I am currently in the middle of a vicious divorce. My estranged wife wrote an old check of mine payable to herself and forged my signature on it as if I wrote it to her. The check bounced and because of this I have been placed in check systems and I can't open a checking account. I went to my local police station to press charges on her but was told that I could not due to the fact that we are going through a divorce. What can I do to clear my name?

Did you file an affidavit of forgery with the bank? If so, you should have gotten your money back and they should be pursuing your soon to be ex-wife for the money and should not have reported you to Cheksystems. Talk to your legal counsel.

I went to my bank when I got the returned check notice in the mail but I did not fill out a fraud form. All they did was close the account. Though this happened in March of 2005, is it too late?

Thank you for your advice rlcarey. I will go to the bank and file on her first thing in the morning.

Most likely you would required to notify your bank within 90 days of receiving your statement. You would have to review your old account agreement to be sure. Even if the agreement did address this issue you would only have one year to make the claim under the UCC - so at this point it is probably too late. Again, you might want to visit with your legal counsel.

Assuming you received the notice in April 2005 and closed your account then, you have good evidence that you notified the bank timely. I suspect they should have offered you the affadavit of forgery at that time. As ricarey suggests, your legal counsel could best advise you of your available recourse. Good Luck.