Literal Meaning
Cheque users are normally advised to specify the amount of the cheque before signing it. If created accidentally, a blank cheque can be extremely dangerous for its owner, because whoever obtains the cheque could write in any amount of money, and would be able to cash it (to the extent that the chequeing account contains such funds, also depending on the laws in the specific country).
One might give a blank cheque to a trusted agent for the payment of a debt where the writer of the cheque does not know the amount required, and it is not convenient or possible for the writer to enter the amount when it becomes known. In many cases, it is possible to annotate a cheque with a notional limit with a statement such as "amount not to exceed $1000". In theory, the bank should refuse to process a cheque in excess of the stated amount.
The "formal" American legal term for a blank cheque is an incomplete instrument – rather, a blank cheque is an example of an incomplete instrument, which more generally is any incomplete signed writing – and these are covered in the Uniform Commercial Code's Article 3, Section 115. Filling in an amount into a blank cheque, without the authority of the signer, is an alteration (covered in Article 3, Section 407), and is legally equivalent to changing the numbers on a completed (non-blank) cheque, namely that the cheque writer is not liable for the cheque. However, the cheque writer has the burden of proving that the alteration was not authorized.
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