Fifth Judicial Circuit

In 2003, the SC General Assembly created the Worthless Check Proviso

The check writer will pay the following fees to our office (prior to warrant being issued)

$50-150 Processing/Solicitor fee

$41 County fee

$30 Return Check fee

Original amount of the check

We collect this money over a one month period. At the end of each month we give all value of the check plus the $30 return check fee to the merchant.

We give all Solicitor fee to the County treasurer (of the county we collected the money)

We give all County money to the County treasurer (of the county we collected the money)

We are a self funded program

…all funds (Solicitor fee) collected and deposited in this fund shall be applied first to defray the costs of operation of the Worthless Check Unit with the balance thereof to be used by the Solicitor to pay normal operating expenses of his office…

SC Code Ann. 34-11-60 concerns the drawing and uttering of a fraudulent checks.

Basically any check that was written with the intent to defraud a person or business and is returned for insufficient funds, account closed, uncollected funds, refer to item, or stop payment.

If a check is returned for any of these reasons we then must verify that the check was

accepted in Richland or Kershaw County

deposited within ten (10) days of the date it was written

not held or post dated for any reason

believed to be good at the time of receipt

Once a check has met all criteria we give the merchant a worksheet to complete.

See handout

At this point it is the responsibility of our office to meet all statute requirements to either help obtain funds for the person/business or obtain a criminal arrest warrant.

Our office will send two letters to each address given for the check writer

A first letter sent by general mail is sent as a ‘courtesy’ to the check writer in hopes that they will contact our office. If not we send a certified letter ten (10) days later. This is required by statute and gives the check writer ten (10) more days to contact our office.

When a check writer contacts our office our main goal is to obtain funds for the merchant. We will work with the check writer as much as possible to recover these funds. By doing so we usually give them an one time extension from their letter date to allow for payment to be received. (as long as it doesn’t exceed 180 days statue of limitations)

Every call is recorded in our ‘notes’ section with a time and date. This allows us to make sure people are not calling for extension after extension with a new excuse each time.

It is not our goal to punish a victim of a crime. We require a police report and an affidavit of

forgery to close out a file. At this point the Sheriff’s Department is

responsible for finding who stole the checks.

When a check writer pays we disburse all funds back to the merchant. This is done at the first of each month.

This includes the full value of the check plus a $30 return check fee.

A criminal arrest warrant is obtained. Our office process the data sheet (this sheet provides all the

demographics of the check writer and information regarding the worthless check), attaches a copy of the check and sends to the Magistrate.

The Magistrate’s office types up the warrants for all worthless checks,

regardless of the amount. The Sherriff's office signs the warrants and transports back to their office for their processing.

Once the checkwriter is arrested, they are processed in the county jail

system and given a court date at the bond hearing. At this time the amount of the check is of importance. If the check is under $1000.00 the check writers case will be heard in the Magistrate level court. If the check is over $1000.00 the check writers case will be heard in the General Sessions level court.

Once a check is scheduled for court our office collects all information on the case and attends the court date with a Solicitor from our office. If a trial is requested we are prepared to prosecute.

This is a FREE program No work is required on behalf of the merchant. All letters, contact, restitution, warrants and/ or court

will be handled by the Solicitor’s Office. Merchant is notified of all of our efforts by mail. We

will either mail them full restitution, including the $30 return check fee, or a letter stating that an arrest warrant has been obtained.

They are no longer required to miss valuable work time or hire extra employees to deal with return checks. Instead they can focus on more vital work projects.

Our office collects on a large percentage of checks before we ever take them to be issued an arrest warrant. This cuts down on warrants that the Magistrate must create, sign, and hear in their court room.

The county fee of $41.00 defined in the statute that our office collects is sent to the county finance department each month.

Cheri Reed Director, Worthless Check Unit

803-576-1860

www.columbiasc.net

10/8/2014 Dear , You are notified that check number in the amount of , issued by you on , drawn upon and payable to the City of Columbia, has been dishonored. Pursuant to South Carolina law, you have ten (10) days from the date this notice was mailed to tender payment of the full amount of the check plus a service charge of $30.00, the total amount due being $ . The amount due has to be paid with certified funds, money order or cash. Unless this amount is paid in full within the specified time above, the holder of the check will exercise their legal rights to collect this debt. Please contact me immediately at (803) 545-3404 to discuss making arrangements to resolve these issues before we proceed. Sincerely, Payment Center Staff Payment Center City of Columbia 1136 Washington Street, 1st Floor Columbia, South Carolina 29201

SECTION 17-22-710. Establishing unit; fee schedule; administrative costs; disbursement of funds collected.

(A) A circuit solicitor may establish, under his direction and control and with the agreement of the county governing body, a

Worthless Check Unit for the purpose of processing worthless checks and to assist the victims of these cases in the collection of

restitution. The fee schedule is:

(1) fifty dollars for checks up to five hundred dollars;

(2) one hundred dollars for checks five hundred one dollars to one thousand dollars; and

(3) one hundred fifty dollars for checks one thousand one dollars or greater.

(B) An amount equal to the allowable administrative costs contained in Section 34-11-70(c) must be added to the fee. All fees

collected by the Worthless Check Unit in accordance with the fee schedule promulgated pursuant to this section must be

deposited into a fund known as the Worthless Check Fund maintained by the county treasurers of the counties comprising the

circuit, other than court costs and an amount equal to the allowable administrative costs contained in Section 34-11-70(c)

which must be remitted to the treasurer for deposit in the county general fund. All funds collected and deposited into this fund

must be applied first to defray the costs of operating the Worthless Check Unit with the balance to be used by the solicitor to

pay the normal operating expenses of his office. Withdrawals from this account may be made only at the request of the

solicitor. The funds generated pursuant to this section may not be used to reduce the amount budgeted by the county to the

solicitor's office. The solicitor shall maintain an account for the purpose of collecting and disbursing restitution funds collected

for the benefit of victims' worthless checks. The Worthless Check Unit shall disburse to the victim all restitution collected as a

result of the original complaint filed. If the victim cannot be located after a reasonable time and diligent efforts the restitution

due the victim must be transferred to the general fund of the county.