Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida

Software theft

I own and manage a financial planning practice. I discharged an administrative assistant on Dec. 26, 2007 after three months' employment due to an inability to manage her workload as well as outright lying about her performance. A month later, I discovered she had removed from the office a freshly delivered $460.00 tax preparation software program. When I confronted her about it in an e-mail, she admitted to the theft and offered to return it, but only if I compensated her for Christmas day (she was discharged the next day). I reported the incident to local police, who responded that they could not press charges since when they contacted her, she offered to return the software and claimed (falsely) that I had authorized her to take it off the premises. The detective assigned to the case cited that the key to proving guilt was the determination of ''intent,'' meaning they were willing to accept whatever story she chose to fabricate. I AM SO FRUSTRATED KNOWING SHE BLATANTLY STOLE FROM MY OFFICE AND SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR IT. Who's right?


Asked on 2/16/08, 8:48 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bob McCormack Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLC

Re: Software theft

You are right. However, law enforcement agencies often view circumstances such as yours as "civil matters" and are unwilling to intervene. If you want them to pursue it, you need to keep working up the chain of command and there is no guarantee anyone will do anything about it. If you want to pursue it civilly, you should probably consider filing a small claims action without a lawyer, as it will cost you more to pursue it than the value of the software.

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Answered on 2/18/08, 9:56 am


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