Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

Family violence is a serious matter in the state of Florida. In order to combat it, Florida law has established a mechanism for individuals to request a protective order from the court. Here’s what you need to know if you are involved in a protective order in Florida. Basics Florida law establishes four different types of protective order: Dating, domestic, repeat, and sexual. While used in different situations, each of these are geared towards preventing future incidents of violence by ordering an individual not to do some thing or things, which usually involves not contacting the...

Kidnapping is a serious crime in Florida. Although the idea of what constitutes kidnapping may seem fairly straightforward to the lay person, the laws surrounding the crime of kidnapping in Florida carry a degree of nuance that typically requires a competent attorney to unravel. The following is what you need to know about Florida’s laws against kidnapping. Basics In Florida, the state’s statute defines kidnapping as Confining, abducting or imprisoning another person against their will. Further, in order to sustain a conviction of kidnapping in Florida, the act must be Forcibly, secretly, or...

Self defense is a widely-discussed topic in Florida, but it is also not a widely-understood topic. Although people intrinsically understand the moral right to defend one’s self against attack, the legal ramifications are not as intuitive. Affirmative Defense In Florida, self defense is used in court as an affirmative defense. An affirmative defense is an argument used by a defendant to justify his or her act as being necessary despite being against the law. Self defense in Florida is claimed when a defendant is charged with a violent act (assault, battery, homicide, etc.) and wishes to argue...

A person’s rights after an arrest in Florida are an important part of the law that many people are not completely familiar with. What follows is what you need to know about post-arrest rights in Florida. Miranda The rights a person has after arrest in the United States were first distilled by the Supreme Court in the case Miranda v. Arizona. The 1966 decision spelled out to law enforcement that a suspect must be advised of his right against self incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution before they may question him in custody. In the case, the suspect confessed to law...