{"id":474,"date":"2019-02-06T11:51:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T16:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=474"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:17:55","slug":"florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Overturns Restitution Order Due to Insufficient Evidence Linking the Crime to the Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida statutes allow for a court to order a minor convicted of a crime to pay restitution for any damages caused by the crime. The State must show a significant link between the damages alleged and the restitution ordered for restitution to be proper, however.<\/p>\n<p>This was explained in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/edca.5dca.org\/DCADocs\/2018\/0454\/180454_1260_12142018_08343531_i.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">case<\/a>\u00a0in which a Florida appellate court overturned a trial court order for restitution, finding the State had not produced sufficient evidence of a causal connection between the damages sought and the defendant\u2019s conduct. If you are a juvenile living in Tampa and you are currently facing criminal charges, you should retain a trusted Tampa criminal defense attorney to assist you in formulating a defense that will provide you with a good chance of a favorable outcome under the circumstances.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Facts of the Case<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is reported that the defendant, a minor, was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle. He entered into a plea agreement with the State, in which he pled to the lesser included offense of trespass of a conveyance and agreed to pay restitution. As such, the court ordered restitution with the specific amount to be determined at a later date. At a hearing to determine the restitution amount, the owner of the car testified that the car was in perfect condition prior to the theft, but had extensive damage when it was returned. The State presented an expert who testified that the estimated cost to repair the damage was $3,310.37. The defendant\u2019s attorney argued that the State had failed to produce evidence showing that the damage alleged was caused by the defendant. The court disagreed, ordering the defendant to pay $3,310.37 in restitution. The defendant appealed.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#more-474\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida statutes allow for a court to order a minor convicted of a crime to pay restitution for any damages caused by the crime. The State must show a significant link between the damages alleged and the restitution ordered for restitution to be proper, however. This was explained in a recent case\u00a0in which a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evidence","category-juvenile"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Restitution Order Overturned for Lack of Proof<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn why a Florida court threw out a restitution order when damages were not clearly linked to the crime and how proof matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Restitution Order Overturned for Lack of Proof\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn why a Florida court threw out a restitution order when damages were not clearly linked to the crime and how proof matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Restitution Order Overturned for Lack of Proof","description":"Learn why a Florida court threw out a restitution order when damages were not clearly linked to the crime and how proof matters.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Restitution Order Overturned for Lack of Proof","twitter_description":"Learn why a Florida court threw out a restitution order when damages were not clearly linked to the crime and how proof matters.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Court Overturns Restitution Order Due to Insufficient Evidence Linking the Crime to the Damages","datePublished":"2019-02-06T16:51:30+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T08:17:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/"},"wordCount":587,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","articleSection":["Evidence","Juvenile"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/","name":"Restitution Order Overturned for Lack of Proof","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","datePublished":"2019-02-06T16:51:30+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T08:17:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Learn why a Florida court threw out a restitution order when damages were not clearly linked to the crime and how proof matters.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"A person opens a car door on a rainy street, with water droplets on the vehicle and parked cars in the background"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-overturns-restitution-order-due-to-insufficient-evidence-linking-the-crime-to-the-damages\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Florida Court Overturns Restitution Order Due to Insufficient Evidence Linking the Crime to the Damages"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/","name":"Tampa Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Tampa Criminal Attorney \u2014 Hanlon Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837","name":"Hanlon Law, PA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hanlon Law, PA"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/florida-restitution-order-vehicle-damage-evidence.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1764,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/1764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}