Some are crediting the presence of ride share companies like Uber and Lyft (also referred to as transportation network companies, or TNCs) with driving down the number of DUI arrests and crashes in Miami. The City of Miami reported Miami DUI arrests dropped by nearly one-third over the last four…
Two years ago, Floridians overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, and since then, more than 1000,000 prescriptions for the drug have been written. And yet, Miami drug crime defense lawyers know arrests for recreational use and possession have been soaring statewide. In Sarasota county, for…
In Florida, sex on the beach is typically understood as a cheeky, sugary cocktail with peach schnapps. It’s romanticized in a classic scene in the 1950s film, “From Here to Eternity.” However, having actual sex on a beach in Florida can land you in handcuffs (and not in a good…
As Florida juvenile defense attorneys, we have seen an increasing number of criminal cases wherein the contents of one’s smartphone have become exceedingly relevant. It’s not just teens who have become reliant on smartphones of course. The Pew Research Center reports 95 percent of Americans own a cellphone of some…
Witness testimony is perhaps one of the most powerful – and fallible – types of evidence presented in a Florida criminal trial. One of the most important jobs of a Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney is not just to examine the potential weakness in that testimony, but also the competency…
If you are arrested on possession of any type of grand theft, the state needs to show at least some evidence you knew the property was stolen, or else evidence you are unable to “satisfactorily explain” why you are in possession of property recently stolen. F.S. 812.022 states there is an…
Plea bargains, as Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys can explain, have rapidly become the standard resolution in most criminal cases, both at the state and federal level. The U.S. Supreme Court estimates more than 9 in 10 federal and state criminal cases are resolved by plea bargain. This rise has…
Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers know that while the appearance of a defendant shouldn’t matter in a criminal trial, it inevitably does. In fact, it’s relatively standard good practice for criminal defense attorneys to initiate some alteration of one’s looks in preparation for trial. Usually, that’s something as simple as…
In a split 4-3 decision, the Florida Supreme Court soundly rejected the Daubert standard of evidence for expert witness testimony – the one used in federal courts and adopted by many state courts, in favor of the less stringent Frye standard, the older method that prior to 2013 had been…
There are many scenarios wherein panicked people “toss the drugs” – when they are being chased by police, when law enforcement is at their door, when they fear they are about to be searched. What we are obliged to inform you as criminal defense attorneys is that if you make…