Recent Blog Posts

When Does Florida Charge Minors As Adults?
Teens have heard the warnings that, if they get in trouble with the law, the arrest only stays on their record until age 18, at which point they get a fresh start and that, except in the case of the most serious crimes, such as murder, the worst-case scenario is that you will have… Read More »

Are You Eligible For Drug Court In Palm Beach County?
Evidence that addiction is not something you can punish out of existence is everywhere in South Florida. In 2019, Colton Wooten, who moved to Florida several years earlier to enter an addiction facility, described his experiences with the Florida Shuffle, where people just out of inpatient rehab soon find their way to relapses and… Read More »

Theft Crimes And Defenses To Theft Charges In Florida
Florida Statutes 812.005 defines the crime of theft as taking another person’s money or personal property without the person’s consent. The term larceny is sometimes used as a synonym for theft. Theft is different from burglary, which involves not only taking personal property from the victim’s residence or place of business but also entering… Read More »

HB 95 Introduces New Rules About Fentanyl
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid approximately 100 times as strong as morphine and 50 times as strong as heroin, causes more drug overdose deaths than any other controlled substance. It was originally intended for pain management in cancer patients and in emergency situations where injured patients are being transported to hospitals for treatment. Most of… Read More »

What Are The Different Schedules Of Controlled Substances?
When you read news reports about criminal cases involving drugs, you sometimes see the phrases “illegal drugs” and “controlled substances” used interchangeably. In fact, “controlled substances” just means that the drug is illegal at least some of the time. Some controlled substances are legal in some contexts. The Controlled Substances Act, a federal law… Read More »

Extortion Laws In Florida
Many laws state or imply that the wrong way to do something is by fraud or duress. Fraud means lying or misleading someone so that they do not understand the consequences of what you are trying to get them to do, and duress means intimidating them through threats. For example, the courts will not… Read More »

Florida Aiding And Abetting Laws
There are plenty of ways that someone can be partially responsible for a crime. On the one hand, the difference between drug trafficking and drug possession or between murder and manslaughter can be a matter of interpretation, with the less severe interpretations often applying in the case of a plea deal. On the other… Read More »

Frenchman’s Drug Dealing Empire Collapsed When He Traveled To Miami For Beard Contest
The Internet has always been a place where weirdos go to be weird, often with the help of pseudonyms, but the nature of that weirdness has changed over the years. In the old days, people turned to bulletin board systems and online chat rooms to nerd out with friends in other time zones about… Read More »

Defendant In Sex Offense Case Avoids Prison Time But Loses His Career And Parenting Time
If you are a member of Generation X, you probably remember the words “National Center for Missing and Exploited Children” printed on milk cartons beneath grainy black and white photos of children believed to be at risk for abuse; you probably saw similar pictures, distributed by the same organization, on bulletin boards in supermarkets. … Read More »

Everything You Say On Instagram Can And Will Be Used Against You?
For much of the past decade, the laid-back sounds of summer in South Florida and throughout the Sun Belt were brought to you by lean, also known as sizzurp and purple drank, a candy-colored concoction of promethazine-codeine syrup and everything colorful and sweet you could ever think to mix with it, usually Sprite and… Read More »