What Types Of Criminal Cases Do You Generally Handle?

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We handle active murder cases all the way down to traffic tickets—anything for which you have contact with the police or the sheriff’s office for, we handle. I handle cases prior to the state filing charges, and I also handle cases after convictions. We literally take care of the cases from trial all the way through the appeal, or even a 3850, which is a motion for ineffectiveness of counsel. If there’s another attorney who hasn’t done a good job, we can take a look at the case, go back and re-open it. However, the bread and butter of our practice are DUIs.

What Are The Top Misconceptions That People Have About Being Arrested For A Crime?

When people come in, normally they’ll feel as if there is a preordained outcome. They think that the courthouse works with a very specific formula, meaning that I am 30 years old, and I have been in trouble only once before, this is what I have done, and there is a very common outcome. That’s a really wrong set of ideas because the results vary widely. It can even vary from day to day. You go in on a Monday and you get one result, you go in on a Friday you get a completely different result. It’s a big deal as who you are and what’s going on, but it also matters who is representing you, who is prosecuting you, and whom your judge is, so there is no set outcome.

I meet with a lot of people who think that this is what they’ve done, and this is what’s going to happen. There isn’t a set formula. Because of the human factor of what goes on in the courthouse and all the players involved, the results vary widely.

How Do People Unintentionally Incriminate Themselves In A Criminal Case?

The most common way people unintentionally incriminate themselves is that everybody wants to explain what happened, and they just start talking. They’ll have contact with the law enforcement, they’ll have contact with other individuals, and they want to explain it. Most of the time, others are listening to your explanation, trying to find something incriminating. So you could say 99.9% things good for you, but that 0.1% could be taken out the context, and that is all they’re going to hear. So when you are actually talking to someone, or you are actually dealing with your case, most of the time the best thing to do is to say nothing. The one great thing about criminal law is that you don’t have to say or do anything until they’ve provided you with their entire case. We get to pick it apart, and then we get to sit down and actually decide what’s good and bad about their facts for us. We decide what our best version of events is, and then we get to respond. Oftentimes the toughest cases are those where someone just talked too much initially.

How And When Do Miranda Rights Come Into Play In A Criminal Case?

There is an urban myth that if they don’t read your Miranda Rights, your case gets thrown out. There are actually some movies that are out, where this is the basic premise—that they didn’t read the Miranda, and the case run away. It’s nothing like this. Miranda has to do with the law enforcement’s specific questions and your specific answers to those questions. In other words, it needed to be a response or an action that you did, in response to them asking you something. For example, the police were to come to your house and ask you, “Did you kill your wife,” and you say, “Yes, I killed her. I couldn’t stand her anymore, I’ve had enough.” Without them reading you Miranda and then asking you that specific question that was meant to incriminate you, that question will not come into evidence.

But if you bust into the front door of the sheriff’s office and say, “I killed my wife. I couldn’t stand her anymore, I was over it,” it would come into evidence that they didn’t elicit that from you, they didn’t question you about it, and there wouldn’t be a requirement for Miranda. If you just start talking, and they’re not asking you the questions, Miranda is not required. They can just ask you anything. Once they start eliciting things from you, they are required to warn you that this can be used against you. But if you just want to talk and give them things, they are not required to do so, and most likely they are happy to listen.

What Are The Differences Between Misdemeanor And Felony Charges?

A misdemeanor is, by definition, anything punishable up to a year in the county jail; a felony is anything punishable up to a year in jail. The biggest difference about being charged with the felony is if you are convicted. A conviction means adjudication—if they adjudicate you guilty of a felony, you become a convicted felon. You lose your right to vote, your right to firearms, you have to register as a convicted felon. There’s much more at stake in a felony case, not only in terms of your exposure to penalties but also the long-reaching penalties as far as socially disenfranchising you from being able to do what a normal citizen could do.

For more information on Criminal Offenses In Florida, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (239) 263-4384 today.