Santa Ana Shoplifting Lawyer

Accused of Shoplifting?

Shoplifting, also known as petty or grand theft, deals with the unlawful taking of merchandise from a store. It can take many forms such as leaving without paying a bill, switching price tags, wearing an article of clothing while concealing the tags, modifying the labels on goods or simply walking out of a store without paying for merchandise.

The charges against you can only be proven if you were seen approaching the merchandise, selected it out, concealed or carried the item away and failed to pay the correct price for it. In addition, a witness or merchant must have been looking at you the whole time and the store employee or owner would have had to approach you regarding the incident, once you were outside of the store. With an accomplished Santa Ana criminal defense attorney energetically defending your case, these elements may be hard for the prosecution to prove.

Mr. Schaffer worked as an Orange County Deputy District Attorney for 18 years, trying criminal cases of all types and training deputy DAs on how to successfully prosecute their cases all the way through to a completed trial. This in-depth insight into the criminal justice system gives us the advantage in understanding what it will take to produce a positive result in your case.

Penalties for Shoplifting

Shoplifting can result in a misdemeanor or felony charge, depending upon the value of the merchandise and any prior convictions on your record. Petty theft is for goods valued at less than $400 and can be penalized by fines and a jail sentence of up to 6 months. If you are a repeat offender, you face incarceration in a state prison for up to 16 months. When you are convicted of grand theft, where the value of the stolen goods is over $400, you can receive a sentence of up to 1 year in jail or 16 months in prison.

If we can show the case against you is not supported by strong evidence, this may cause a prosecutor to reduce the charges against you. In many cases, our firm can reach a civil compromise where you make full restitution to a merchant and the charges against you are dropped; meaning no criminal record and no jail time.

Contact a Santa Ana shoplifting lawyer for prot ection of your rights when you have been accused of any shoplifting crime.