarily be a legal or government-issued document--it must simply affect legal rights and obligations. For this reason, documents such as letters of recommendation or notes from physicians may also be the subjects of forgery. In contrast, signing another person's name to a letter to a friend would probably not constitute forgery, because in most cases it would not have legal significance.

The writing must be false. To be considered false, the writing itself must be fabricated or materially altered so that it purports to be or represent something that it is actually not. Generally, simply inserting false statements into a writing is not enough to meet this requirement, if those misrepresentations do not change the fundamental meaning of the writing itself. For example, if you insert a false statement into a letter you wrote, you have not committed forgery. However, it is forgery if you write a letter of legal significance, but present it as a letter written by someone else.

With the intent to defraud
In order to be guilty of forgery, the defendant must have intended to defraud someone or some entity, such as a government agency (though the fraud need not have been completed). This element prevents people who possess or sign fraudulent documents, without knowing that the documents are false, from being subject to criminal liability. For instance, if you purchase a used car, but later find out that the title to the car was forged by the seller, you would not be subject to forgery charges for the possession of the forged title because you had no intent to defraud.

Federal Anti-Forgery Laws
Although forgery is most commonly prosecuted at the state level, certain types of forgery are also considered felonies under federal law. For example, identity theft, a type of forgery wherein a person forges a writing in order to assume the identity of another, is a felony under federal law, punishable by a fine and many years' imprisonment. Federal law also prohibits other types of forgery, such as counterfeiting money; forging federal documents like immigration documents or military discharge certificates; or forgery intended to defraud the federal government. Forgery also automatically becomes a federal offense if a forged document is carried or mailed across interstate lines, or if the forgery occurs in multiple states.

Common Penalties for Forgery Offenses
Forgery is considered a felony in all fifty states, and is punishable by a range of penalties including jail or prison time, significant fines, probation, and restitution (compensating the victim for money or goods stolen as a result of the forgery). Some states, however, consider certain types of forgery misdemeanor offenses only, which are punished more leniently than felony offenses (with a maximum incarceration period of one year in most states).

State laws provide a wide range of penalties for forgery crimes, so judges can determine the most appropriate punishment for a given crime. For example, in Oregon, the penalties for forgery may range from probation and community service (for a misdemeanor forgery offense), to five years in prison and a $125,000 fine (for a felony forgery offense). In Minnesota, penalties for check forgery vary according to the amount of money at stake. Forging checks of $250 or less is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $3,000 fine; but when the amount of the check exceeds $250, the penalty increases to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Many states focus on the type of documents at issue when determining the applicable punishment. In New York, for example, a forgery is classified as “first degree forgery” when the forged instrument is currency, securities, stocks, or bonds. Second degree forgery involves deeds, government-issued documents, public records, or medical prescriptions. Third degree forgery involves any other types of documents. Both first and second degree forgeries are felonies, while third degree forgery is a misdemeanor.

Learn about the different types of fraud by reading Fraud Charges and Penaltes.

Getting Help When Charged with Forgery
If you are charged with forgery, consider consulting a local criminal defense attorney as early as possible in your case. An experienced attorney can help you understand the laws governing forgery in your state, evaluate the strength of the evidence against you, counsel you on defenses you may raise, explain your options and the possible outcomes of each, and protect your rights.
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/penalty-for-forgery.cfm