Legal and criminal responsibility of unrequited checks

Under Turkish law, issuing a dishonored cheque has legal and criminal repercussions. The lawmaker brought legal liability to both endorsers and banks in an attempt to provide legal protection for the receiver. Articles 783 and 810 of the Turkish Code of Commerce provides that the cheque bearer and endorsers who made payments against the cheque can request payment from other liable parties in order to collect the amount stated on the cheque. In case these parties cannot execute this right or collect the amount stated on the cheque, the cheque bearer is protected with three legal mechanism. In these cases the bearer can sue on the grounds of unjust enrichment specific to exchange law, sue on the grounds of the legal relationship behind the cheque and transfer the value of the cheque. Also, banks are legally required to pay the guaranteed amount provided by law for each cheque sheet. Moreover, banks are legally liable in case they do not pay the amount stated on the cheque even though there are sufficient funds in the account or they neglected their duty of care when they open a cheque account. The Law Amending the Law No. 6728 on the Amendment of Some Laws for the Improvement of the Investment Environment brought criminal liability for the issuer if the cheque is dishonored. The criminal sanctions will be a monetary fine at first and in case it is not paid the issuer will be imprisoned. In the first part of our study, the concept of cheque and dishonored cheques will be analyzed. In the second section, the legal responsibility in the case of dishonored cheques will be described under the sections titled legal responsibility of the applicant and legal responsibility of the bank. In the last section, the provisions regarding criminal liability for dishonored cheques will be discussed with an emphasis on the amendments on the law.