G'day wonderful people,
I would be very grateful for a legal advice concerning the following situation:
Several months ago, I absent-mindedly walked out of a department store, unaware that I was still wearing one of the clothing items I tried on earlier. The security staff approached me at the exit and accompanied me to their office. I returned the garment FULLY INTACT to the security staff. Per their request, I also shared my personal details with them. The police was never called to the site; yet the incident had been, nonetheless, filed.
After a certain period, I received two letters separately with regards to this misconduct.
The first letter was from the law firm representing the plaintiff (i.e. the department store). In this letter, I had been requested to wire the amount of almost 200 EUR on behalf of the compensation for damage ("Schadenersatz"). This has been presented as the matter belonging to the area of civil law, separate from the concurrent criminal law proceeding. However, the alleged damages had to be paid out to the law firm itself. Given a slightly threatening tone of the letter, I had done so.
Soon afterwards, I received the letter from the court, which had imposed a heavy fine on the ground of the criminal misconduct. After appealing in writing, I was given the opportunity to present my case in person and defend myself in court. Since there was no clear evidence to indicate a criminal intent on my side, all the charges had been dismissed. This means, my case, from the criminal law point of view, is officially cleared.
My question:
From a legal perspective, am I entitled to any reimbursement from the law firm or the plaintiff after the court's ruling, which was entirely in my favor? Should the answer be positive, please let me know what are my next steps to be.
Thank you very much for your feedback and kind regards,
Lucas
Clarification of the civil law matter
Only professionals like lawyers etc. are allowed to give legal advice in Germany. So the following is just my general opinion about similar cases:
Generally, criminal and civil proceedings are separate and do not influence each other.
The criminal aspect, i.e. whether the public has an interest in punishing you for your behaviour, has been cleared in your favour.
But you did make a mistake and the store obviously had costs associated with it, as their staff had to deal with the matter and a lawyer was engaged. This is the civil aspect, and you are responsible for it. €200 is actually very cheap - most lawyers cost more the moment they start listening! So be glad you got out of this lightly and book it under "lessons learned".
Thank you kindly for taking the time to share your thoughts.
You have put it quite accurately: The lawyers start charging brutal remunerations the moment you look at them. This is thus the reason I've turned to friendly folks on this forum, relying to their knowledge of legal matters in Germany or at least some firsthand experience. 
You have also written that "criminal and civil proceedings are separate and do not influence each other." If this is indeed true, with no exception, then my query has been already answered in full. However, I cannot quite comprehend how the aspect of criminal law does not take the "precedence" over the civil law. In my case, at least. The malicious intent on my side has been ruled out. Hence, it's somewhat illogical to me that the one is still liable for eliciting "damages."
Moreover, speaking of the damages...
Even after your reply, this part remains puzzling to me. The invoice which I had received from the law firm is actually on behalf of the damage compensation ["Schadensersatz"], not their remuneration. Hence, no wonder you find the amount of 200 EUR very low. Once again - the clothing item has not sustained any damage.
Cheers,
Lucas
Criminal proceedings are for deciding whether the public has an interest in pursuing (and penalising for) the matter, not whether (or how much) the aggrieved party can claim as compensation - that is decided in civil proceedings. Criminal proceedings are always between the offender and a public prosecutor ("Staatsanwalt"), with the aggrieved party present only as a witness. Civil proceedings are between the aggrieved party and the offender.
There can be one without the other, but in many cases the two exist in parallel (and are independent from each other).
Some examples:
1. You try to rob a bank and are caught while breaking their back door. The criminal case will penalize you for attempted robbery (e.g. throw you into jail). The civil case will decide how much you have to pay for the broken back door.
2. You lose control of your bicycle and crash into a bank's back door. There will be no criminal case (as there was no crime involved), but (unless you volunteer to cover the damage) a civil case decides how much you have to pay for the broken back door (i.e. exactly the same as case 1 above).
3. You are caught posessing illegal weapons and planning a bank robbery. There will be criminal case, but no civil one (because nobody incurred a direct financial loss).
In case 1 and 2, the civil damages will include indirect ones, like time spend in finding a contractor for the repair and also the lawyer's and court fees for handling the case.
In your case (which is most similar to number 2 above), there are only indirect costs. But you nevertheless have to cover them.
You could of course dispute the amount, but, as I said above, I think you already got out lightly and are not likely to get anything back of what you already paid (instead are more likely to have to pay additional fees for the dispute).
Also not a lawyer so take this as a personal opinion. I agree with Beppi. It is a lesson learned and actually surprisingly cheap all considered. Claiming lack of intent to walk out with something unpaid and being believed is pretty lucky. A bit like being caught on the public transportation and claiming you had intended to buy a ticket but forgot. Or one bought a ticket but used it to go beyond the zone it is valid for – but one intended to get out. All possible but excuses they hear all of the time and usually it brings nothing.
The thing is that the store processing the situation including using a lawyer which caused them costs. And the criminal case determined you not to be criminally guilty. But it did NOT exonerate you for civil damages. Lack of intent doesn't mean the incident didn't happen – and have consequences. This could theoretically have been the case if you had been able to prove that you didn't have any merchandise with you; say you had clothing from another store that they only suspected (falsely) of being from theirs. Or if they caught someone shoplifting that used stolen identify so that they thought it was you. If you would then prove that it wasn't you who were involved then you would have no liability. But even without bad intent you made a mistake and are thus liable for it.
But a word to the costs from lawyers; this is a real problem in Germany. Say one buys something on credit and can't pay it off in time. They then get demands for payments which eventually get sent to outside debt collectors who will keep after you and every reminded will officially be allowed to attach huge fees for their trouble. Literally there are people who owed a few hundred Euros which in a couple of years was a few thousand – and it is all legal.
As long as a store is sending reminders from their own internal bookkeeping department they are limited to the fees they can add but once sent to an outside source then the limits are either removed or go way up. Some store chains are known for spinning off a separate company for debt collecting to profit from this. Like hey, sell a jacket for 100 Euros and they get 15 Euros profit but they might make 300 Euros in addition through collecting the debt. The lesson is to pay off debts right away. It is not just the overpriced interest one will pay on credit card debt but the huge fees the collectors demand if things don't get paid.
Even without going to the depth that Tom did above: The store had to stop and interview you, write a report, send and collect the clothes to a dry cleaner, and possibly then cannot sell it as new any more.
All that you have to pay for, and rightly so. I think €200 is cheap for it.
Add a lawyer and it more than doubles. Be glad you didn't have to pay theirs!
Many kind thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your thoughts so generously!
After your joint elaboration, I get the picture how one's case can fall into the domain of both civil law and criminal law concomitantly. The illustrative example with a bank robbery has been quite helpful in that regard.
You're both in agreement that I got away with a relatively low economic penalty here. Investing financial means to reinstate this “lost money” would indeed have been foolish.
The criminal intent had been evidently ruled out.
From your point of view, one can understand how I'm, nonetheless, liable for the “damages” that had been incurred by my wrongdoing. However, I still wonder which damages come actually in question, since the item has been returned INTACT, as stated earlier. Dry-cleaning and alike cannot apply here, as that would mean that each clothing item needs to undergo the same procedure after being tried on in a store.
Lastly, unless I've missed anything out, it's still not clear to me why the money for the damage compensation had to be wired to the bank account of the law firm then (?).
Cheers,
Lucas
Lucious wrote:Lastly, unless I've missed anything out, it's still not clear to me why the money for the damage compensation had to be wired to the bank account of the law firm then (?).
Because they engaged the law firm to take care of this matter.
Just pay the 200 euro for the damage, you were in the wrong in this case.
I would strongly suggest you just accept the fact and move on.
Your claim would be on very shaky grounds, a chance of succeeding is unlikely. Best case scenario would be that they would say part of the 200 Euros should be refunded. Say you get 100 Euros back? Is this worth a year or 2 or 3 bringing a lawsuit? Yes, the German court system can be very slow.
Even if you would win such a partial settlement you would likely spend a couple of thousand on lawyer fees - unless you have a really good Rechtschutzversicherung (law protection insurance). And then the court costs will also be some thousands and in such a partial settlement you will likely have to pay half of this. The trouble and risks of further costs CLEARLY outweighs any possible benefit.
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