What constitutes forgery?

Forgery is defined as the fraudulent creation or alteration of documents with the intent to deceive and establish legal rights that would not otherwise exist. This can involve creating documents that purport to represent one situation while being entirely fabricated, or altering existing documents to modify their legal implications without authorization. For example, forging a signature on a contract can mislead another party into believing that the signatory has agreed to certain terms, thus affecting legal rights.

In contrast, lawful signing of documents does not involve any deceit and therefore does not meet the criteria of forgery. Misrepresentation in verbal contracts typically involves deceptive practices in spoken agreements rather than the creation or alteration of documents. Similarly, while the alteration of public records can be considered illegal or unauthorized, it is more specific to public documentation rather than the broader definition of forgery, which encompasses both the creation and modification of documents for dishonest purposes.