If you are a victim of a crime currently being prosecuted and you have suffered economic damages because of the actions of the defendant, our office will contact you. We will need you to provide information regarding your losses.

The total amount of restitution that the defendant is ordered to pay is ultimately the judge’s decision. The more information and documentation you provide, the better the chances that your restitution will be ordered. We will supply this documentation to the court in advance of sentencing, which will increase the likelihood of getting the judge to order the defendant to pay you back as much as is allowed by law.

What you can do to help:

Step 1: Estimate your damages.
Only “Economic Damages” are covered by state restitution laws. Economic damages are objectively verifiable monetary losses including but not limited to:

• Reasonable charges necessarily incurred for medical, hospital, nursing and rehabilitative services and other health care services.
• Burial and memorial expenses.
• Past loss of income.
• Reasonable and necessarily incurred costs due to the loss of use of property.
• Reasonable costs incurred for repair or for replacement of damaged property, whichever is less.

Tip: Ask yourself, “if it wasn’t for the criminal action of the defendant, would I have had to spend this money?”

Example: If it wasn’t for the theft of my car (worth $10,000) by Mr. Thief, would I have had to spend money on repairs or replacement of the car?

The restitution request you make in this case would be for $10,000 for the “replacement value” of the car. But restitution could also include other things: the rental car that you had to spend money on for the week before you replaced your stolen car, the day of wages that you lost because you couldn’t get to work without a vehicle, and the replacement cost of the property that was in your car (e.g. cell phone, sunglasses, CDs).

Step 2: Gather documentation.
Now that you have an idea of what your total losses may be, you should gather any receipts, estimates of costs to repair or replace, ownership documentation, insurance claim numbers, bills, prices of the same or similar property, etc.  The attorney in charge of handling the criminal prosecution of your case will need this documentation to make sure we ask for the full amount of the loss you have suffered. Having this information readily available will assist the Judge in determining your total economic loss. Without this documentation it may be difficult or even impossible to get a court to order the defendant to pay you the total amount of money that you are owed.

Tip: Save everything and stay organized! Create a folder for bills as they come in, or for receipts of the things you had to buy as replacements. If you are unable to replace or fix your property immediately, get an estimate of what it will cost. Then, stay in contact with our office whenever your information needs to be updated.

Step 3: Fill out the form.
You will receive a “Request for Restitution” form from our office either in person or via mail – the form is also available online in English and Spanish. It is crucial that we have your most up-to-date contact information so that we can maintain the lines of communication and tell the court where they should send the restitution payments as they come in. Using steps 1 & 2, fill out the form and attach copies of all supporting documentation. Please retain the originals for your own records. Then mail, drop off in person, or email your completed form with the supporting documentation to our office; we’ll take it from there and be in contact with you if we have any remaining questions.

It is our goal to make sure that this process is as easy and efficient as possible; please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or comments.