Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

This is in CAlifornia. I was ordered to pay restitution and requested a hearing. The "victim" did not appear at the hearing and the judge rescheduled it for 30 days later. This happened 4 times in a row with the victim not appearing. The day before I was scheduled to return for 5th attempt at restitution hearing I received a call from the Pub Def notifying me that the victim would not be at that hearing and it would again be rescheduled. I thought she was telling me I did not need to appear. The following day a bench warrant was issued for my arrest for failure to appear.. I am wondering how this affects my right to a restitution hearing since I still have not had one. Shouldn't the order for restitution have been dropped since the victim did not show up?


Asked on 8/21/12, 2:20 am

3 Answers from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

I see three possible things here. Either you are full of it, you are not very sophisticated, or you have a serious communications problem with your public defender.

If the case was filed as a misdemeanor, your public defender could have appeared for you pursuant to Penal Code section 977, unless the court ordered you to be there specifically. If the case was charged as a felony, you had to be there, every time, regardless of having a public defender as an attorney.

If you fit the second or third scenario that I listed above, you need to call your public defender and work it out.

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Answered on 8/21/12, 7:47 am
Theresa Hofmeister Theresa Hofmeister, Attorney At Law

I was wondering the same thing ... the question as phrased does not appear to make sense.

... unless your Public Defender 'threw you under the bus' and said s/he did not have authority to appear for you ... unlikely when nothing substantive was happening anyway.

As Mr. Roach said, call your PD ...if they messed it up, they can fix it easily. Good luck!

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Answered on 8/21/12, 8:46 am
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

The problem seems to be that you heard "the victim won't be there tomorrow" as if it also meant "you don't have to be there tomorrow". Evidently you did, though I agree with Mr. Roach and Ms. Hofmeister that the reasons aren't entirely clear.

In any event, this seems to be an understandable error on your part. Discuss it with your P.D. She can ask the court to excuse the error. The court might agree, though I would need a lot more information before I could say how likely that is.

Good luck.

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Answered on 8/21/12, 2:24 pm


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