California Penal Code Section 470 defines forgery as signing another person’s name, counterfeiting handwriting or a seal, altering a legal record, or making or passing a fraudulent document, all with the intent to defraud. It’s a wobbler: prosecutors can file it as a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail, or as a felony carrying 16 months, two years, or three years. A related statute, Section 473, sets those penalties and creates a narrow misdemeanor-only lane for low-value check and money-order forgery.
What Section 470 Actually Prohibits
The statute breaks forgery into four distinct acts. Every one of them requires that you acted with intent to defraud and without authority.
Subdivision (a) covers signing another person’s name, or a fictitious name, on any of the documents listed in the statute.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 470 – Forgery This is the most commonly charged version: an employee signing the boss’s name on company checks, someone signing a relative’s name on a deed.
Subdivision (b) makes it forgery to counterfeit or forge another person’s seal or handwriting.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 470 – Forgery Faking a notary seal falls here, and so does imitating someone’s handwriting to make a document look authentic.
Subdivision (c) targets altering, corrupting, or falsifying the record of a will, conveyance, court judgment, or other legally significant instrument.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 470 – Forgery Changing the dollar amount on a signed check, modifying dates on a contract, or tampering with a court filing all count. The document started out genuine; someone changed it.
Subdivision (d) is the broadest. It covers making, altering, forging, or counterfeiting, and also attempting to pass, a long list of financial and legal documents.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 470 – Forgery The list includes checks, money orders, bonds, promissory notes, stock certificates, deeds, powers of attorney, lottery tickets, and vehicle ownership documents, among many others. Creating a fake cashier’s check and trying to deposit it falls under this subdivision.
The Intent to Defraud Element
Every forgery charge requires intent to defraud. Without that mental state, there is no crime. It’s the element that separates forgery from innocent conduct like signing a spouse’s name on a delivery slip with their knowledge, or making a clerical error on a financial document.
Prosecutors rarely have a signed confession of intent. They build the case with circumstantial evidence: Did you try to use the document for personal gain? Did you hide what you did? Did you create multiple fraudulent documents over time? Altering a financial document right before a major transaction makes the intent argument much stronger than an isolated correction weeks before anything happened.
The document does not have to succeed in defrauding anyone. Attempting to deposit a forged check the bank catches immediately still satisfies the intent element, if the prosecution can show you knew the check was fake and tried to use it anyway.
Misdemeanor or Felony Under Penal Code 473
Section 473 sets the penalties and decides which forgery cases are wobblers and which are misdemeanor-only.2California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 473 The $950 threshold matters, but only in a specific slice of cases.
The $950 Misdemeanor Lane
Section 473(b), added by Proposition 47 in 2014, makes forgery a misdemeanor when the instrument is a check, bond, bank bill, note, cashier’s check, traveler’s check, or money order, and its value is $950 or less. The maximum sentence is one year in county jail.2California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 473
Two exceptions push the case back up to wobbler territory even under $950. If you have a prior conviction for a serious or violent felony listed in Section 667(e)(2)(C)(iv), or you’re required to register as a sex offender, the misdemeanor-only rule doesn’t apply. The cap also doesn’t apply if you’re convicted of both forgery and identity theft under Section 530.5 in the same case.2California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 473
Everything Else Is a Wobbler
All other forgery charges fall under Section 473(a) as wobblers. That includes forging a deed, counterfeiting a seal, falsifying a contract, or any fraudulent document that isn’t one of the specific financial instruments listed in 473(b). It also includes financial instrument forgery over $950. The prosecutor decides whether to file it as a misdemeanor or a felony based on the facts and your history.
A misdemeanor conviction carries up to one year in county jail. A felony conviction carries 16 months, two years, or three years, served in county jail under California’s realignment system. If you have prior serious or violent felony convictions, the sentence shifts to state prison instead.3California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1170
Reducing a Felony to a Misdemeanor
Even after a felony forgery conviction, Penal Code Section 17(b) lets a judge reclassify a wobbler as a misdemeanor. That can happen at sentencing if the judge grants probation instead of jail time, or later on a defense motion.4California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 17 A pending restitution order isn’t a basis to deny the reduction. Judges routinely order restitution in forgery cases, and that obligation survives whether the offense stays a felony or gets reduced.
Related Statutes Prosecutors Often Add
Section 470 doesn’t stand alone. Prosecutors regularly stack it with related statutes when the facts support them.
- Section 471 covers making, forging, or altering entries in books of records, or any instrument that appears to be a record described in Section 470.5California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 471 – Forgery
- Section 472 makes it forgery to counterfeit the state seal, the seal of any court, corporation, or public officer, or to possess a counterfeited seal knowing it’s fake.6California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 472
- Section 475 criminalizes possessing or receiving forged or counterfeit documents with intent to pass them as genuine, and possessing blank or unfinished checks with intent to complete them fraudulently. You don’t need to have created the forgery yourself.7California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 475
- Section 476 targets making, passing, or possessing a fictitious or altered bill, note, or check that appears to come from a financial institution.8California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 476 – Forgery
- Section 530.5 (identity theft) is itself a wobbler carrying up to a year as a misdemeanor or up to three years as a felony, and pairing it with a forgery charge strips away the $950 misdemeanor protection.9California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 530.5 – False Personation and Cheats
Someone caught manufacturing fake checks and trying to cash them can end up charged under 470, 475, and 476 simultaneously.
Defenses to a Forgery Charge
Because intent is the linchpin, most defenses attack it directly.
No intent to defraud. If you genuinely believed you had authority to sign, or made an honest mistake, the mental state is missing. An employee who routinely signs documents on behalf of a supervisor with the supervisor’s knowledge has a real argument.
Consent or authorization. Many families and workplaces run on informal permissions. If the person whose name you signed actually authorized you, the prosecution’s case falls apart.
Insufficient evidence of authorship. The prosecution has to link you to the document. Access and proximity aren’t always enough. Handwriting analysis is often presented as definitive but is far less reliable than juries assume.
False accusation. Forgery allegations sometimes grow out of business disputes, family conflicts, or workplace retaliation. When the accuser has a motive to lie, the defense can attack the credibility of the accusation itself.
How Long Prosecutors Have to File Charges
Felony forgery carries a three-year statute of limitations under the standard felony window in Penal Code Section 801. Misdemeanor forgery carries a one-year limit. In fraud cases, the clock sometimes doesn’t start until the forgery is discovered, which can extend the window when a fraudulent document sat undetected. If prosecutors miss the deadline, the charges must be dismissed.
When Federal Law Takes Over
Most forgery cases stay in state court, but some documents trigger federal jurisdiction. Counterfeiting U.S. currency or forging federal government obligations like Treasury bonds or federal checks is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 471, with a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 471 – Obligations or Securities of United States Buying, selling, or transferring counterfeit federal securities carries the same 20-year maximum under 18 U.S.C. § 473.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 473 – Dealing in Counterfeit Obligations or Securities
Federal prosecutors also handle forgery involving immigration documents, military records, and other federal agency paperwork. When a case could go either way, federal prosecutors have the option to take it, and federal sentences run significantly harsher than California penalties for comparable conduct.
Consequences Beyond the Sentence
The Penal Code penalties are only part of what a forgery conviction costs.
Employment and Professional Licensing
Background checks are routine, and a fraud-related conviction is especially damaging in fields that involve handling money or sensitive documents. Banking, accounting, real estate, insurance, and legal careers can all be derailed. State licensing boards can deny or revoke professional licenses based on a forgery conviction, which is why the wobbler distinction matters so much for long-term career effects.
Immigration
Forgery is a crime involving moral turpitude because it requires intent to defraud.12U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 302.3 Ineligibility Based on Criminal Activity A conviction can trigger visa denials, deportation, and bars to naturalization. Under USCIS policy, even a single crime involving moral turpitude during the statutory period for naturalization creates a conditional bar to establishing good moral character.13U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period For non-citizens, the immigration stakes often exceed the criminal ones.
Firearms
A felony forgery conviction bars you from owning or possessing firearms in California. The restriction survives expungement. Section 1203.4 states plainly that dismissal of the conviction does not restore firearm rights.14California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1203.4 – Dismissal of Accusation or Information
What Expungement Can and Can’t Do
Penal Code Section 1203.4 lets eligible defendants withdraw a guilty plea and have the case dismissed. That helps with private employment and housing. The limits are real: you still have to disclose the conviction when applying for public office, state or local agency licenses, or contracts with the California State Lottery Commission.14California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1203.4 – Dismissal of Accusation or Information And if you pick up a new case later, the prior conviction can still be used against you at sentencing as if the expungement never happened.