Bad Check Writers Bounce Back After Counseling : Santa Ana-Based Firm’s Program Aims at Prevention

Chris, 39, calls himself a “floater.”

“I knew that it would take two days for my check to clear at the market, so two days before I deposited my paycheck, I would write a check there,” said Chris, who asked that his last name not be used. “I studied my statements and figured out exactly how many days it took between when I wrote the check and when the bank cleared it.”

The technique bankers call “float”--using to your financial advantage the time required for a check to clear--finally caught up with Chris. “I owed money to the IRS, and one day they took all the money in my account, and the checks I had floated bounced,” he said.

He said that he knew that he owed the Internal Revenue Service money but never guessed the agency would seize his checking account.

During that period, one of the merchants to whom Chris wrote a bad check turned him in to the Orange County district attorney, and he ended up in the Bad Check Restitution Program.

Using a system similar to privately operated traffic schools, where ticketed drivers can attend a class to keep the citation from raising their insurance rates, those who pass a bad check can avoid misdemeanor charges and fines of up to $400 for each check by attending an eight-hour course.

The class, which costs $100 to attend, has been operated by Santa Ana-based American Corrective Counseling Services in cooperation with the Orange County district attorney’s office for 3 1/2 years. The goal is to educate participants in ways to prevent them from bouncing checks again.

American Corrective Counseling’s instructors are required to have degrees in counseling, and most are licensed psychologists, said Kathy Stewart, operations director. An assistant district attorney works with the instructors to ensure that they cover the points of law that must be included in the course, mostly informing the participants of the penalties for writing bad checks.

The instructors concentrate on helping bad check writers become aware of the circumstances that led them to write the errant checks and to avoid falling into a pattern of such behavior.

The course is a mix of practical advice about dealing with banks and learning about the penalties that face bad check writers.

“We talk a lot about values,” instructor Alicia Romanowski said. “And we find that writing bad checks conflicts with the values that most people have.” Writing bad checks, Romanowski said, is often the result of people finding themselves under extreme pressure.

In such situations, mundane tasks such as balancing checkbooks or calling the bank to ensure that all deposits have been credited before starting to write additional checks take a back seat to more pressing issues, such as final exams or looking for a job.

The course also serves as a sort of support group to help offenders understand why they engaged in destructive behavior. That mix of practical advice and emotional support is working, said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, adding that the program has more than a 99% success rate. That is, fewer than 1% of those who complete the program wind up in the legal system again for writing bad checks.

Capizzi also said he is impressed with the program’s success in recovering merchants’ losses. By the end of 1994, an estimated $2 million worth of bad checks will be recovered for Orange County businesses, he said.

American Corrective Counseling receives $87.50 of the student’s fee, while the district attorney’s office takes $12.50 to cover its end of the administrative costs.

Stewart said American Corrective Counseling is expanding the bad check writers program and recently signed on with the district attorney’s offices of San Diego, Riverside, Santa Clara, Solano, Merced, Humboldt and San Joaquin counties to operate similar classes.

Don Mealing, executive director, said about 14,500 people have been through the check program in Orange County since its inception, which would mean revenue of nearly $1.27 million at $87.50 per person.

American Corrective Counseling maintains that the $100 fee--which must be paid in cash, no checks--is a bargain, because writing bad checks can be expensive. Those convicted can expect to pay $300 to $400 for each check they bounce. They may also face up to six months in jail. Those who attend bad check school avoid paying the fines and the jail time; the offense is not added to their record. A person must, however, repay the merchant in full and any related bank fees.

Most rubber checks are written because of poor communication between couples with joint checking accounts, especially when one partner overspends a pre-established limit, Stewart said.

“My husband goes through the mail. One of my checks bounced, and he forgot to tell me,” complained Sheila, a class attendee.

People are so busy, they often don’t have more than a 10-minute chat with their spouses for several days, Romanowski said. “When they do finally see one another, they want to see how they are, not talk about how many checks they have written.”

But for each tale of a negligent spouse, an equal number of class members blame vindictive former lovers. One class participant, Ron, said he began to bounce checks after his mate deserted him and skipped town after draining his bank account.

The following are some of the suggestions that were made to avoid ending up in court over bad checks in the future:

* Make sure the checks you deposited have been credited to your account before you write checks for the money. Though people don’t expect it, even payroll checks can bounce.

* Don’t expect your bank to take care of bounced checks for you. Talk to someone in the institution who has the authority to run a bad check through a second time and check back to make sure it has been done. If you think your bank is causing you problems, you can always transfer your money to a different bank.

* Look into the possibility of getting overdraft protection for your checking account, but don’t use it like a credit card.

* Always balance your checkbook. Do not neglect to make a record of all the checks you write, even when it is inconvenient, such as when you are in line at the supermarket. Take the extra 30 seconds to write your check amount in your book.

* Always keep a record of withdrawals from ATM machines.