Wife deposited expired copies of two checks on accident - What should I do?

LordX

New Member
Jurisdiction
New York
This question involves New York and Florida potentially.

Brief History: My mother passed in September of 2019. In 2018, she won a judgement from a scammer in Florida and received two restitution checks from the courts down there. Before she passed, she had begun to lose her faculties, and I found these checks in a pile with other unopened mail. Needless to say they were well past their date. For these checks (and others) I contacted the places where they came from to have them re-issued. Some places, including the courts in Florida, had me send the originals back to them. In these cases, since I am dealing with her estate, I made copies of the checks, cut them out, and stored the copies.

Present: After doing a desk re-organization, I found the two copies of the checks from Florida, and realizing that I had not yet received the re-issued checks, I put them in a conspicuous place on my desk to address the issue in the upcoming weeks. When I am busy, my wife helps me out with remedial tasks like check depositing with our mobile app. I mistakenly put these copies in the same general area where I put checks that need depositing.

I figured that they would not clear, but they have.

What steps should I take regarding this? If there were any laws that were inadvertently broken, I want to make sure that I stay ahead of the situation.

Any tips or suggestions are sincerely appreciated.
 
Most checks are processed electronically.

I doubt that you'll ever be contacted about this.

If you miraculously receive reimbursement, return the checks to the sender along with an explanation.
 
"If you miraculously receive reimbursement, return the checks to the sender along with an explanation."

I take this to mean that if I receive re-issued checks, return them, as I have already gotten the payment?
 
"If you miraculously receive reimbursement, return the checks to the sender along with an explanation."

I take this to mean that if I receive re-issued checks, return them, as I have already gotten the payment?

Yes, that's exactly what that means.
 
Ok. I just got really paranoid when I found out about this. I don't want to get a letter months from now being charged with something from Florida. I like going to Florida for vacation.
 
How does one scan and deposit a photocopy of a check? I'm not talking about the physical act, rather, I'm talking about ignoring the obvious fact that the item one is depositing is NOT an original check.
 
The copies were made on a color printer. To a random person, especially a distracted wife watching our two kids, they look very authentic. Obviously in retrospect, she was disappointed that she didnt see they were copies.
 
The copies were made on a color printer. To a random person, especially a distracted wife watching our two kids, they look very authentic. Obviously in retrospect, she was disappointed that she didnt see they were copies.
They were full sheets of paper...

EDIT: I see that you said that you cut them out. Why would you cut them out?
 
They were full sheets of paper...

EDIT: I see that you said that you cut them out. Why would you cut them out?

I copied all four checks that I sent back to various places on one sheet of paper. I wanted to file the checks with their respective paperwork, so I ended up cutting them out of the single sheet. I should have clarified this in the OP.
 
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