More than $97,000 worth of checks is unclaimed at the Lee County Clerk of Courts office waiting to be collected. 

Checks with amounts ranging from $1.00 to $20,000 are considered unclaimed and will be sent to the Florida Department of Financial Services at the end of April.

What exactly is a state dated unclaimed check?  These are outstanding checks with a payment date that is more than 6 months old and have not yet cleared the bank.  The checks originate from different offices within the County, Department of Transportation (DOT), and Clerk of Court.  The checks are for various reasons and include, but are not limited to jury duty services, payment for goods or services, refunds of veterinary services, utility deposits and credit balances, tax deed and foreclosure sales and bidder refunds, and recording services and more.

Criminal Cash bonds are also included in the unclaimed funds.  These are payments that have been made to the courts as a monetary assurance that a detained suspect can be released and will return for their court appearance.  When the court has decided that the cash bond should be returned to the defendant, then a check is issued by the Clerk.  Cash Bond funds will be remitted to the State at the end of August.

Check the current unclaimed monies lists on our website:

BOCC and DOT Stale Dated Checks

Clerk Stale Dated Checks

Criminal Cash Bond Stale Dated Checks

The deadline to claim the funds is March 25 and August 31 for Criminal Cash Bonds.  After that, the stale dated checks are forfeited to the State.

Instructions to claim the funds are available on our website www.LeeClerk.Org  Unclaimed Monies.    Once funds are remitted to the State of Florida Department of Revenue’s Unclaimed Property division, you will need to make your request through www.FLTreasureHunt.org