Check Enforcement Unit

Dear Merchant:

Everyone suffers when someone writes a bad check.

Jefferson County merchants lose tens of thousands of dollars every year because of bad checks. Businesses are forced to increase prices to offset bad check loses. This costs consumers and can cause some businesses to lose their competitive edge and go out of business, thus costing merchants their livelihoods and employees their jobs.

The Worthless Check Unit of the District Attorney’s Office helps businesses minimize bad check losses. When the Worthless Check Unit successfully makes a recovery for a victim, we return to the merchant, as restitution, 100 percent of the check amount plus the statutory merchant service charge. The law also requires the bad check writer to pay a fee to cover our costs of enforcing Alabama’s worthless check laws.

This area of our website explains the procedure used to curb bad check writing and assists bad check victims in recovering restitution. The viability of our Unit depends on the cooperation and support of citizens and merchants of Jefferson County. We hope that this information will help you to better understand your role and ours.

I urge you to support and participate in our program. We welcome your suggestions on how we may improve our effectiveness.