Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

The Florida Statute mentioned in the letter you received is completely separate from any restitution that may be ordered at the juvenile delinquency hearing. This is to say that your daughter may not be required to pay any restitution if she goes to court but that would not prevent the store from pursuing the civil case for damages. Because the store is unable to prove any actual damages they would be entitled to $200.00 plus attorneys fees and costs for each instance if they proceed with a civil case. That is a big IF. Most of these stores have a law firm retained for these purposes and they send out hundreds of the letters you received. However, they very rarely actually follow through with filing suit. It is not financially worth it to these companies to pay the filing fees in such a case without being sure they will be able to recover. Just because they will likely win does not mean they will ever be able to collect their money and getting a judgment without ever actually collecting on the majority of these cases is like throwing good money after bad.