posted
My story is set in Canada. British Columbia. While I don't state that outright in the book, I'm just tellin' ya. It's science fiction - big surprise. But it's set in the current time period.
An older woman died. She has only a forged birth certificate which all other id is based on. Will this interfere with issuing a death certificate? Will this interfere with her will being processed and her heir from inheriting?
Her heir - and the heroine of the story - also has a forged birth certificate, but doesn't find out until she applies for a passport. All her id is based on the forged document. What are the legal ramifications for her?
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
This is conjecture, not direct knowledge, so be warned.
I would think there's a good chance no one discover the Grandma's forged birth certificate when the death certificate is issued. And once that happens, probate, etc. would probably go smoothly. If her other ID (based on the forged BC) were all obtained through official channels using the BC, there'd be plenty of supporting records. At this point in time, there are probably still lots of BCs not in computer systems. A clerk who didn't get a match would probably just figure the old lady was one of those people whose BC never got entered.
Also, death certificates are entered where the person died. If Canada has separate record systems for provinces (as the U.S. does for each state), there wouldn't be any reason for the death certificate clerk to see the birth certificate.
The heir inheriting will have no problem, especially if the other ID is officially issued based on her birth certificate.
In sum, have the birth certificate be issued in another province and most of the problems go away. And the passport issuance is a plausible reason for it to be uncovered.
posted
Then an accidental discovery is not out of the question. I'd have it be an insurance agent who discovers it, though, simply because it's far more believable to have someone with money at stake running around than a clerk in a courthouse calling to find out about an anomoly with a birth certificate. Or you could have the death occur in the same county as the death, and have the records be computerized so that it doesn't pop up when the clerk enters the information. That'd be pretty believable, and someone who instituted this fraud 70 years ago wouldn't have anticipated it.
posted
Given that you've got two people with forged documents, and have made a point of telling us about this plot line, I'm going to go under the inference that you're trying to set it up so that the heir has troubles based on the falsified documents.
You could potentially go with something a la The Highlander and have a suspicious official (bank teller perhaps since we're dealing with an inheritance?) digging up records and discovering that the name on the forged BC that your heir holds matches a dead baby from roughly the right time. (in the case of The Highlander, they pulled property ownership records for the last century or so and matched signatures, then went further to dig out birth and death records for each name.)
Or you could make things convoluted and discover that the heir isn't who she thinks she is Maybe her name is right but the parents' information is forged and this creates issues of whether she is a descendant given that she has no legal connection (birth or adoption to the deceased or the deceased's spouse (prior marriage) or sibling being the two commonly accepted ways of establishing legal heirship that I see in my work as a probate secretary).
I'll wait to see further to find out if I'm beating totally the wrong path, then I'll ponder on this some more and possibly bounce it off my boss as well.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Oh, I assumed the heir knows nothing of the forgeries and is discovering this herself. If so, sending away for a non-existant certified birth certificate for a passport is a great way for her to find out something's up without alerting the government. All of Goody's suggestions are great for initiating an official investigation.
posted
Sorry for not responding sooner - I was off making Nasi Goreng & Satay'd Chicken for lunch. Mmmm!
The heroine, Ally, thinks she's the niece of the older woman who died. Aunt Love named her by the name she goes by, not birth name, not as niece in the will, so I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that that wouldn't cause a problem with the inheritance. Although, if it is, I can solve that another way anyhow.
Ally does not know she has forged ID. Love created her ID in about 1980 or thereabouts, same time as Ally. Ally's mother took Ally away from abusive husband to create new life. Mother is dead, father is not. But that's a whole other wrinkle.
I do want some problems here. Ally will end up having "some issues" because of what happens, and will be referred for anger management as an option to jail time for creating a major fuss and decking a clerk at the department of vital statistics. But I want the problems to be plausible, not BS.
Whether she finds out about her ID being forged first, or her aunt's, I don't know if I care at this point. I can use it either way. The story is already written. I'm editing and cleaning up holes and such.
Thanks for all your help!
Edit to add: Sorry, another thing to add. Wouldn't it be easier to discover a forged birth certificate if all she had was a photocopy, the result of an original that her mother altered with white out and a typewriter? I want her to have problems, but I don't want her to actually go to jail over it. Plus I've made her boyfriend (soon to be dumped) the cop who handles her case. Hence, better negotiating room for therapy instead of jail time.
posted
A good source for a dead baby's birth certificate: A baby dies at five days but the parents received a copy of his consular report of birth abroad and social security number about a month after he died.
Posts: 666 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Photocopy only would definitely raise red flags when taken to anyone who requires an original. Certified copies of birth certificates - at least here in IL and I'm sure in many other places - are embossed with raised seals that are pressed into the paper. No ridgy seal, no certified original. Depending on how old Ally is and what documentation she has, though, this might fall through. Dept of Motor Vehicles won't issue a drivers license without a certified original, for example.... so maybe Ally doesn't drive?
As for the will, there is a difference between inheritance based on heirship and recipient of a specific bequest. Aunt Love could write in her will that she wants X money and X property to go to Ally without saying exactly who she is. But that doesn't make Ally an heir. Might be an answer for that part of the story =)
posted
I don't know if this would fit what you need or not, but what about multiple birth certificates? My mother apparently had more than one birth certificate issued when she was born (with different versions of her name). Until finding out about it last year, she'd been using the name on the birth certificate that hadn't been recorded.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Time line. Ally is born around 1972-1974, somewhere around there. She'd get her driver's license about 1988-1990. I got mine in 1982, and the only birth certificate I had was the original issued in 1968 (yep, y'all can do the math). No raised seal, but an original signature - that can be forged. I also had my mother's signature giving me permission to get the learner's permit, and she didn't need to show any identification. Actually, she didn't even come with me, so I could have forged that easily. So it seems to me that getting a driver's license back then wouldn't be so hard with a photocopy of a birth certificate, especially if it's in a small town, and even more so if everyone in that small town has known you for years.
And the story is set in a smallish city. Small enough that you can still know most people who've been there for a long time.
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