Restitution refers to payment by the defendant to the victim for any losses the victim may have incurred as a result of the commission of the crime. Even if the defendant did not commit the crime, once the defendant pleads guilty or is convicted by the jury, at sentencing, the court will order restitution to be paid to the victim if there is in fact money or property loss by the victim. For instance in a theft or embezzlement case, the prosecution may present receipts or evidence of the amount of loss incurred and may seek to receive a stipulation from the defendant to pay an agreed-upon amount immediately or over a period of time.
In vandalism cases, where the victim’s property has been damaged or destroyed, or in assault cases, where the victim was injured and incurred medical bills, the prosecution will gather all medical bills or repair receipts and present them to the defense attorney and the court for final disposition and determination.
RESTITUTION HEARINGS
If the prosecutor and the defense counsel cannot agree on liability for the loss to the victim or the amount of loss, the court will arrange for a hearing to determine the exact amount of restitution that must be paid to the victim.
Many problems arise in the context of restitution and restitution hearings. Sometimes, when the amount to be paid to the victim is too high, this may cause a break in negotiations between the prosecutor and the defense attorney. It is therefore, important that your defense lawyer is thoroughly familiar with these types of hearings and adequately prepares for a restitution hearing.
Your defense lawyer can potentially save you thousands of dollars by successfully challenging the prosecution and the victim’s unreasonable demands for excessive amounts of money. It is not uncommon for victims to try to milk the defendant as much as they can once they find him in a vulnerable and desperate situation and eager to reach a plea deal. Your defense lawyer should not however succumb to pressure and fight unreasonable restitution demands.
The law offices of Tony M. Seyfi handles post conviction hearings in order to correct a ruling or clean a criminal conviction record. We also do restitution hearings and probation violation hearings.
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Criminal prosecution can affect your health, freedom, employment, and social life. You need help and you need the best criminal defense you can get. At the Law Offices of Tony M. Seyfi, with the state of the art computerized legal research tools and forensic techniques, we will focus on identifying the defenses you may have and will develop numerous challenges to any crime possible.
Our goal is victory for our clients and to keep them from going to jail, and we are confident of our defense strategies. If you would like to discuss your case, call us today for a FREE CONSULTATION and case analysis.
