Recent Blog Posts
Resolving White Collar Criminal Matters
Embezzlement, bribery, and other white collar criminal matters usually settle out of court. About 94 percent of white collar crime cases settle out of court. According to an old saying, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The certainty of something good (a favorable plea bargain) is better than the… Read More »
Legal and Scientific Issues in a Hillsborough County DUI
The direct and collateral costs of a DUI usually exceed $20,000. Higher auto insurance rates account for much of that total. Usually, a DUI causes auto insurance rates to at least triple. Some of the cost is intangible. For example, many companies don’t hire people with DUI convictions as a matter of policy, because… Read More »
Nuts and Bolts of Jail Release in Hillsborough County
The number of unsentenced jail inmates has been in the news recently. Florida has one of the highest percentages of unsentenced inmates in the country. A significant number of Hillsborough County jail inmates haven’t been convicted of a crime. Instead, they’re either unable to afford bail or waiting for their extensive bail paperwork to… Read More »
Common Search Warrant Exceptions in Florida
Blank search warrants, or writs of assistance, were a thorn in the side of American colonists. These documents allowed British authorities to search any private property they pleased, for any reason they fabricated. So, the Founding Fathers added the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This provision allows judges to issue search warrants only… Read More »
DUI Reasonable Suspicion: Parts One and Two
In most cases, police officers must have reasonable suspicion, which is basically an evidence-based hunch of criminal activity, to detain people and investigate crimes. DUI roadblocks, which are legal in Florida and most other states, are the primary exception to this rule. At checkpoints, officers may detain motorists according to a preset formula, whether… Read More »
Tampa’s Top Law Enforcement Officer Promises Violent Crime Crackdown
Speaking to the city council, Tampa Police Department Chief Lee Bercaw outlined a multi-point plan which, he says, will reduce the number of shootings in the area and make people feel safer. Police received reports of at least twenty-four shootings in the Tampa Bay area in April and May 2024. In one case, video… Read More »
PIKing Through a Drug Possession Case
Here’s an interesting set of statistics, or at least interesting to us. Drug possession accounts for 85 percent of drug arrests, yet just over 25 percent of the nation’s jail and prison population. Why the large disparity? Why do so many cases result in so few prison sentences? The number of moving parts in… Read More »
Breaking Down a Refusal to Submit Case in Florida
Since 1990, police and prosecutors have received new weapons in the ongoing fight against DUI. Refusal-to-submit laws, which were implicitly legalized by the Supreme Court in 2016’s Birchfield vs. South Dakota, are one of the latest weapons. States that have passed these laws, such as Florida, hope they’ll increase the number of defendants who… Read More »
Challenging the Evidence in a Criminal Case
Evidence, or the lack thereof, is critical in a criminal case. The prosecutor must prove guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. A hit-and-run case illustrates the difference between the burden of proof in criminal court and the burden of proof in civil court which is a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not). In… Read More »
Sealing and Expunging Criminal Records in Florida
This process is governed by Section 943.045 of the Florida Statutes. Expunction is like a magic wand that wipes out all traces of a criminal record. Sealing is like using White-Out to redact a criminal record. If you don’t know what White-Out is, feel free to Google it. Some state agencies, mostly law enforcement… Read More »