My girlfriend (who i do not current live with) has a meeting…

Hi,

Sorry about the delay, My daughter dropped by. As I've said, these matters can be prosecuted whether a person repays or not, so your girlfriend should absolutely have a lawyer with her when she attends the meeting.

A fraud charge would be a felony in the 3rd degree in Pennsylvania, which would carry a possibility of jail time, and even though it's pretty standard that if the person has a clean record, there would be an offer involving probation if your girlfriend didn't want to fight the charges (she may have a case, and that would be something she and her laywer could discuss) she could end up with a felony record for the sort of offense that could really harm her professionally. So it would be important to make sure that her rights are protected at a meeting or hearing.

Here's a link to the civil restitution hearing procedures'which explains the paying back and the procedure for determining fraud.

Here are the criminal welfare fraud penalties.

Note that these are state penalites. Welfare fraud can also be prosecuted Federally, which is one more reason to make sure she has a criminal lawyer before she talks to anyone about what she did or didn't do with regard to her benefits.

Good luck!

Hi,

I don't know that your girlfriend definitely will be prosecuted for fraud. I am only saying that the government has the right to do so, whether she pays back the money or not. The civil statute involves restitution for the monies owed. The penal law punishes the unlawful act.

To be on the safe side, she should retain a lawyer and talk to him in full about what happened before sitting down with the Welfare people. You were the one to have mentioned that she has a meeting "for fraud." I don't know whether that means they have already made a determination that fraud has likely occurred, or whether this meeting is entirely investigative in nature. I do know that she should have a lawyer because she would want to maximize whatever protection the law affords her.

If what she did was indeed a mistake, that would be a defense to a fraud, but it does not mean that she still couldn't be charged and prosecuted. It would just mean that if her defense held, she couldn't be found guilty. The standard for an arrest and a prosecution only requires something called probable cause -- just a reasonable belief that a crime may have been committed and that a particular person might have committed it. So if Welfare feels that this may not have been a mistake, they will turn the matter over to the DA's office to see whether or not the DA feels so too. If the DA thinks there's probable cause to believe she might have committed a fraud, it will press charges.

A conviction, however, is something else again, as a conviction requires proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, And fraud requires the intent to do something dishonest, which you and your girlfriend believe she did not have.

Hi,

She'd be crazy if she weren't scared, even if she didn't do a thing wrong. Maybe even especially if she didn't do a thing wrong. That's why she should not walk in there without first having talked the whole situation through with a lawyer, who may want to go with her.

She's not going to be eligible for a public defender unless she is indigent, and even then her right to a free lawyer does not attach until she's brought before the judge at her arraignment and the court assigns one to her. So at least for this proceeding, she would have to pay for a lawyer.

But she could get a one time inexpensive referral ($50 or less) to a criminal lawyer for a half-hour consultation by contacting the Pennsylvania bar associaton's lawyer referral service. They will guarantee her a referral to a prescreened active member of the state bar in good professional standing, and there are no strings attached. Should he tell her that she can do without the lawyer at the hearing or should she simply not like the lawyer, she would not have to retain him after the half hour was up. He ought to be able to offer her more reassurance than an expert here can do, and accompany her if necessary to the meeting.


Edited by FranL on 10/3/2010 at 2:48 AM EST