Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Maximum Restitution

The actual amount of restitution can be higher than the charge level for which the defendant was convicted.

As you apparently already know, MDOP and many of our larceny charges (embezzlement, etc.) have 4 charging levels: "under $200" and "$200 or more by less than $1,000" are misdemeanors ... "$1,000 or more by less than $20,000" and "$20,000 or more" are felonies. A prosecutor can issue a charge based on an individual event, or he can aggragate several events together from different dates with the same defendant, victim and conduct to charge a higher level crime. For example, if I was embezzling $100 per day from the cash register for a month, I could be charged with 30 misdemeanors counts of "Embezzlement Under $200", or one felony count of "Embezzlement Over $1,000/Under $20,000" with an offense date range spanning the entire month.

When the judge orders restitution, he or she must order "full restitution" for the entire criminal enterprise by that defendant against that victim ... even for losses that were not charged. Of course, the judge must be shown proof that that defendant was responsible for the losses.

I suggest that you talk to your prosecuting attorney and/or that office's victim rights coordinator, so you can work together to compile the records you'll need to request the restitution you think you deserve.

A restitution order is like a civil judgment. but, if the judge does not award all the restitution that you think that defendant owes you, you can still file a civil suit to get a judgment for the rest of the money.