Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Criminal Defense

Restitution is the money a person convicted of a crime is ordered to pay to make up for the losses the crime caused. In California it comes in two forms that people constantly mix up. The restitution fine goes to the state's Restitution Fund and has a set range: $150 to $1,000 for a misdemeanor, $300 to $10,000 for a felony. Victim restitution goes directly to the person or business that was harmed, covers the full amount of their economic loss, and has no cap at all. Both are ordered under Penal Code 1202.4, both are mandatory, and neither is wiped out by the end of probation, by bankruptcy, or by the passage of time.

We spend a surprising amount of time explaining restitution to clients after the case is over, because it is the one part of a sentence that keeps going. Jail ends. Probation ends. The restitution order, if it isn't paid, follows a person for decades. It affects whether they can get their record cleared, whether they can keep a professional license, and for non-citizens, whether a conviction becomes an aggravated felony. So it is worth understanding before the plea, not after. If you're being asked to agree to a restitution figure right now, call us at (888) 928-1609 or use the contact page.

The two kinds of restitution, side by side

The restitution fine: a payment to the state

Every conviction in California, felony or misdemeanor, comes with a restitution fine under Penal Code 1202.4(b). It is not tied to any particular victim. The money goes into a state fund that pays crime victims who have nowhere else to turn. The judge picks a number inside the statutory range, and the statute even offers a formula: the minimum fine, times the number of years of prison or jail imposed, times the number of felony counts. Judges rarely apply the formula literally, but it explains why fines in multi-count cases climb quickly.

Ability to pay matters here, but only above the floor. A judge cannot go below $150 or $300 because the defendant is poor; a judge can and should stay near the floor when the defendant has no income. This is one of the few places in a sentencing hearing where a short, specific statement about the client's finances actually moves a number.

There is a second fine attached to the first one. Anyone placed on probation gets a probation revocation restitution fine in the same amount, and anyone sent to prison or on mandatory supervision gets a parole or supervision revocation fine, again in the same amount. These are suspended. They only become due if probation or parole is later revoked. People discover them years later when a violation turns a $300 fine into $600.

Victim restitution: the full loss, no ceiling

This is the one that matters. Under Penal Code 1202.4(f), when a victim has suffered economic loss because of the defendant's conduct, the court must order the defendant to pay it back in full. The California Constitution says the same thing since Marsy's Law passed in 2008: victims have a right to restitution from the person convicted. Judges do not have discretion to reduce it out of sympathy, and the defendant's lack of money is expressly not a reason to lower it.

What counts as economic loss

The statute lists the categories, and courts read them broadly. Stolen or damaged property, valued at replacement cost or repair cost. Medical bills and future medical care. Mental health counseling. Wages the victim lost while injured, while in court, or while helping the investigation. Relocation costs and security upgrades for victims of violent crime. Interest at ten percent. And the attorney's fees and collection costs the victim spends to collect the restitution itself. In a fraud or embezzlement case the loss is usually the money taken; in a DUI crash it is the other driver's car, their ER visit, and their time off work; in a domestic violence case it is often counseling, a new lock, and a new apartment.

What is not included: pain and suffering, emotional distress, punitive damages. Those belong to a civil lawsuit, and a victim who wants them has to file one. The exception is child sexual abuse under Penal Code 288, 288.5, and 288.7, where the statute allows noneconomic damages as restitution. Our personal injury team sees the civil side of the same incidents, and the two systems run on different rules.

Who can be a victim

A person, obviously. But also a business, a bank, an insurance company that paid a claim, a government agency that spent money responding, and the California Victim Compensation Board if it paid the victim's bills before sentencing. When the Board has paid, the restitution order runs to the Board for what it paid and to the victim for the rest. What the defendant does not get is a discount because the victim had insurance. If the victim's own insurer covered the loss, the defendant still owes the full amount; the insurer may have a claim on part of it, but that is between the victim and the insurer. Payments from the defendant's own insurance, on the other hand, do count toward the order.

How the amount gets decided

At sentencing, the prosecutor presents the victim's claimed loss, often just a statement or a stack of receipts from the probation report. That is enough to shift the burden. Once the victim has made a prima facie showing, the defendant has to prove the number is wrong. If the amount is disputed, either side can ask for a restitution hearing, which can be held at sentencing or months later. The court also has the power to leave the amount open, order restitution "in an amount to be determined," and set the hearing after the victim's medical treatment or repair estimates come in.

The standard at that hearing is a preponderance of the evidence, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the rules of evidence are relaxed. Hearsay comes in. Estimates come in. The victim does not have to testify. This tilts the field, and the practical response is to show up with documents: comparable repair quotes, a valuation of the property, an accounting that separates the loss from pre-existing damage, proof of what the client's insurer already paid. We have cut restitution figures substantially at these hearings, not by arguing the client shouldn't pay, but by proving the number was inflated. A hearing that most defense lawyers treat as a formality is often the last real fight in the case.

Restitution for counts that were dismissed

Here is a trap in plea bargaining. If a client pleads to one count and two others are dismissed, restitution normally covers only the count of conviction. Prosecutors know this, so most plea forms include a Harvey waiver, a line agreeing that the court can order restitution on the dismissed counts too. Sign it and the dismissal saves the client jail time but not money. Before agreeing to any plea, read the restitution language with the same attention as the custody term. Our page on no contest versus guilty pleas covers the other fine print people skip.

Paying it, and what happens when you can't

Restitution is usually made a condition of probation, with a payment schedule set by the probation department or the court's collections unit. Payments go through the court, not directly to the victim. When the client goes to prison instead, the Department of Corrections deducts up to half of any wages the inmate earns and half of any money deposited into the inmate's trust account, and sends it toward the order. Yes, that includes money a mother sends for commissary.

Not paying has consequences, but they are not the ones people fear. A judge cannot revoke probation and send someone to jail simply because they owe money. Under Penal Code 1203.2, revocation for nonpayment requires a finding that the failure was willful: the person had the ability to pay and didn't. Losing a job, a medical crisis, supporting children on minimum wage, none of that is willful. Our guide to probation violations explains how to defend a nonpayment allegation, and the short version is: keep records of your income and expenses, make even small payments, and tell the court before you miss one.

What does happen is that the order becomes a civil judgment. Penal Code 1214 makes a restitution order enforceable exactly like a judgment in a civil case, with all the collection tools that implies: wage garnishment, bank levies, liens on property, interception of state tax refunds and lottery winnings, and referral to the Franchise Tax Board, which collects for the state with unusual efficiency. The judgment can be renewed every ten years without limit. It is not discharged in bankruptcy; the Bankruptcy Code specifically carves criminal restitution out. And it survives the end of probation. People sometimes believe that once probation terminates, the obligation ends with it. It does not. The court loses the ability to jail you for it; the victim keeps the ability to collect.

Restitution and getting your record cleared

Until 2023, owing restitution was the most common reason a Penal Code 1203.4 expungement petition got denied. Judges treated an unpaid order as proof that probation wasn't successfully completed. Senate Bill 1106 changed that. Since January 1, 2023, a court cannot deny expungement, or reduction of a felony under Penal Code 17(b), or the other forms of post-conviction relief, on the sole ground that restitution or fines are unpaid. The debt stays enforceable as a civil judgment, but the conviction can still be dismissed. Anyone who was refused expungement before 2023 because of a restitution balance should file again. Our pages on what expungement actually does and on post-conviction relief walk through the petition, and SB 731 automatic sealing has its own rules on unpaid amounts.

One more practical note: if the client posted cash bail in their own name, the court will take restitution and fines out of it before refunding anything. We explain that in our page on whether you get bail money back. Families who post bail in the family member's name avoid that deduction.

Why the restitution number matters for immigration

For a non-citizen, the restitution figure can be the single most important number in the case. Federal immigration law treats fraud or theft offenses in which the loss to the victim exceeds $10,000 as aggravated felonies, which mean mandatory deportation with almost no relief available. Immigration judges look to the restitution order as evidence of the loss amount. A plea that keeps restitution at $9,500 and one that sets it at $10,500 are, for immigration purposes, different universes. This comes up constantly in fraud and theft cases, and it is why we handle the immigration analysis in-house before any plea is entered. Our guide to the immigration consequences of a conviction explains the aggravated felony categories.

Restitution in DUI, juvenile, and federal cases

A DUI with a crash generates restitution for the other driver's vehicle, medical bills, and lost wages, plus, in many counties, the cost of the emergency response. Because insurance is usually involved on both sides, the accounting gets complicated, and the restitution hearing is where the defendant's insurer's payments get credited.

Juvenile restitution works under Welfare and Institutions Code 730.6 and mirrors the adult statute, with one large difference: the minor's parents or guardians can be held jointly liable for the restitution, up to a statutory cap that is adjusted for inflation. Parents are often surprised to learn a juvenile case has attached a five-figure judgment to them.

Federal restitution is governed by the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. It is mandatory for most federal crimes of violence and property crimes, ability to pay is irrelevant to the amount, and the federal government collects through the U.S. Attorney's financial litigation unit for twenty years after release. The federal order is, if anything, harder to escape than the state one.

And for anyone wondering whether restitution is tax deductible, the answer is mostly no, with narrow exceptions we cover on our page on Section 67 and restitution.

What we actually do about restitution

Restitution is not a place where a lawyer can make the obligation disappear; the law is deliberately built to prevent that. What a lawyer can do is make sure the number is real. That means demanding documentation of every claimed loss, getting independent valuations, separating the loss caused by the offense from losses that existed before it, tracking every insurance payment, refusing Harvey waivers when the dismissed counts are weak, negotiating the figure before the plea when it has immigration or licensing consequences, and setting a payment schedule the client can keep so that a probation violation never becomes an issue. On the back end, when a client has finished everything else, it means filing the expungement petition that SB 1106 now allows regardless of the balance.

Frequently asked questions

What is restitution in a criminal case?

It's money a convicted person is ordered to pay to cover the losses their crime caused. In California the word gets used for two different things: the restitution fine, which goes to the state, and victim restitution, which goes to the actual person or business harmed. Both are ordered at sentencing. The fine has a fixed range; victim restitution is whatever the loss actually was, with no ceiling.

What happens if you can't pay restitution?

The debt doesn't go away, but you can't be jailed for being broke. A judge can only revoke probation for nonpayment if the failure to pay was willful, meaning you had the money and chose not to. What does happen is collection: wage garnishment, tax refund intercepts, liens, and, if you're in state prison, deductions from your wages and from money your family sends. The order converts to a civil judgment that can be renewed indefinitely. Ask the court for a payment plan you can actually meet, and document your finances if you're accused of willful nonpayment.

Does restitution go away after 10 years?

No. A restitution order in California is enforceable as a civil judgment, and civil judgments can be renewed every ten years for as long as the creditor bothers to renew them. The victim, or the state on the victim's behalf, can keep collecting for the rest of your life. Restitution also survives bankruptcy; federal law specifically excludes criminal restitution from discharge.

Can I get my record expunged if I still owe restitution?

Since January 1, 2023, yes. Senate Bill 1106 changed Penal Code 1203.4 so that a court cannot deny expungement, or the related forms of relief, solely because restitution or fines are still owed. The unpaid balance stays enforceable as a civil judgment after the conviction is dismissed. Before 2023, unpaid restitution was one of the most common reasons expungement petitions were denied, so anyone who was turned down on that ground should ask again.

How is restitution different from a civil lawsuit?

Restitution covers economic loss only: medical bills, lost wages, the cost of repairing or replacing property, counseling, and similar out-of-pocket items. It does not include pain and suffering, except in certain child sexual abuse cases where the statute specifically allows noneconomic damages. A victim who wants more than economic loss has to file a separate civil case. A restitution order doesn't prevent that lawsuit, but the defendant gets credit against a civil judgment for restitution already paid.

Related guides

• What expungement means and how to get it
• Probation violations under Penal Code 1203.2
• Jail vs. prison in California

Facing a restitution order? Talk to us before sentencing

The Bulldog Law contests restitution amounts at sentencing and restitution hearings, negotiates the figure in plea agreements where immigration or licensing is at stake, defends probation violations based on nonpayment, and files expungement petitions for clients who still owe. Visit our criminal defense page, call (888) 928-1609, or reach us online.