North Dakota Bad Check Law

House Bill 1243, as adopted by the 1999 Legislative Assembly amends the North Dakota bad check law. Under the new provisions of the law, criminal penalties have been changed. NDRA was instrumental in the changes that took place. NDRA will continue to monitor this issue in future.

Infraction ($500 fine only) - no more than $50 in bad checks

Class B misdemeanor ($1,000 fine or 30 days jail) - bad checks of between $50 and $250 or a prior bad check offense in the past 3 years.

Class A misdemeanor ($2,000 fine or 1 year jail) - bad checks of more than $250 but not more than $500 or two or more bad check violations in the past three years.

Class C felony ($5,000 fine or 5 year jail) - bad checks of more than $500 or three or more bad check violations in the past five years.

The monetary amounts of bad checks is determined by either using individual check amounts or aggregating the total of all bad checks.

It is required that the holder of the bad check, or the representative of the check's holders, must send a notice of dishonored check to the issuer of the check before the check is presented to the state's attorney for prosecution.

Senate Bill 2190, as adopted by the 2001 Legislative Assembly, increased the collection of fees from twenty to twenty-five dollars.