Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Employee Credit Card Fraud

Yes.

Fraud requires inention.

Also, if you are being sued, civilly, jail time is not a punishment in the civil case.

Re: Employee Credit Card Fraud

A civil lawsuit by the company is not going to land you in jail. That will only happen if you are prosecuted by the government.

The company might be willing to settle with you on terms that include a payment plan, but it is not required to do so.

You need a lawyer if you don't have one already.

Re: Employee Credit Card Fraud

Anything is possible by negotiations. You should consider hiring counsel to make sure any agreement actually protects you. If you're already in litigation, you'd better handle your court defense effectively to avoid a default judgment against you. Generally you should hire an attorney unless you know how to practice law yourself. If you're in SoCAL, feel free to contact me if serious about doing so.

Re: Employee Credit Card Fraud

I suppose you mean your former employer, not employee.

Fraud can be either a civil or criminal matter, and often a case can be both, but when you are sued by someone claiming to be the victim, rather than prosecuted in the name of the people, the case is a civil one and jail time is NOT one of the remedies the judge can order....in civil cases, the judge is limited to money damages, injunctions and things of that general type. I believe civil defendants who defy court orders can be sent to jail for contempt of court, but that's rare and requires further bad conduct by the defendant.

You could still be the subject of criminal charges in a separate legal action, but that's probably unlikely.

Lack of intent to defraud is generally a defense. A common exception is when the defendant was in a fiduciary relationship with the plaintiff, breached a duty and gained personally as a result - so-called constructive fraud.

The result of a judgment that you can't pay all at once is usually a time-payment plan anyway, but your real issue here should be putting up a solid defense so you don't end up having an unnecessarily harsh judgment against you. Making a defense to a civil lawsuit is also the path to an-out-of-court, pre-trial settlement on favorable terms.

Be sure to get a lawyer involved in plenty of time to answer the complaint served on you before the time to answer, usually 30 days, expires.

Re: Employee Credit Card Fraud

You only chance of a gaining an acceptable settlement is answering the complaint and hiring a competent attorney. Contact me directly.