A Heartbreaking Blip

I had a deadline today, but, with sadness, I let it go by.

My client gets drunk, he gets into his car, and he gets into an accident. He bumps the back of a woman’s car, and he causes minor damage to her back bumper.

The woman immediately claims grave injury to herself and her young children. She hustles herself and her children to the emergency room. On the strength of her claims, the District Attorney’s office charges my client with the crime of drunk-driving-with-injury.

I persuade the DA’s Office that neither the woman nor her children were injured. So my client pleads only to drunk-driving, not drunk-driving-with-injury.

After my client is on probation for two-and-a-half years, this woman goes to the DA’s Office and demands restitution. She shows the DA’s Office $35,000 in medical bills (from the day of the accident – there was no follow-up care). And she claims $7,000 for a month of lost wages. And she claims spa treatments, psychological counseling, and car rental. She has no receipts.

I learn that the medical bills had been paid by Medi-Cal (free medical insurance for poor people). But by a quirk of the law, the woman gets in restitution what Medi-Cal paid on her behalf. I also discover that Medi-Cal paid far less than $35,000. Also, I am puzzled that a woman who gets free medical insurance would have a month’s lost wages of $7,000. And if she can’t go to work, why is there no medical after-care after the day of the accident?

So I argue fraud. And I argue that because of the fraud, the woman should get nothing. This is a novel argument. It is grounded in law, but I never before heard of it being used in a restitution case.

One day my client asks, "When is my probation over?" I check, and his three years is up. So we point out to the judge that it’s too late to add restitution as a term of my client’s probation, because probation is over.

The judge asks for legal memos. Mine is due today.

But my research shows that the judge can after-the-fact extend probation and add restitution. I went down every research path possible, but the law is clear. Case law did not vary on this issue. The judge can order restitution, even though my client’s probation expired.

So I did not file the legal memo today. We’re skunked on the law. It’s back to arguing that this woman is a cheat and a fraud, and that for that reason she should get nothing.

Sometimes the law breaks your heart.