My Friend receive a letter from a firm stating if she doesn't pay the amount of $340 a civil action will be brought against her within 15 days for theft under $5000.00 at a Canadian Tire store. They said it is for damages and expense. Does she have to pay the money

Was she charged with the crime and what was the sentence?

If she was NOT charged, what did she sign, what was her agreement with the store?

This is not the least bit unusual in Canada - it's a fee to the shoplifter to cover the cost of recovering (and possibly replacing) the stolen merchandise.

It is possible that this "charge" is in lieu of (instead of) having her arrested. If so, she's foolish not to pay it.

My feeling is that if she doesn't pay, yes, there will be a civil action against her.

And is this about your friend or about you?

There was no charge or any agreement between the store

Again, this is entirely legal in Canada. If she does not pay she most probably will be charged criminally.

It's a deterent to future shoplifting without a criminal record.

Sorry Judy, but your characterization of civil recovery is not correct. Any legitimate company that is engaged in civil recovery will *never* baragain over criminal charges... it is quite illegal and in any event they do not have the power to affect whether criminal charges proceed or not

What civil recovery does is resolve any *civil* liability that the shoplifter may have as a result of the fact that their actions cost the store money (*not* merchandise value, but the security guard's time, staff time, administrative costs, etc.).

Criminal charges are not needed for civil recovery to work, and paying the civil recovery amount does not get rid of or prevent criminal charges. The criminal side it completely irrelevant to civil recovery.

Sorry Judy, but your characterization of civil recovery is not correct. Any legitimate company that is engaged in civil recovery will *never* baragain over criminal charges... it is quite illegal and in any event they do not have the power to affect whether criminal charges proceed or not

What civil recovery does is resolve any *civil* liability that the shoplifter may have as a result of the fact that their actions cost the store money (*not* merchandise value, but the security guard's time, staff time, administrative costs, etc.).

Criminal charges are not needed for civil recovery to work, and paying the civil recovery amount does not get rid of or prevent criminal charges. The criminal side it completely irrelevant to civil recovery.



Then you will want to report the law firm to the Canadian Bar Association - the name of the firm has been posted more than once. I do not agree that the recommendation of Canadian counsel will not affect the final outcome - if counsel says let it drop my feeling is it will be dropped.

It would appear that the firm has no problem asking that the store be made whole; if the shoplifter prefers not to do that, the firm has no problem recommending that criminal charges be filed.

Are you a law school student?

And what's with the use of * instead of "?

At any rate - different interpretations make the World go around.

Again this is comon practice in Canada we get these posts all the time.

Stores in Canada are allowed civil award for repayment of shop lifting

I know for a fact that this is done in South Florida. I was with my cousin in a Walgreens. He put an item in his pocket which costs $5.00 and he purchased about $35.00 worth of merchandise. Instead of getting a cart he put this item in his pocket and forgot about it. When he walked out of the store security stopped him. They took his ID and a law firm sent him a notice that if he paid $200.00 he would not be prosecuted. I remember looking up the Florida Statute with him so he paid it instead of being prosecuted.