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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRental car expenses are off limits for restitution in criminal cases, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed earlier this week.
A Marion Superior Court abused its discretion when it ordered a man to pay $1,122.12 to cover those costs for the owner of a vehicle he damaged in a 2025 car accident, the Court of Appeals said in an opinion issued Tuesday.
The lower court had ordered Tawk Hre to foot that bill after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated after he crashed his vehicle into another car, the opinion stated.
The woman who owned the other car told the court at a restitution hearing last March that she had racked up that bill because she used a rental car to get to work and other places while waiting for insurance to cover damages. She also said she spent over $500 on Uber and Lyft rides to work and other places.
The trial court said Hre didn’t have to pay for Uber and Lyft, but he did have to cover the rental car bill.
However, Indiana state law does not list rental car expenses in one of five possible categories for restitution in criminal cases.
Courts can order restitution for property damage that stems from a crime, medical expenses, the cost of medical lab tests, lost earnings by the victim and funeral, burial or cremation costs, according to state law.
“As a matter of public policy, it may make sense to order reimbursement of rental car expenses under the facts of this case,” Judge Rudolph Pyle III wrote in the opinion issued Tuesday. “But it is a matter for our General Assembly to amend the statute governing what constitutes restitution in criminal cases.”
The appeals court reversed the trial court’s order and sent the case back with instructions to correct it.
The case is Tawk Hre v. State of Indiana, 26A-CR-1089.
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