How Will My Charges Be Resolved?

Plea - An initial plea of not guilty entered at the arraignment can later be replaced by a no contest plea after your attorney has had the opportunity to make the Court and the State Prosecutor know about your side of the events which have resulted in the charges you are facing. A plea of no contest neither admits nor denies the charge and indicates to the Court that you feel that the agreed upon sentence is in your best interest. It is preferable that, in return to your plea of guilty or no contest, your attorney has previously arranged for an appropriate punishment, or sentence, with which you are in agreement. At no time should you agree to enter a plea of guilty or no contest without first being completely aware of the conditions of your sentence. 

Pretrial Motions - Before deciding whether to enter a plea or proceed to trial, your attorney can review the State's case, including witness statements, charging affidavits, audio and video tapes, and physical evidence, in an effort to determine whether any of your constitutional rights have been violated in collecting evidence against you. Your attorney may then ask the Court to consider whether evidence collected against you in violation of your rights should be suppressed or kept from the jury hearing your case. In some instances, should evidence crucial to the State's case against you be suppressed, your case may be dismissed by the Court or dropped by the prosecutor. Short of that, pretrial motions may decrease the strength of the State's case and improve your likelihood of winning at trial.

Diversion - Depending upon your criminal history and the nature and extent of your charges, you may qualify for one of several pretrial diversion programs. Not unlike probation, these programs may require a term of supervision during which you may have to complete voluntary work hours or attend classes or evaluations. At the completion of the required sanctions, the State will then dismiss all charges against you. Should you fail to complete the requirements of the program, your case will be sent back to the Court. Unlike a violation of probation, however, after being rejected from a diversion program, you will retain almost all of your pretrial rights to have the State prove its case against you.

Trial - If you are charged with a misdemeanor in the State of Florida, the State must bring you to trial within ninety days of your arrest. If your charge is a felony, your trial must commence within one hundred seventy-five days of your arrest. As the State carries the rather substantial burden of proving your guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, you may ultimately elect to have your case heard by the Judge or a jury composed of your peers. At trial, the State would be obligated to put forth witnesses against you. Your attorney can bring the credibility of their statements into question through cross-examination. You will also be given the opportunity to testify on your own behalf or remain silent.

Sentencing - Depending upon the nature and degree of the crime with which you have been charged, the Court has many sentencing options available. These include, but are not limited to, probation, community control (house arrest), jail, work release or prison. Probationary sanctions can include community service (volunteer work) hours, fines, court costs, self-improvement classes and substance abuse and/or psychological evaluations and treatment.