Short answer. Two further things. Civil liability for a felony covers restitution of the thing, reparation of the damage caused, and indemnification for consequential damages. So getting the item back is only the first head; the loss in its value and the losses that followed from the crime are separate claims.
What the law says
1. Restitution; 2. Reparation of the damage caused; 3. Indemnification for consequential damages.
Revised Penal Code, Article 104 — What Civil Liability Includes. Read the full provision →
The Code names three heads, and they are cumulative
Art. 104 lists what civil liability for a felony includes: 1. Restitution; 2. Reparation of the damage caused; 3. Indemnification for consequential damages. They are not alternatives between which a victim must choose. They answer three different questions — where is the thing, what is it now worth compared with before, and what else did the crime cost you — and a single incident can raise all three at once. Recovering the item and stopping there is the commonest way an injured party ends up with less than the law allows.
Restitution and its limits
Restitution is the return of the thing itself, and the Code prefers it wherever it remains possible. It has obvious boundaries. A thing consumed, destroyed, sold on in circumstances the law protects, or simply never found cannot be restored, and a thing that comes back is often not what it was. In either situation the claim does not disappear; it moves to the second head. That is the point at which the court is asked to put a figure on what was lost, rather than to order anybody to hand something over.
Reparation and consequential damages are different things
Reparation addresses the damage to the thing itself — its destruction, or the drop in what it is worth. Indemnification for consequential damages addresses the losses that flowed from the crime but are not the thing: earnings lost while you could not work, the cost of treatment, expenses forced on you by what happened. The two are proved differently. The first turns largely on valuation; the second turns on documents tying each loss to the offence. Certain crimes may also give rise to moral damages under the Civil Code, which is a further and separate matter.
What to assemble, and when
The practical constraint is that a court can only award what the record supports, and the record closes. Keep proof of what the thing was worth before and after, receipts for anything you had to spend, and documentation of income you did not earn, each with its date. Where valuation is contested, an independent assessment is worth more than your own figure. Give all of it to counsel while the criminal case is still running, because claims raised late, or supported only by recollection, are the ones that quietly fall away.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 104 — What Civil Liability Includes
- Revised Penal Code, Article 105 — Restitution Of The Thing
- Revised Penal Code, Article 106 — How Reparation Is Made