# Check images in discovery: how to find who each check paid

> A bank statement shows a check cleared, not who it paid. How to work check images in discovery, find which ones are missing, and ask for the rest by number.

If you have ever opened check images one at a time at eleven at night before a morning hearing, you know what they are worth and why nobody wants to do it. The statement line gives you a check number and an amount. The check itself gives you the payee, the memo, and on the back, where the money went next.

The statement line "CHECK 1043, $850.00" could be rent, a child's tuition, a payment to a relative the month before a bankruptcy filing, or a check a caregiver wrote from the decedent's checkbook. The statement treats all of them the same. The check does not.

[Video: Check Images in Discovery: Who Each Check Paid and Which Are Missing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAa-KStf_mk)

## Why don't bank statements show who a check was paid to?

A bank statement is a record of what moved through the account. For a check, that means the check number, the amount, and the date it cleared. The payee is whatever the writer put on the "Pay to the order of" line, and the bank does not copy it onto the statement.

Some banks print small check images at the end of each statement. Others make them available only on request or through online banking. Either way, the images are usually a separate set of pages from the transaction list, and connecting the two is your work.

## What information can you get from a check image?

More than the statement gives you. From the front and back of one check, you can usually read:

- **The payee**, the person or business the check was written to.
- **The memo line**, which is often the only written explanation of what the payment was for.
- **The check number and amount**, which link the image to the line on the statement.
- **The date written**, which can differ from the date it cleared.
- **The signature**, which matters when more than one person can sign on the account.
- **The endorsement on the back**, which shows who deposited the check, and often the bank and account it went into.

That last one is easy to miss when only the front is produced. When you request check images, ask for the front and the back.

## Are check images as good as the original checks?

For most purposes, yes. Under the Check 21 Act, a substitute check made from an image is the legal equivalent of the original, as long as it has all the information from the original. The Federal Reserve's [Check 21 questions and answers](https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regcc-faq-check21.htm) explain how this works. The practical point for discovery is that the bank keeps the images, so they can be requested from the bank even when the account holder says the paper checks are gone.

## How to find which check images are missing from a production

Count the checks on the statements, then count the images. Every check that cleared has a check number and an amount on the statement, so list them all and mark each one that has a matching image. What is left is your request list.

In the video above, more than 70 checks cleared the account over the period, totaling over $16,000, and images were produced for six of them. That gap is the finding. It tells you how much of the money that left by check you cannot yet explain, and it gives you a specific list of check numbers to put in the request. (The checks in the video are sample data.)

Watch for gaps in the check numbers too. If checks 1040, 1041 and 1043 cleared but 1042 never did, 1042 may have been voided, may not have cleared yet, or may have been written from a different checkbook on the same account.

## How to request check images that were not produced

Name the checks. A request that lists the check numbers, amounts, and dates from the statements is much harder to answer with "we produced what we have" than a general request for "all checks."

You can ask the other party under [Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34](https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_34) or your state's equivalent, or subpoena the bank directly under [Rule 45](https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_45). The bank route is often better for checks: banks keep check images for years, and they will produce the front and the back.

## Which checks are worth a closer look?

Once you have the payees, a few kinds of checks stand out:

- **Checks to a payee who appears nowhere else** in the records. A one-time payment to a person is different from a monthly payment to a landlord.
- **Checks to cash or to the account holder.** These become cash or move money to another account, and the endorsement on the back can show which one.
- **Round amounts with a vague memo**, like $5,000 marked "loan."
- **Checks to relatives, business partners, or a company the person owns.** In bankruptcy, payments to insiders before filing are the ones a trustee looks at first.
- **Checks written around key dates**, such as a separation, a lawsuit, or the months before a bankruptcy filing.

There is more on spotting these patterns across a full set of records in [how to analyze bank statements for fraud investigations](https://www.counselpro.ai/blog/how-to-analyze-bank-statements-fraud-investigations).

## Can software read check images from a production?

Yes. In CounselPro, check images are read into their own list: check number, payee, amount, and the memo line, with each row linked to its check image so you can see the original with one click. In the video, the six produced checks turn into a list that shows payments for a household expense, piano lessons, summer registration, a plumbing repair, a birthday gift, and rent. You can search and filter that list, and review it next to the rest of the bank records instead of opening each image one by one.

The checks that cleared are in the transaction list, and the checks you have images for are in the checks list. The difference between the two is the set of checks you still need to request.

For how this fits with the rest of the statement review, see [AI bank statement analysis for legal discovery](https://www.counselpro.ai/blog/ai-bank-statement-analysis-for-legal-discovery). If you have a case where you already reviewed the checks by hand, [run it through CounselPro](https://www.counselpro.ai/free-trial) and compare its list to yours.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/blog/check-images-financial-discovery