I am going to trial on a forgery case. Neither my boss or myself have tried one of these cases and would like to know if anyone has suggesstions. Thank you in advance for any helpful information.

What kind of forgery?

Check with Travis McDonald at the Williamson County DA's office. I assisted him in a successful forgery case.

Have the person who's check was forged testify they did not give permission. You need the person who took the check, this is required. If a manager or assistant manager took the check to approve it you can use them. And then have some way to identify the person who passed the forged instrument.

If this is a forgery of a check case, and it happens to have been passed by your suspect at a business, see if they have security tapes that will i.d. your suspect. Give me a call, we'll talk more.

-Neel

I've really found that making the forgery defendant give a handwriting sample is a very useful tool. Of course it's not helpful if you have a case where its possible that someone else wrote the check, but in the majority of the cases I've handled, that's not the case. Get a handwriting expert to do a comparison of the check vs. the exemplar and you're part of the way there (assuming it matches!). If you need a sample motion to compel, I've got one. There is no 5th Amendment right on this. I have found that if there's a match, the defendant will lose his desire to try the case, at least on guilt-innocence.

I would please like a copy of the motion to compel if possible. My fax is (325) 674-1374. Most of my cases are just on passing though.
Thanks!!

Guilty last week.
Thanks for the help.