Recent Blog Posts
Socioeconomic Class and Criminal Defense Cases
It is not just your imagination that the criminal justice system treats people differently depending on their background. Jurors are more likely to look at a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks who got charged with reckless driving and drug possession as a lowlife who was fortunate enough to get caught before… Read More »
Classical Rhetoric in Florida Criminal Defense Cases
Math and science nerds may get bullied, but humanities nerds are at the bottom of the social ladder in high school. When your criminal defense lawyer was in high school, the math and science nerds taunted her about the fact that they would get careers where they could make so much money that they… Read More »
What Happens If You Are Connected to Someone Else’s Drug Overdose?
Draconian laws breed fear, fear breeds paranoia, and paranoia breeds misinformation. Add to this the short attention span video format, the Tik Toks and YouTube Shorts of the world, where there is never room for half of a truth, and it is easy to understand why everyone is confused about what happens when you… Read More »
Financial Crime or Business as Usual?
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. When you think about it carefully enough, most careers involve moral gray areas. Even if you have the best of intentions, you are working within a corrupt system. You go into the medical profession because you want to heal the sick, but you end up enriching… Read More »
When Do You Have to Tell Police Your Name?
In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the protagonist spends his days and nights wandering the streets of the city where he lives, regretting a missed opportunity when he could have spoken, but instead, he chose to remain silent, and now he holds onto a faint hope that the opportunity will… Read More »
What To Know About Medetomidine
The goals of recreational drug use tend to fall into several categories. Some people seek out stimulant drugs that enable them to stay awake for the excitement and experience the sights and sounds of the night for acutely. Others look for drugs that will numb their physical or emotional pain and calm their anxiety. … Read More »
Floridians Indicted in Houston Pill Mill Conspiracy Case
Today, feeling burnt out on sensationalized news is a national epidemic. In the old days, though, interesting news stories were something to look forward to, and if there was anywhere that you could be sure to find them, it was Florida. Visitors from out of state who sat down to breakfast at a diner… Read More »
Credit Card BIN Attacks
Artificial intelligence is enjoying its moment as the villain of the week, and an increasing number of people find it plausible to attribute emotions such as enjoyment to artificial intelligence. A few decades ago, the thought of robots making decisions that would cast individual human beings, or even humankind in general, into peril was… Read More »
What to Make of the Good News About Fentanyl?
Florida is the land of many scary things, but one would be hard pressed to find something scarier than fentanyl. Alligators are scary, until you consider the American crocodiles at the far end of Miami-Dade County, plus the introduced species, such as the Nile monitor lizards that can grow to alligator length, swim like… Read More »
When Does the Criminal Justice System Give You a Chance to Learn From Your Mistakes?
Everyone makes mistakes, but how closely your mistakes follow you around, and for how long depends on who you are. The consequences of an arrest or a criminal case are one of the many ways that it is expensive to be poor. If you belong to the 99 percent and cannot afford to hire… Read More »
Is Getting Catfished a Crime?
The bad news is that the Internet, with its anonymity and its hyperreality, brings out the worst in everyone. The good news is that almost nothing on the Internet is real. Every time you go to YouTube or Tik Tok to relax for a few minutes after a stressful phone call with a family… Read More »
What Are Nebbia Holds?
If you ever want to distract your elders from giving you unsolicited advice, ask them about the old days and how much simpler life was, specifically, how much less everything cost, and the stories will flow. In the 80s, a box of Lemon Head candies cost 25 cents at any gas station, and a… Read More »
Weapons Charges in the Age of Permitless Carry
If movies like Scarface and the Bad Boys franchise give the impression that everyone in Florida has a gun with them at all times, the news media do not do much to dispel this stereotype. From murders to people brandishing weapons just because they can to traffic stops where the vehicle is full of… Read More »
Failure to Appear in Court
People in their 40s and older have a vague memory of a Disney cartoon where Donald Duck’s nephews skip school and a police officer follows them around, trying to arrest them. In most cases, being absent from school or work will not get you arrested, although it can have plenty of other negative consequences. … Read More »
The Hope Card Program and Florida Domestic Violence Cases
Florida enacted several new laws in 2024, with the goal of preventing domestic violence, and specifically, with the goal of preventing violence-plagued relationships from escalating to the point of serious injury or death. These new laws require additional procedures by the courts and by law enforcement when police respond to domestic violence calls or… Read More »
Smartphones and the Fourth Amendment
The biggest tattletale in your second-grade class made sure that the teacher and all the students knew if anyone cheated at a game, picked their nose, or cut in front of someone else while waiting in line. The Internet-enabled device in your pocket, the one that you take with you everywhere, is an exponentially… Read More »
Can I Get In Trouble For Possession Of Gabapentin?
It was a normal Florida afternoon. David was driving his Ford truck, with his friend Nova in the passenger seat; the two had been helping Nova’s grandmother move to a new apartment. The police pulled them over because the truck had expired tags and, this being a Florida story, one thing led to another,… Read More »
What Is Habeas Corpus?
On the first day of class, teachers of introductory level Latin classes often ask the students why they chose to study Latin, given that it is no one’s native language, and people alive today who can converse in Latin are few. Almost any conversation that two Latin speakers might have could be more easily… Read More »
How Much Freedom Do You Get When You Are Out on Bail?
Things can easily go from bad to worse at a traffic stop. One minute you are taking in the familiar comforts of South Florida road rage, and the next minute, a police officer has pulled you over and is making all kinds of excuses that innocent things in your car or in your past… Read More »
Traffic Stop Do’s and Don’ts
Most people are at their worst when they are inside motor vehicles. You probably know someone whose vocabulary goes from church lady to shock jock the minute she backs out of her driveway. Even the most mild-mannered people become rage monsters or nervous wrecks when faced with South Florida traffic. It provokes almost everyone’s… Read More »
