Please Don’t Abbreviate the Year ‘2020’ on Checks and Legal Documents

Just switch to ISO 8601 formatted dates already: YYYY-MM-DD.

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

This meme is analyzed in detail by a lawyer and his friend in the middle of this podcast:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;openargs.com&#x2F;oa347-pennhurst-and-the-voter-purge-in-georgia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;openargs.com&#x2F;oa347-pennhurst-and-the-voter-purge-in-...</a>

(1) stop using checks already<p>and<p>(2) legal documents should always have the full date (spelled out) on them anyway, so if you just use &#x27;20&#x27; then that would have been wrong anyway, but 11&#x2F;Dec&#x2F;20.

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.

I already don&#x27;t abbreviate the year if I can avoid it. I prefer YYYY-MM-DD format myself; long form (e.g. &quot;January 4, 2020&quot;) 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).

Yet more reason to use the objectively correct date format.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;ISO_8601#Dates" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;ISO_8601#Dates</a>

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.

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.<p>Thoughts?

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!

Mandatory link and strong recommendation: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1179&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1179&#x2F;</a>