Civil Theft in Florida, Treble Damages and Interest Calculation

In Florida, we have a civil theft statute that gets you treble damages or three times the amount of damages, plus you get interest. A recent case tells you how to calculate that interest. You calculate the interest on the damage, not the treble damages.

You can read more about civil theft in Florida lawsuits by reading AVP Destiny LLC v. FT Destiny LLC. It was issued April 10th, 2019 by the Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal. The trial judge was upheld on appeal from Palm Beach County. This deals with civil theft.

Why does civil theft matter? If you’re involved in an estate or trust lawsuit and you’re dealing with trustees who are breaching their duties very badly, or defalcations – what our Appellate Courts call when trustees are taking trust property improperly – you might want to seek civil theft if it rises to that level.

But to learn more about civil theft or whether punitive damages is or are proper, you can’t get both, talk to your trust litigation lawyer and work out a trial strategy for your trust lawsuit.