Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia
Accused of Robbing A Convience Store
on Dec 22, 2003 I went to my corner store to buy candy and juice I had just had a c-section and had a four month old baby at home. When I got to the register the young cashier kept talking to me I finally ended the conversation by saying I had to go home to my child. when I walked out the front door the place was surrounded by police saying freeze get your hands up, we just got a report that you robbed the store. After 10 minutes of standing with my hands up, and people stopping and looking the cashier comes out of the store and says she hit the panic button but must not have known she did it. Then the officers said get out of here, I didnt get any apologies or anything. Do I have a leal case against this store or the officers.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Accused of Robbing A Convience Store
No, probably not.
Re: Accused of Robbing A Convience Store
I'd amplify what Mr. Hendrickson said already, being in substantial agreement with his opinion, "probably not".
You have to have two things to win in a civil suit: a valid cause of action and damages. Here you have several valid causes of action: assault, negligence, false arrest, infliction of severe emotional distress. But unless you or your child actually suffered some kind of compensable injury as a direct result of the incident, such that a jury could award you some dollar amount in compensation, you don't have a case.
And the question that's going to come up that's going to make you look really bad to the jury is, "What were you thinking (or were you thinking at all) in leaving your child alone like that?"
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