More than 2.2 million Americans are currently in prison or jail, and more than 155,000 of those individuals are imprisoned in the state of Florida. Despite the fact Florida’s crime rate is falling, the incarceration rate remains too high as the prison system struggles with the rising annual costs of prison operation. As with so…
Failing to understand the importance of bankruptcy petition may cost you the right to appeal in state court. This is the takeaway lesson of the case of Hewett v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as Trustee, No. 2D15–1074, 2016 WL 3065014 (Fla. 2d DCA June 1, 2016, which reminds Floridians of the need to work with a…
Florida’s controversial death-penalty law managed to survive a recent appeal to a Florida appeals panel. The panel reversed a lower court ruling, allowing the state’s pending prosecution of death penalty cases to continue after a new sentencing law went into effect in April of 2016. The state of Florida brought this consolidated case to the…
Florida law prevents people suspected of drunken driving from refusing to take a blood-alcohol test. While Florida and at least a dozen states overall make such a refusal a crime, the Supreme Court has recently expressed its doubts on the constitutionality of these laws. Supreme Court justices heard arguments in April of 2016 that challenged…
Every 36 hours, someone in the state of Florida dies because of a distracted driver. In 2015, Florida suffered from 45,700 distracted driving crashes in the state. According to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, this figure translates into 125 distracted driving crashes per day at a rate of more than five crashes…
Following bankruptcy cases and legal developments is an important way to determine the outcome of future cases in Florida. In legal language, the term for previous court cases affecting future rulings is known as “precedent.” While courts are not required to use the reasoning of prior court cases to rule on the current case, courts…
The reality of synthetic drugs is that, all too often, lawmakers and law enforcement are a step slow on making a substance illegal. Just as soon as one substance is outlawed, the chemistry of a synthetic drug would be tweaked in such a way that a new drug must then be added to Florida’s list…
If laws are meant to serve as a deterrent force with penalties severe enough to prevent unlawful behavior, then Florida’s drinking and driving laws are failing. This, at least, is the opinion of various detectives and grieving Floridians who have been negatively affected by the harms of drunk driving. Despite Florida’s active police presence and…
In the spring of 2014, Florida’s legalization of medical marijuana came just shy of the 60% threshold needed to become a legal reality. Still, with 58% of Floridians supporting the constitutional amendment, the 60% benchmark was just out of reach. In the years since, incremental steps have been taken to inch Florida closer to the…
When society contemplates how to reduce instances of drinking and driving, the focus is placed on the individual doing the drinking and their surrounding support group. As such, it is easy to forget that law enforcement personnel play a key role in reducing the damage of a DUI by arresting suspects in a more timely…
