
Please Don’t Abbreviate the Year ‘2020’ on Checks and Legal Documents - maxheadnyc
http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler.com/2020/01/please-dont-abbreviate-the-year-2020-on-checks-and-legal-documents/
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noisem4ker
Just switch to ISO 8601 formatted dates already: YYYY-MM-DD.

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Nerdfest
I've had my rant at someone already this year. A lawyer posting about legal
documents saying "make sure you put all four digits in to avoid confusion" and
the giving an example like 03/01/2020.

Sigh.

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joshspankit
To be real, that might be a date format I would fire a lawyer over.

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NickBusey
Please just never abbreviate the year. 100 years passes quickly these days.

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tomc1985
This meme is analyzed in detail by a lawyer and his friend in the middle of
this podcast:

[https://openargs.com/oa347-pennhurst-and-the-voter-purge-
in-...](https://openargs.com/oa347-pennhurst-and-the-voter-purge-in-georgia/)

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jtbayly
Could you give us a summary, or a reason to bother listening to it?

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JoshuaMulliken
Basically you shouldn’t worry about this legally or practically. The law is
robust enough to prevent this from being an issue

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Nerdfest
Why the hell shouldn't they worry about practicality?

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JoshuaMulliken
Listen to the podcast.

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jacquesm
(1) stop using checks already

and

(2) legal documents should always have the full date (spelled out) on them
anyway, so if you just use '20' then that would have been wrong anyway, but
11/Dec/20.

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reaperducer
_(1) stop using checks already_

I always find it interesting how people of a certain age, and especially in
technology bubbles, enjoy restricting their options so much, as if there is
some kind of nobility in giving themselves fewer choices and less freedom in
life.

Best tool for the job is on Windows? No way, I only use bespoke FrotzOS
distributions on a laptop I built myself from parts I reflowed in my co-living
oven.

One of the best movies of all time is on TV tonight? No way, I only watch
video if it comes in an internet stream, and only from services I have to
tunnel through three VPNs to reach.

Write a check? No way, I only use the Spltzit app for finances, even though
it's not accepted everywhere.

Checks are a thing, and will remain a thing for many more decades, or even
longer. Get used to it.

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jacquesm
Checks are only a thing in the US because there is no proper banking
infrastructure. Here in the EU we can transfer money person-to-person, person-
to-business and business-to-business instantly between a very large variety of
banking institutions spanning 10's of countries. No need for routing
instructions, correspondent banks, transfer accounts or any of that bs, and
it's cheap to boot.

There is absolutely no reason why the United States could not do the same, in
fact it would be easier there. Payment systems in the United States are
archaic and error prone. They also tend to offload the risk of fraud onto the
consumers/merchants and I suspect that plus the fees are the bigger reasons
why the banks are reluctant to get their act together.

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zenlot
I guess you're not including UK here? Checks are a thing in UK and is very
common for .gov institutions: driving licence? Write a check. Overpaid taxes?
Receive check. Pay national insurance gaps? Write a check. It's good though
that pretty much every banking app has ability to scan and deposit a check to
your account in a matter of seconds.

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AndrewDucker
I can't comment on the rest but I recently paid for my driving license
electronically.

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sadfklsjlkjwt
For taxes you can choose whether to get a check or have the money deposited
directly into a bank account.

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blhack
I think that if somebody is going to commit fraud against you by changing the
date on a check or document, that this is not going to matter at all.

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zzo38computer
I already don't abbreviate the year if I can avoid it. I prefer YYYY-MM-DD
format myself; long form (e.g. "January 4, 2020") can also be used. However,
some forms specify use of a particular date format (but if they do, then it is
clear what the format is from the form; still sometimes the year can be
ambiguous if there is only two digits).

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reificator
Yet more reason to use the objectively correct date format.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Dates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Dates)

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gtirloni
How is it more "objectively correct" than DD-MM-YYYY?

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mcrae
Because its unambiguous -- DD-MM-YYYY could be confused for MM-DD-YYYY

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joering2
How can you confuse 31-12-2019 ?

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yongjik
Unless you plan to use one format until 12th of each Month and a different
format between 13th and 31st, your objection doesn't seem relevant.

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maxheadnyc
Many of us in tech are prone to using mobile apps instead of cash - but we do
sign legal documents and this is an area where it would pay to be particularly
careful when writing the year.

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war1025
I saw one of my aunts share this on Facebook and was unsure if it was actual
advice or just the normal chain mail spam that gets passed around.

Thoughts?

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conqrr
This one does make sense. I haven't read it yet, but I always write the full
year. For 2020, if you abbreviate it as just 20, adding two more digits allows
anyone to fake a future date into 79 years (2021, 2022.. 2099) etc However in
the past, this would have been avoided since abbreviating 2019 as 19 and
adding two digits would move you into the past which wont make sense always.

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lukeholder
Moving a date into the past or the future can both be just as disruptive,
depending on the application.

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mcphage
If you’re really committed to abbreviating it, go with 3 characters
instead—“020”. Bam! Problem solved. If someone tries to stick digits on the
end they’ll get an octal number unexpectedly!

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ahnberg
Mandatory link and strong recommendation:
[https://xkcd.com/1179/](https://xkcd.com/1179/)

