A step-by-step guide to Florida’s pretrial Stand Your Ground immunity hearing: the sworn motion, the State’s clear and convincing burden, recent decisions, and review by prohibition.
Continue reading ›From First DUI to Death Penalty
A step-by-step guide to Florida’s pretrial Stand Your Ground immunity hearing: the sworn motion, the State’s clear and convincing burden, recent decisions, and review by prohibition.
Continue reading ›Florida’s open carry ban fell in McDaniels v. State. Where you still cannot carry a gun, who is still prohibited, the under-21 rules after Eubanks, and how our attorneys defend gun charges.
Continue reading ›How Florida’s Intoxilyzer inspection and repair rules work, what State v. Kilburn held, what changed on July 1, 2026, and how our attorneys challenge breath test results.
Continue reading ›Published September 8, 2026. Yes — even when your trial lawyer never objected. The usual rule is that an unobjected-to error is waived on appeal. The exception is “fundamental error”: an error so serious that “a verdict of guilty could not have been obtained without” it. On September 4, 2026, the Second District Court of…
Continue reading ›Rewrite/update date: October 13, 2026. Originally published in December 2025. Your lawyer must object at trial in Florida because an appeals court can reverse a conviction only for a prejudicial error that was preserved in the trial court or that rises to fundamental error. Under section 924.051, Florida Statutes, an issue is preserved only when…
Continue reading ›Usually yes, but not always. If you threw drugs or a gun before police seized you, such as while walking away or running, Florida courts treat it as a voluntary abandonment and the evidence comes in even if the officer had no lawful reason to stop you. If you had already stopped and submitted to…
Continue reading ›Yes, inside their own jurisdiction. An off-duty Florida officer keeps full arrest power within the agency’s territory, including while working a paid security detail. Outside it, past the city limit for a police officer or the county line for a sheriff’s deputy, the officer can arrest only through fresh pursuit, a written mutual aid agreement,…
Continue reading ›Rewrite/update date: October 13, 2026. Originally published in February 2025. If you missed a court date in Tampa, the judge will usually issue a capias, a court order that lets any officer arrest you. The fastest fix is for a defense attorney to file a motion to withdraw the capias and get you before the…
Continue reading ›Rewrite/update date: October 13, 2026 Florida sex offender probation rules come mainly from section 948.30, Florida Statutes, and apply automatically to listed sex offenses even if the judge never reads them aloud. Every covered probationer faces a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, sex offender treatment, and warrantless searches of person, home, and vehicle, and…
Continue reading ›Rewrite/update date: October 12, 2026 Vehicular homicide in Florida is causing a death by driving “in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another,” under section 782.071, Florida Statutes. It is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and a first-degree felony punishable by…
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