Just wanna ask because I receive a letter from the lawyer…

So, if you were caught by the store security under suspicion of shoplifting, the store has two choices. They can call the police, or not. If they call the police then an officer will arrive, take the information, and give you a notice to appear in court. If they don't call the police, you don't get charged. Here, they didn't call the police. So you haven't been charged.

For some years now, retail stores have been sending letters threatening to sue those caught shoplifting, whether those people were charged or not, and whether those accused are convicted or not. You got one of those letters. It has nothing to do with whether you have been charged or will be charged. The court has stated that the store can sue for damages related to the cost of the store's theft prevention, including security systems and staff. So yes, the store could sue you in small claims court (whether you are charged in criminal court or not) and they'd likely win. However, I have only seen that happen once in 15 years; the stores send out these letters and if some people send back the money then the store is better off.

So the store could sue you if they wanted to, and if they did probably win. But that's extremely unlikely. It used to be that the store would call the police, help the police charge and convict the person, then send the person a demand for cash. These days they just send the letters to anyone. The more they send out, the more they get back with payment from scared people.

Interestingly, I've never heard before of a case where the store security threatened to have a person charged if they didn't pay. That's extortion, and is arguably a criminal offence by itself. Let's think about it. The store gets nothing by going through the effort of getting someone charged and helping the Crown to prosecute. If anything, it costs the store more money to pay its staff for that. So more and more I'm seeing fewer people charged, but with the implied threat that the store will have the person charged if the person doesn't pay up to the demand letter.

The store could try to have you charged after the fact, but I doubt they would, whether you pay or not. The store gets nothing out of having you charged. The police don't like these charges either, they usually consider it a waste of their time. And someone facing a first shoplifting charge will generally get "adult diversion" and the charges will be dropped anyway. The store security mentioned this, but don't listen to anything they told you. They aren't lawyer, they aren't police, and they aren't there to help you.

So if I were your lawyer, I'll suggest to you that you throw away that letter and forget about it. You might also get a letter from the store saying that they reserve the right to have you charged with trespassing if you come back within a period, usually a year or two.

Can the store still have you charged? Yes, they could try. Could the store sue you in small claims and win? Yes, most likely. Will they do either? It's extremely likely that they won't.

Does that make sense? Take some time to read over all of that and reply to me.