If you have a court date at the 19th District Court for your Dearborn Michigan misdemeanor or felony retail fraud allegation, you need an exceptional and zealous criminal defense lawyer who will fight on your behalf. No matter if your accusation is from Fairlane Town Center Mall, a national retail store (such as Best Buy, Home Depot, or Target), or any local Dearborn business, we can help defend you. Get attorney Daniel Hilf on your side to handle your legal defense for immediate action and diligent steps taken toward achieving the best results given your facts and circumstances. Leading shoplifting accusation defense specialist Daniel Hilf appears before the Judges at the 19th District Court (16077 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn 48126), and throughout the Detroit metro area on a regular basis, aggressively defending all shoplifting charges.
Having to go before a Judge in Dearborn to address a shoplifting accusation may seem depressing, overwhelming, and scary. It is important to remember that facing a shoplifting prosecution in Dearborn or elsewhere does not make you a bad person. In fact, shoplifting is prosecuted by the Dearborn City Attorney and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on a regular basis, but it is often based upon one single allegation of attempted shoplifting due to a temporary lapse in ordinarily good judgment. However, just because shoplifting charges are heard regularly at the 19th District Court it does not mean that there are not serious long term repercussions or that it will not affect your life in an extremely negative way. Any shoplifting conviction can alter your future ambitions, because a sentence from this conviction may include any or all of the following outcomes: the loss of your freedom (incarceration); probation with strict supervisory conditions; loss of employment; professional licensing issues (for lawyers, accountants, nurses, stock brokers, and other positions that require State or Federal licensing); loss of educational opportunities; steep fines and costs; immigration complications (for persons that are not United States citizens); and personal embarrassment. Beyond a shadow of a doubt – you need the best lawyer you can hire who is one hundred percent on your side working for your best possible result.
A shoplifting accusation in Dearborn can be alleged in several different ways, including: when store merchandise is stolen or an attempt to steal store merchandise is made by a person; when the price tag of the merchandise is intentionally changed to a lower price to defraud the store; or when merchandise is fraudulently exchanged in order to obtain money or other store merchandise. Criminal shoplifting cases that are prosecuted at the 19th District Court in Dearborn and other Michigan courtrooms include the following:
First Degree Retail Fraud is a felony charge that carries up to a 5 year maximum prison sentence that is prosecuted when the merchandise involved is $1,000 (one thousand dollars) or more, or if the merchandise involved is $200 (two hundred dollars) or more and the person has a prior theft conviction (however, incarceration can be potentially avoided if your Judge is convinced otherwise).
Organized Retail Theft is felony charge that carries up to a 5 year maximum prison sentence that is also subject to applicable habitual offender sentencing provisions (however, incarceration can be potentially avoided if your Judge is convinced otherwise) . Organized Retail Theftis prosecuted in Dearborn and other courtrooms when the prosecution believes it has probable cause that the intent of the accused is to commit retail theft from one or more stores and then resell the stolen merchandise to other persons or businesses.
Second Degree Retail Fraud is a misdemeanor charge that carries up to a 1 year maximum county jail sentence that is prosecuted when the merchandise involved is at least $200 (two hundred dollars) but less than $1000 (one thousand dollars), or if the merchandise involved is under $200 (two hundred dollars) and the person has a prior theft conviction (however, incarceration can be potentially avoided if your Judge is convinced otherwise).
Third Degree Retail Fraud is a misdemeanor charge that carries up to a 93 day maximum county jail sentence that is prosecuted under either State law or local ordinance, when the merchandise involved in the offense is less than $200 (two hundred dollars) (however, incarceration can be potentially avoided if your Judge is convinced otherwise).
Removal of a Theft Detection Device is a misdemeanor charges that carries up to a 1 year maximum county jail sentence that is prosecuted under State law (however, incarceration can be potentially avoided if your Judge is convinced otherwise).
A large number of retailers in Dearborn and across America have implemented loss prevention policies with the goal of reducing overall shoplifting losses, avoiding contested litigation, and deterring others from committing store theft. A team of coordinated asset protection team members and surveillance equipment (such as merchandise sensors and closed circuit television) are commonly found within shopping malls and large stores for the purpose of combating the liabilities and costs associated with retail theft. Even with the best and most modern technology and extensive employee training, mistakes are still made and persons are still sometimes falsely arrested due to errors in judgment (such as false identification and false interpretation of a situation), cultural issues, and procedural errors.
If you make the wise choice to choose attorney Daniel Hilf to defend your Dearborn shoplifting accusation he will obtain all the available discovery materials to fully and properly defend you, which can include the following: police report(s), loss prevention report(s), witness statement(s), in store video(s), police video(s), photograph(s), statement(s) the police and/or loss prevention claims that you made. Attorney Daniel Hilf will provide you with well reasoned advice concerning whether to conduct a trial in front of a Judge or jury, or whether to choose to accept a plea or plea bargain and try and persuade the Judge to sentence you with mercy and compassion. However, it is ultimately for you to decide if you want a trial or to seek a resolution of your case, and attorney Hilf will fight for you regardless of how you want to proceed.
You should not delay for one moment to hire a zealous and experienced attorney to help you defend a shoplifting accusation. As stated earlier, a shoplifting conviction will cause many personal problems in addition to the strict criminal penalties, including making it extremely difficult to find a well paying job or a highly desired career, because many companies do not want to risk hiring someone convicted of stealing. Hire a respected defense attorney for your Dearborn based shoplifting allegation – attorney Daniel Hilf – to help you, because his legal acumen and his over twenty years of experience inside and outside of Michigan courtrooms is exactly the type of legal representation that you need to confront a shoplifting charge.
If you have Court due to a Dearborn Michigan shoplifting case, now is the right time to make an impactful decision concerning your legal representation. Contact Hilf & Hilf, PLC to obtain the high quality legal defense that you need and deserve for your shoplifting accusation.