Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Vandalized Vehicle

You have tow avenues to go. One is the civil avenue. And there you have two choices. You can report the damage to your insurance company and let them pay the dealer less the $500.00 deduct you probably carry. Or you can sue the Dad and kids in Small claims court.

You can also write the dad a nice letter and tell him just what you told me and give him 10 days to pay you, or talk the problem back to the police and ask that criminal charges be filled. If the police don't act on your request go directly to the D. A. and file directly with his office against the kids. How you do that I don't know but it was done against on of my clients, so I know it can be done.

Exercising your civil remedies don't exclude you from exercising your criminal remedies. I believe that code used to limit parents' responsibilities to $10,000.00 for the intensional acts of their children.

contract law

AT this point you have entered a contract with the father, who has breached that contract. The law states that any contract for goods or services over $500 has to be in writing. So you are going to have some difficulty. My advise is to quickly file a claim in small claims court, about $10 and let the judge sort out the issue. In small claims you can ask for up to $5000, plus any incidentals related to the proceedings, days lost from work etc. The judge may even allow the filing of criminal charges against the minors as a collateral proceeding. Another approach is to call your insurance company for advise. I am sure they will be glad to assist you because you are not filing a claim.