California Penal Code 470 PC: Forgery Charges and Penalties

California Penal Code 470 forgery covers four related acts done with intent to defraud: signing another person’s name without authority, counterfeiting someone’s handwriting or seal, altering a will, deed, judgment, or similar record, and making or passing fake checks, contracts, deeds, and other listed documents. The offense is a wobbler. Prosecutors can file it as a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail, or as a felony punishable by 16 months, two years, or three years in county jail, with lasting consequences for your job, professional license, and immigration status on top of whatever the court orders.

What Penal Code 470 Actually Prohibits

Section 470 is organized into four subdivisions, each covering a different way a document can be faked or tampered with. Every version requires the same two things: intent to defraud, and knowledge that you had no authority to act.

Signing Another Person’s Name

Subdivision (a) makes it forgery to sign another person’s name, or a fictitious name, on any document listed in the statute, when you do so with intent to defraud and without authority.¹ This is the most commonly charged form. An employee signing the boss’s name on a company check, or a relative signing someone’s name on a property deed without permission, both fit here.

Counterfeiting Handwriting or Seals

Subdivision (b) covers counterfeiting or forging the seal or handwriting of another person with intent to defraud.¹ Faking a notary seal is a classic example. So is imitating someone’s handwriting to make a document look authentic.

Altering or Falsifying Records

Subdivision (c) targets anyone who alters, corrupts, or falsifies the record of a will, conveyance, court judgment, or other legally significant instrument.¹ Changing the dollar amount on a signed check, modifying contract dates, or tampering with a court filing all fall under this provision. The original document was genuine; someone changed it to misrepresent what it says.

Making or Passing Fraudulent Documents

Subdivision (d) is the broadest. It covers making, altering, forging, or counterfeiting a long list of financial and legal documents, and also covers attempting to pass those documents as genuine.¹ The statute’s 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 is the textbook example.

Intent to Defraud Is the Element That Decides Most Cases

Every forgery charge requires proof you acted with intent to defraud. Without that mental state, there is no crime. That is what separates forgery from innocent conduct like signing a spouse’s name on a package slip with their knowledge, or making a clerical fix on a financial document.

Prosecutors rarely have a confession. They build intent from circumstantial evidence: Did you try to use the document for personal gain? Did you hide what you did? Were there multiple fraudulent documents over time? Altering a financial document right before a major transaction looks very different from a small correction made weeks before anything happened.

The document does not have to succeed in fooling anyone. Trying to deposit a forged check the bank catches on the spot is still forgery if you knew the check was fake and used it anyway.

Misdemeanor or Felony: How the Charge Is Set

Forgery is a wobbler under Penal Code 473. The split between misdemeanor and felony is governed partly by a $950 rule that applies more narrowly than many people think.²

The $950 Misdemeanor Lane

Section 473(b), added by Proposition 47 in 2014, creates a narrow misdemeanor-only lane. If the forgery involves a check, bond, bank bill, note, cashier’s check, traveler’s check, or money order, and the value of that instrument is $950 or less, the offense is a misdemeanor with a maximum of one year in county jail.²

Two exceptions take the offense back up to wobbler status even under $950. The lane does not apply if you have a prior conviction for a serious or violent felony listed in Section 667(e)(2)(C)(iv), or if you are required to register as a sex offender. It also does not apply when you are convicted of both forgery and identity theft under Section 530.5 in the same case.²

Everything Else Is a Wobbler

All other forgery charges fall under Section 473(a) as wobblers. That covers forging a deed, counterfeiting a seal, falsifying a contract, or creating any fraudulent document that is not one of the specific financial instruments listed in 473(b). Financial instrument forgery over $950 is also a wobbler. The prosecutor picks misdemeanor or felony based on the facts and your record.

A misdemeanor conviction maxes out at one year in county jail. A felony conviction carries a sentencing triad of 16 months, two years, or three years. Under California’s realignment system the time is served in county jail rather than state prison, unless you have prior serious or violent felony convictions, which shifts the sentence to state prison.³

Reducing a Felony to a Misdemeanor Later

Even after a felony conviction, Penal Code 17(b) lets a judge reclassify a wobbler. The reduction can happen at sentencing when the court grants probation instead of jail, or later on a defense motion.⁴ A pending restitution balance is not a reason to deny the request. For anyone whose conviction is blocking a job or professional license, this is a significant tool.

Restitution

Judges routinely order restitution in forgery cases, requiring you to repay victims for the losses the forgery caused. That obligation can outlast your jail sentence or probation.

Charges Often Stacked With Section 470

Forgery statutes overlap, so a single incident often produces multiple counts.

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. Falsifying medical records is handled separately under Section 471.5.⁵
Section 472 criminalizes counterfeiting the state seal, the seal of any court, corporation, or public officer, or possessing a counterfeited seal while knowing it is fake.⁶
Section 475 covers possessing or receiving forged, altered, or counterfeit documents with intent to pass them as genuine, and also possessing blank or unfinished checks with intent to complete them fraudulently. You do not have to have created the forgery yourself.⁷
Section 476 targets making, passing, or possessing a fictitious or altered bill, note, or check that appears to come from a financial institution.⁸
Section 530.5 (identity theft) is itself a wobbler, carrying up to one year in county jail as a misdemeanor or 16 months, two years, or three years as a felony. If identity theft rides along with the forgery, you also lose the $950 misdemeanor protection.⁹

Someone caught manufacturing fake checks and attempting to cash them could face charges under Sections 470, 475, and 476 at once.

A separate boundary matters here: counterfeiting U.S. currency or forging federal obligations like Treasury bonds or federal checks is federal, not state. It is prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 471, with a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.¹⁰ Buying, selling, or transferring counterfeit federal securities is separately covered by 18 U.S.C. § 473, also with a 20-year maximum.¹¹ Forgery involving immigration documents or military records is also handled federally.

How the Prosecution Proves the Case, and How Defendants Push Back

Prosecutors in forgery cases rely on forensic document examiners, bank records, surveillance footage, and testimony from victims who can identify unauthorized transactions. Because intent to defraud is the linchpin, most defenses attack that element directly.

No intent to defraud. If you genuinely believed you had authority to sign, or made an honest mistake, the mental state is missing.
Consent or authorization. Families and workplaces often operate on informal arrangements where one person handles documents for another. Actual permission destroys the prosecution’s case.
Insufficient evidence of authorship. The prosecution has to link you to the forged document. Proximity or access alone may not be enough, and handwriting analysis is less reliable than juries often assume.
False accusation. Forgery allegations sometimes grow out of business disputes, family conflicts, or workplace retaliation, and the credibility of the accuser is fair game.

How well any of these work depends on the facts. A single incident with a plausible innocent explanation plays very differently from a pattern of fake documents created over weeks or months.

How Long Prosecutors Have to File

Felony forgery carries the standard three-year felony statute of limitations under Penal Code 801, measured from the date of the offense. Misdemeanor forgery has a one-year limit. In fraud cases, the clock sometimes does not start until the forgery is discovered, which can stretch the window when a fake document goes undetected for a long time. Miss the deadline and the charges have to be dismissed.

Consequences Beyond the Sentence

The Penal Code penalties are only part of what a forgery conviction does to your life.

Jobs and Professional Licenses

Employers run background checks, 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 between felony and misdemeanor matters so much over the long run.

Immigration

Forgery is a crime involving moral turpitude because it requires intent to defraud, placing it in the category federal immigration law treats most seriously.¹² A conviction can trigger visa denials, deportation proceedings, 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 good moral character.¹³ For non-citizens, the immigration exposure often outweighs the criminal penalties.

Firearms

A felony forgery conviction bars you from owning or possessing firearms in California. The restriction survives expungement. Penal Code 1203.4 explicitly says dismissal of the conviction does not restore firearm rights.¹⁴

Expungement and Its Limits

Penal Code 1203.4 lets eligible defendants withdraw their plea and have the case dismissed, which helps with private employment and housing applications. The relief has real limits. 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.¹⁴ And if you pick up a new case later, the prior conviction can still be used against you at sentencing as if the dismissal never happened.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 470 – Forgery
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 473
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1170
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 17
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 471 – Forgery
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California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 472
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 475
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California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 476 – Forgery
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 530.5 – False Personation and Cheats
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 471 – Obligations or Securities of United States
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 473 – Dealing in Counterfeit Obligations or Securities
12
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 302.3 Ineligibility Based on Criminal Activity
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1203.4 – Dismissal of Accusation or Information