Congratulations to Angus Dunlavey for a Contested Restitution hearing challenge that none of us thought could be won – but he won!

Restitution is the basic criminal law proposition that if I commit a crime and because of my criminal act you lose money or value to property that you can ask the court to make me reimburse you for your loss.  Unfortunately, this is something that we often must challenge because there are many people who will try to take advantage of this basic proposition to ask for far more money than they are entitled to receive.  In Mr. Dunlavey’s case a plea agreement with the prosecutor had been reached that envisioned the payment of restitution for ‘dismissed’ charges.  The claim for money that then arrived for the ‘dismissed’ charge far exceeded any reasonable expectation.  So, Mr. Dunlavey challenged the claim.  All the rest of us in the office expected the judge to rule that the terms of the plea agreement covered all such claims for restitution; so, the rest of us were pessimistic about our chances.  Nevertheless, Mr. Dunlavey felt it was simply unjust and fought onward with his challenge.  Mr. Dunlavey was right.  Not only did he defeat the excessive amount of the claim, but he also defeated the entirety of the claim!