Legal Question in Criminal Law in Georgia
My daughter is 17 years old and was arrested for shoplifting. She is being charged as an adult. She received a letter in the mail from a law firm in Florida demanding a payment of $150.00 in 30 days for recovery of damages or a civil suit will be filed. Should she respond to this?
3 Answers from Attorneys
You should take any legal issue surrounding this incident VERY seriously. This starts with a good criminal lawyer for your daughter, so hopefully your daughter does not enter adulthood with a criminal conviction. That lawyer may also assist with resolving the dispute with the store and Florida firm. Certainly, if your daughter stole something the store is entitled to get their property (or value) back. We don't know the story and you did not tell us. Have a lawyer handle it. A civil suit will also follow your daughter around for years to come.
She needs a very good criminal lawyer. Your daughter is at risk of paying fines, going to jail and having a theft conviction on her criminal record for life, making her pretty much unemployable forever. She should have ALREADY hired one. Do it today - not soon - now.
As for the civil letter, give it to her lawyer. Generally those letters are garbage and a suit is almost never filed. He'll probably tell her to ignore that and focus on the criminal case. A lawyer is likely to get a far better result in the criminal case than would happen otherwise.
YES< unless she wants to be dragged to court on the civil demand. See website for info on retaining the right attorney: http://www.lawrencelewispc.com/pages.php?go=pinfo&PID=38
Good luck
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