o.k, heres the story: 2004 i was in a major car accident and was in acoma?

Question

for 1 month 15 days. my real brother came to live with me and stole my checks, forged my name and stole $17,000 from my checking account. oh, and i was in acoma for 1 month 15 days. i was banking with BofA. i filed the charges against him, with the bank, they dropped them saying,"i took too long." i have all the canceled checks prooving that i didnt write them, whi knows," what can i do about it?" thank you

Answer 1

Statutes of limitations vary with the type of action and the state, but generally, you have two years from the date of the occurrence to file a complaint. And this would be for any part of this incident. If this occurred in 2004 and you didn't pursue this until any time after the same month in 2006, you waited too long. You can't file a complaint against the bank or your brother. Sorry, but that's the law. If you exceeded the statute of limitations and if you filed a complaint in the courts, your suit would be immediately thrown out for lack of standing, so don't waste your money. Your only hope would be to find a doctor who could say that you were mentally incapable and weren't able to pursue legal action. This would toll the statutory limitations. The doctor would have to say that you only regained your mental capacity sometime within your statutory guidelines. You would have to find out what the statutory guidelines are for your state for this type of action.

Answer 2

Your brother committed a criminal act, a felony at that, and you should have filed a complaint with the police to get a warrant out for his arrest and then you should have talked with a prosecutor.

I can see Bank of America's position you took a very long time to suddenly become concerned. If you file a case then you are going to have to tell the prosecutor why you waited so long. If you give a waffle for an answer then they are only going to show you the door. They can forgive the time you were in a coma, but not the years since.

Why did you wait so long? Don't you think that your brother would have spent it all by now? Do you have canceled checks from purchases your brother made? If so then you have evidence to use against him. How did he rob you? Did he take your checks and forge your signature (another felony) or did he just gain your pin number and got the money out through an ATM? Do you know where he is or how to find him? His trail is pretty cold by now.

Crimes like theft do have a statue of limitations; in the case of felony theft it could be as short as 5 years. You have to get on this as soon as possible. If you want to recover the money then you may have to file a civil suit. But, I would go for the criminal case first. The judge will probably order him to pay you back, but if he is put into prison for 5 years or so then how can he pay you back?

What ever your reasons you did wait too long and that simple fact can be used against you in court.