Q: My friend said to sign a check with our names on it. She wants half despite owing me more.
I informed her of the check when I got it from my school loans and it had her name on it. We filed taxes together and it was held for my school loans. she said sign her name. I did. I deposited into my account. She owes me significantly more than "her half" of the check. She is now threatening to take me to court if I don't give her "her half". What should I do?
A:
More information is required. People typically cannot "file taxes together" unless they are married. Checks for school loans are almost always made payable to the borrower to whom the loan was made, not to two "friends." They typically aren't even made payable to both a husband and wife together.
It is very ill-advised to endorse someone else's name on a check without a power of attorney from that person. It could easily result in prosecution for forgery or for bank fraud unless you have written (texted?) evidence that your friend authorized you to sign her name on the check or she admits telling you to do that. Barring unusual circumstances, it would be difficult to persuade anyone that she told you to do that without some corroboration.
You say she owes you significantly more than "her half" of the check, but you don't explain why. Typically school loans are for school expenses like tuition, books, lab fees, dorm fees, etc. It doesn't make sense that a school loan check would be owed to another party other than the borrower and maybe the school itself. In most instances, school loan proceeds can't be taken to be applied to a different debt owed by the borrower.
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