civil attorney

it happens.during the past 10 years that i've been representing peoplecharged with shoplifting in tampa i've heard many stories about howsomeone made a mistake. they were shopping at a storethey purchased a number of items and accidentally walked out of the store withsomething they didn't pay for. a loss prevention officer grabbed themas they were leaving the store and accused them of petit theft.its a crime of dishonesty punishable by jail time.the person explained that it was a mistake but nevertheless they weretaken into a backroom, interrogated,

called a liar, and held for hoursand forced to sign documents. and then a law enforcement officer arriveson the scene and either makes an arrest orissues a notice to appear even in those cases in which the officer hassome doubt about whether the person is guilty or notthey make an arrest and figure the courts will sort it out later.in many of these cases i see the person with the false accusation of shopliftinghas never been in trouble for anything for their entire life.and suddenly their life is turned upside down. my name is leslie sammis andi'm a partner with the sammis law firm in

tampa.i represent people charged with shoplifting andother types of theft cases throughout the tampa bay areaand in all the surrounding counties of central florida.now how do these false accusations occur? well, i have a lot of sympathy for the lossprevention employees. they have a very difficult job.they deal with people everyday who are guilty and beg for forgiveness,they deal with people who are guilty and claim not to be guilty,they deal with the organized career shoplifting with a long criminal history.they are trying to protect their company

from a very serious problem - shoplifting.it is their job to confront people and accuse them of shopliftingand to get a confession. most of the time they get it rightbut sometimes they make a mistake. the problem is the loss prevention personhas an incentive or a motive to make a accusationeven in a highly questionable case. these loss prevention officer know that afterthe accusation the person arrested with get a letterknown as a civil demand letter. which tells them they have to pay $200 orthey can be sued in civil court for damages. i'm going to tell you a little bit about thecivil demand letter.

many of the large stores will...after theyaccuse someone of shoplifting... after that accusation of shoplifting is madethey will get all of the customers contact informationand then turn it over to a law firm that acts much like a collection agency.even in those cases in which the merchandise is recoveredand there is no actual damages incurred by the storethe law firm will send a letter to the customer and demand that they pay a civil penalty.that they say is authorized under florida statute section 772.11.the civil penalty demand letter states that unless they pay a fee,usually $200, then the law firm could

proceed with a lawsuit to collect civil damagesthe first letter vaguely implies that paying the requested amountwill prevent any further litigation. and many people incorrectly assume thatthis means no criminal prosecution will take placeif they pay the requested amount. and that is not true.regardless of whether you pay or not you are still going to face the criminal charge.and if you don't pay you are going to get a second even more threateningletter demanding an even higher amountusually $475. now there is a recent article in the wallstreet journal

that i've listed on my websitethat discuss this whole problem. how the retail establishments make millionsof dollars sending out these letterseven though they never actually follow through with the threat.in fact, they never sue anyone. they just threaten to sue people.and it works. the problem with these civil demand letteris it gives the loss prevention employeean incentive or a motive to make a false accusation. i don't know exactly what this money is usedfor but i imagine it helps pay the salaries ofthe loss prevention employees

and this small improper financial motive ita big reason that i believe some of these false accusationsare occur. now no one feels sorry for a personwho is guilty of shoplifting if they get a threatening letter andend up paying money because the are scared.but the point is it can lead to a false accusation because it creates this improper motive.these types of cases happen and if you have been falsely accused of shopliftingand your case is in the tampa bay area or anyof the surrounding areas. contact me if you want to discuss your optionsto fight a false accusation of shoplifting.