There are tens of thousands of Floridians currently under community control – also known as probation – following conviction for a crime. The standard terms of this control usually involve some type of regular meeting with a probation officer, no contact order with the victim, potentially a restitution order, routine…
The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled all Florida juveniles convicted of homicide and sentenced automatically to life imprisonment must now be resentenced under a new law passed last year. The ruling addresses the issue of retroactivity for Miller v. Alabama, which was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred life…
There is a popular, viral meme that states something to the effect: “A good friend will bail you out of jail. A best friend will be sitting next to you in the cell.” It’s intended to elicit a chuckle, but the reality is, helping a friend or family member commit…
Tis the season for giving – and also for taking. Theft in its various forms inevitably spikes during the holidays, when more opportunities present themselves. From retail theft to package theft to identify theft – there is always more of it in December and January. Law enforcement agencies have responded…
The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that real-time cellular phone site data is protected under Fourth Amendment privacy provisions. That means if officers don’t have a warrant to track your cell phone signal in real time, they can’t legally do it. This clarifies privacy protections that were previously in question,…
Defendants can face theft and dealing in stolen property charges in connection with the same incident. However, Florida Statute 812.025 only allow defendants to be convicted of one of those two charges, when the alleged offenses are committed in connection with a single scheme or course of conduct. However, appellate…
A defendant convicted of multiple drug charges in Fort Lauderdale has had that conviction reversed, and the case remanded for retrial, on the grounds that prejudicial evidence was admitted into in error. Further, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal found the trial court erred in a number of rulings that…
Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal recently found in Romanyuk v. Florida that a trial court wrongly denied jury instructions requested by the defense in a prescription drug criminal case. The case resulted in a conviction, which per the new ruling is now reversed. Our Broward criminal defense lawyers see…
Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers have long known that eyewitness identifications in criminal cases are fraught with all kinds of potential problems. Setting aside those who have motivation to lie, memory errors are a major issue when someone’s reputation and future is at stake. Extensive research by legal and psychology…
When a traffic stop is predicated on illegal pretenses, everything police discover as a result becomes void and barred from the courtroom. This is the basis for the “fruit of the poisonous tree” legal doctrine, and our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers know that it is intended not only to…