United States — Maine Act or statute

United States — Maine legislation

Maine Revised Statutes, Title 17-A, § 703: Forgery, 1975

Forgery is committed when a person, with intent to defraud or deceive, makes, alters, endorses, utters, possesses, or causes another by deception to sign a written instrument; higher value or prio…

criminal liabilityforgerysentencing

Professional statute overview

Enactment structure, operative effect and source provenance

Official source

01

Purpose and legislative effect

“Forgery is committed when a person, with intent to defraud or deceive, makes, alters, endorses, utters, possesses, or causes another by deception to sign a written instrument; higher value or prior-conviction cases are punished more severely.”

Use this record to locate individual provisions, understand the instrument’s recorded structure, and move from a research summary to the exact source text.

02

How the instrument operates

  1. 01

    Start with the recorded version

    Enacted 1975 · Source version 1 Oct 2025. The date shown identifies this source expression and should not be treated as proof that no later change exists.

  2. 02

    Locate the controlling provision

    Use the provision map, part headings and full-text filter to move from the broad subject to the exact legal language.

  3. 03

    Read conditions and exceptions together

    Keep subsections, definitions, provisos and cross-references in context before drawing a legal conclusion.

  4. 04

    Verify currency and official wording

    Confirm later legislation, commencement notices and corrections with the official publisher before advice, filing or reliance.

03

Research entry points

Selected provisions across the instrument. Open any row to continue with the exact stored text.

Forgery

Forgery is committed when a person, with intent to defraud or deceive, makes, alters, endorses, utters, possesses, or causes another by deception to sign a written instrument; higher value or prior-conviction cases are punished more severely.

Section 703

04

Source and current-law status

Source record view

Source record from legislature.maine.gov · Enacted 1975 · Source version 1 Oct 2025

Verify current force

The source record does not state a definitive current-law status. Check the official publisher and later amendments before relying on this text.

Source-indexed provision map

Sections and provisions

Search by section, heading, part or exact legal wording. Every result remains linked to the stored source record.

Showing 1 of 1 provisions

Provision
§ 703ForgeryProvision

Forgery is committed when a person, with intent to defraud or deceive, makes, alters, endorses, utters, possesses, or causes another by deception to sign a written instrument; higher value or prior-conviction cases are punished more severely.

1. A person is guilty of forgery if, with the intent to defraud or deceive another person or government: A. The person falsely makes, completes, endorses or alters a written instrument, or knowingly utters or possesses such an instrument. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime; [PL 2001, c. 383, §75 (AMD); PL 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).] A-1. The person violates paragraph A and: (1) The face value of the written instrument or the aggregate value of the instruments is more than $10,000. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class B crime; (2) The face value of the written instrument or the aggregate value of the instruments is more than $1,000 but not more than $10,000. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class C crime; or (3) At the time of the forgery, the person has 2 or more prior convictions for any combination of the Maine offenses listed in this subparagraph or for engaging in substantially similar conduct to that of the Maine offenses listed in this subparagraph in another jurisdiction. The Maine offenses are: theft; any violation of this section; any violation of section 401 in which the crime intended to be committed inside the structure is theft; any violation of section 405 in which the crime intended to be committed inside the motor vehicle is theft; any violation of section 651; any violation of section 702 or 708; or attempts to commit any of these crimes. Section 9‑A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class C crime; [PL 2007, c. 476, §26 (AMD).] B. The person causes another, by deception, to sign or execute a written instrument, or utters such an instrument. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime; or [PL 2001, c. 383, §75 (AMD); PL 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).] B-1. The person violates paragraph B and: (1) The face value of the written instrument or the aggregate value of the instruments is more than $10,000. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class B crime; (2) The face value of the written instrument or the aggregate value of the instruments is more than $1,000 but not more than $10,000. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class C crime; or (3) At the time of the forgery, the person has 2 or more prior convictions for any combination of the Maine offenses listed in this subparagraph or for engaging in substantially similar conduct to that of the Maine offenses listed in this subparagraph in another jurisdiction. The Maine offenses are: theft; any violation of this section; any violation of section 401 in which the crime intended to be committed inside the structure is theft; any violation of section 405 in which the crime intended to be committed inside the motor vehicle is theft; any violation of section 651; any violation of section 702 or 708; or attempts to commit any of these crimes. Section 9‑A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence. Violation of this subparagraph is a Class C crime. [PL 2007, c. 476, §27 (AMD).] [PL 2007, c. 476, §§26, 27 (AMD).] 2. [PL 2001, c. 667, Pt. D, §13 (RP); PL 2001, c. 667, Pt. D, §36 (AFF).] 3. Amounts of value involved in forgeries may be aggregated in the same manner as provided in section 352, subsection 5, paragraph E. Prosecution of an aggregated forgery may be brought in any venue in which one of the aggregated forgeries was committed. [PL 1989, c. 187, §3 (NEW).]
Section 703Verify source

Legislative relationships

0 referenced instruments

Names are derived from the stored provision headings and citation-enrichment layer. Treat this as a research index and verify each relationship against the source text.

No structured legislative relationships were detected

The statute remains fully searchable by provision. Consult the source text for amendments and cross-references that have not yet been indexed.

Recorded versions and source checkpoint

1 version available in this collection

Current-law checkpoint
  • 1 Oct 2025 · currentEnglish

Source-linked research

Ask AI about this statute

The overview, provisions, and source records above are public. Continue in a separate conversation with this statute’s jurisdiction and source version attached.

No legal research model is currently available.

Sign in

About this LexChat collection

Statute information is organised from identified legislative sources for professional research. Corrections can be reported to hello@esheria.ai.