Free US Law Dictionary

Uttering

In United States law, uttering and publishing is a crime similar to counterfeiting. Uttering is the act of offering a forged document to another when the offerer has knowledge that the document is forged.1 Uttering does not require that the person who presented the document actually forged or altered the document. For example, forging a log for personal profit might be considered uttering and publishing. Another example would be the forging of a university diploma. As an example of the law itself, the State of Michigan defines the offense (MCL 750.249): "Any person who utters and publishes as true any false, forged, altered or counterfeit record, deed, instrument or other writing specified, knowing it to be false, altered, forged, or counterfeit, with intent to injure or defraud is guilty of uttering and publishing."[1]

Forging or illegal 'publishing' of an official or unofficial document is not the essence of uttering. Uttering is the actual presentation of forged or official documentation as one's own. So, for example, an underage teen attempting to get into a bar with an ID that is either fake or not theirs is guilty of uttering, though they may have had nothing to do with the actual making, or 'publishing' of the ID.

1State v. Greenlee, 272 N.C. 651, 657, 159 S.E.2d 22, 26 (1968)(uttering is offering to another a forged instrument with the knowledge of the falsity of the writing and with intent to defraud)