CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.

House Bill 0767c1

Florida House of Representatives - 1997 CS/HB 767 By the Committee on Crime & Punishment and Representative Hill 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to violations involving checks; 3 amending s. 68.065, F.S.; providing for triple 4 damages, court costs, and attorney's fees with 5 respect to certain civil actions to recover 6 fines due on stop payments on checks, drafts, 7 or orders of payment; amending s. 832.07, F.S., 8 relating to prima facie evidence of identity 9 with regard to prosecution of bad check 10 charges; removing "race" as a required element 11 of establishing the identity of the person 12 presenting the check; providing an effective 13 date. 14 15 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 16 17 Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 68.065, Florida 18 Statutes, 1996 Supplement, is amended to read: 19 68.065 Actions to collect worthless checks, drafts, or 20 orders of payment; attorney's fees and collection costs.-- 21 (1) In any civil action brought for the purpose of 22 collecting a check, draft, or order of payment, the payment of 23 which was refused by the drawee because of the lack of funds, 24 credit, or an account, or where the maker or drawer stops 25 payment on the check, draft, or order of payment with intent 26 to defraud, and where the maker or drawer fails to pay the 27 amount owing, in cash, to the payee within 30 days following a 28 written demand therefor, as provided in subsection (3), the 29 maker or drawer shall be liable to the payee, in addition to 30 the amount owing upon such check, draft, or order, for damages 31 of triple the amount so owing. However, in no case shall the 1 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. Florida House of Representatives - 1997 CS/HB 767 189-820-97 1 liability for damages be less than $50. The maker or drawer 2 shall also be liable for any court costs and reasonable 3 attorney fees incurred by the payee in taking the action. 4 Criminal sanctions, as provided in s. 832.07, may be 5 applicable. 6 Section 2. Paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section 7 832.07, Florida Statutes, 1996 Supplement, is amended to read: 8 832.07 Prima facie evidence of intent; identity.-- 9 (2) IDENTITY.-- 10 (a) In any prosecution or action under the provisions 11 of this chapter, a check, draft, or order for which the 12 information required in paragraph (b), paragraph (d), 13 paragraph (e), or paragraph (f) is available at the time of 14 issuance constitutes prima facie evidence of the identity of 15 the person issuing the check, draft, or order and that such 16 person is authorized to draw upon the named account. 17 (b) To establish this prima facie evidence: 18 1. The driver's license number or state identification 19 number, specifying the state of issuance of the person 20 presenting the check must be written on the check; or 21 2. The following information regarding the identity of 22 the person presenting the check must be obtained by the person 23 accepting such check: The presenter's full name, residence 24 address, home phone number, business phone number, place of 25 employment, sex, date of birth, and height, and race. 26 Section 3. This act shall take effect October 1, 1997. 27 28 29 30 31 2