Shoplifter demand letters often exorbitant

Re First-time shoplifters won’t face charges in pilot project, Nov. 26 Your article describes a practice of retailers, usually through the services of lawyers and paralegals, sending “demand letters” to alleged shoplifters, requesting that they pay a sum of money to avoid civil proceedings by way of a lawsuit against them.

As a lawyer, I have helped dozens of clients who have received these letters following an incident of shoplifting of a small-value item where police have not laid charges.

The letters are in very legalistic language and demand exorbitant amounts that bear absolutely no relationship to the value of the item taken (an often retrieved ) or the loss experienced by the store in terms of security and other related costs.

In all my years of responding to such demand letters, I have never had a response to my request that the store or legal representative provide an accounting of how they determined the sum of money they are demanding.

The basic first step in court is proving your losses. At most, the loss would be one hour of a loss-prevention officer’s wage and certainly not the amount claimed in these letters.

Many of us in the legal community view this practice as, at worst, extortion-like and moneygrabbing or, at best, bullying. Not a good reflection on our profession.

My suggestion: Do not pay until you are provided with an accounting. Gilda Berger, Toronto