Opinion ID: 2049434
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Heading: texts.

Text: Most writers and commentators agree that forgery is the false making or material alteration, with intent to defraud, of any writing which, if genuine, might apparently be of legal efficacy or the foundation of a legal liability. 2 Wharton's Criminal Law & Procedure, § 621, p 396. [5] The hornbook most commonly used in Michigan practice notes that, In order to constitute forgery there must be a making of a false instrument for the purpose of creating another's liability, with fraudulent intent to injure him. Such a forged instrument may be made in various ways, as by creating it entirely, by adding to or taking away from it some of its essential terms, or by procuring the signature of a person who had no intention of signing it. 3 Gillespie, Michigan Criminal Law & Procedure (2d ed), § 1485, p 1867. Therefore, it is clear that forgery includes any act which fraudulently makes an instrument appear to be what it is not. Nowhere is there a requirement that a signature is necessary, much less a fictitious one, before we can call something a forgery. For example, Professor Perkins, in his treatise, specifically explains that forgery may be committed, for example, by one using his or her own name, by false dating, or using one's name as that of another. Perkins, Criminal Law, (2d ed), p 347.