Your place in the criminal case
In a criminal identity theft case, the prosecution is brought by the state or the federal government, not by you, so you are usually a witness rather than a party. Prosecutors may ask you to confirm that you did not open accounts or authorize charges, to give a statement, and sometimes to testify. Victims have rights to be informed about the case and, in many courts, to describe the harm at sentencing. Your cooperation helps, but decisions about charges and plea agreements remain with the prosecutor. If the person charged is someone you know, such as a relative or a former partner, you may have mixed feelings about the case, and those are worth raising with the prosecutor's victim services staff.
Keeping your own record
Report the theft through the FTC's identity theft website, which generates a report that creditors and credit bureaus recognize, and keep the police report number as well. Place a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit bureaus, and dispute or close each fraudulent account in writing. Keep a running record of what you lost, including money, fees, time off work, and the cost of repairing your credit, because restitution in a criminal case is generally based on documented losses. Do not contact the person accused yourself, even to ask for repayment, and pass any contact from them to the prosecutor.
When the criminal case is not enough
A conviction does not automatically clear your credit reports or close collection accounts, and restitution orders are often hard to collect. You may still need to dispute entries with credit bureaus and creditors, and in some situations bring a claim against a company that kept reporting fraudulent information after a proper dispute. If you are sued on a debt you did not incur, respond to the lawsuit on time rather than relying on the criminal case to resolve it. In a first meeting we review what has been reported, where the criminal case stands, and what still needs to be fixed on your record.
