Bill of Exchange Law

10. Form of Bill of Exchange and Promissory Note

The bill of exchange or promissory note must be in writing. There is no such thing as an oral bill or note. Writing includes handwriting, typing or printing. The bill can not be entered in a book like shares or bonds. Actually, it can be written on whatever substratum which is capable in a relatively stable form to keep the text and to enable to distinguish reverse and averse side and to join the alonge as well. It is not therefore possible to write a bill on a rock, sand etc. Usually, paper serves as the substratum. In older decisions, there are sometimes mentioned some strange substances; very often cited is the one mentioning a bill written on a cover of cigar box. In today's decisions, we can find for instance bills written on counterfoil or table-napkin.

If there is no place for other statements, a copy of the paper (Article I, Section 67 BECA) or allonge (Article I, Section 13 BECA) can be used.

The bill of exchange or promissory note must be signed by the drawer or maker. The signature may be made only by handwriting by pen or pencil, not by typewriter, by print or only by stamp. Text of the paper is usually a result of filling in and signing of blank forms.

Example of the Czech form of a bill of exchange:

Example of the Czech form of a promissory note: