Your first court date is called the arraignment, at which the Court will accept a plea of guilty, not guilty, or no contest. A plea of guilty admits commission of the crime. A plea of no contest, like a plea of guilty, indicates to the Court that you do not wish to contest the charges against you. A plea of not guilty denies the accusations and demands that the matter be set for a trial at which the government carries the burden of proving its case against you. Should you decide to enter a plea of Guilty or No Contest at the arraignment, the Court will make you aware of the very important Constitutional Rights which you are giving up in doing so. In all criminal cases, the State has the obligation to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You do not have to prove your innocence. Entry of a plea other than Not Guilty, relieves the State of their burden to prove your guilt. Entry of a plea of guilty or no contest sacrifices the very important rights you have to explain your side of the story regarding criminal charges filed against you. Once your plea has been entered, the Court is free to impose a sentence at its own discretion.

Hiring an attorney prior to the arraignment will eliminate your need to appear at the arraignment. Your attorney can file a Written Plea of Not Guilty, Notice of Appearance as your attorney and Waiver of your Appearance at the arraignment.

The offense of assault, a second degree misdemeanor, is often times confused with battery.  An assault is defined by Florida Law as putting another in fear by word or act of impending violence.  Thus, one can be charged with either assault or battery or both together. If an assault is committed against a law enforcement officer, with a deadly weapon, or with the intent to commit a felony, the crime is that of Aggravated Assault, a felony.  Certain minimum mandatory punishments may apply.

The crime of Battery may be defined as either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending upon the special circumstances surrounding your arrest. A so-called "simple battery" as defined by Florida Law is an actual and intentional touching of another person against their will which may result in injury. A simple battery is a misdemeanor of the first degree, meaning that it is punishable by up to one year in the County Jail, or one year probation, and up to $1,000.00 fine. If you have previously been convicted of battery two or more times before, or great bodily harm results from the battery, you may be charged with the crime of "felony battery". As a felony, the Court may sentence you up to five years in prison, or five years probation, and up to a $5,000.00 fine. You may also be required to pay the victim's medical bills and lost wages resulting directly or indirectly from the battery. Certain aggravating circumstances surrounding the battery may increase the degree of the offense to felony aggravated battery and therefore enhance the penalties you may face. These aggravating circumstances include battery on a pregnant woman, battery on a law enforcement officer, battery on a senior citizen, battery resulting in permanent disability or disfigurement, or battery with a deadly weapon or an automobile.  Upon conviction under these situations, the charge could subject you to minimum mandatory sentencing.

After being arrested, you have a right to be taken before a judge, who will advise you of your charges and your bail amount, if any. Your bail may be set by the Court in an amount to ensure that you will return for all court appearances and to ensure that you are not a danger to commit any new crimes while released pending the resolution of your case. In setting the amount of bail, the Court may consider the seriousness of the crime with which you have been charged, any prior criminal record that you have, your community ties, and financial resources. Should the bail amount be too large to permit you or a friend or relative to post bail, your attorney may be able to ask the Court on your behalf to reduce the amount of the bail if it appears excessive and may ask for other terms and conditions of your release, including, but not limited to, release on your own recognizance (your promise to return), pretrial release (which will require you to check in with the Court on a weekly basis), or home confinement (restricting your freedom to home and work until your case is resolved). If you cannot afford to post bail in cash, a bondsman can post a bail bond for you, generally upon payment of 10% of the bond (non-refundable) together with collateral to be held by the bondsman and returned to you upon successful completion of your criminal case.

Florida Law has created a special classification for batteries which are committed by family members against one another. This special classification creates additional mandatory penalties which may be imposed by the Court upon conviction. In the case of "domestic violence battery", law enforcement will oftentimes arrest an individual and charge them with domestic violence notwithstanding the victim's desire that the prosecution not go forward. This may be in large part because of law enforcement's belief that a victim of domestic violence may be incapable or unwilling to press charges for fear of retaliation. Consequently, an important part of the handling of a domestic violence case requires that the victim's desires regarding prosecution be made well known to the State. In cases of domestic violence, the Judge may (and generally will) impose restrictions upon a person charged before permitting their release from jail. These may include, but are not limited to, no return to the family home, no direct or indirect contact with the family members, and/or the imposition of home confinement and electronic monitoring by the Department of Corrections.

Civil Injunctions:
A person who feels that they are a victim of domestic violence, may obtain an injunction from the court upon a showing that he/she is in reasonable fear of imminent physical violence or threat of physical violence by another. Such an injunction is civil in nature and yet may have criminal implications. A Petitioner is the person who seeks the injunction. A Respondent is one against whom an injunction is sought. An injunction will generally be issued upon the showing to a civil judge that there is a great likelihood of continuing physical harm or threat of physical harm. The typical domestic violence injunction requires that the Respondent have no contact, directly or indirectly, with the Petitioner. Upon an allegations that the Respondent has violated the injunction, the Respondent may be charged criminally. As in all cases, the State would have the affirmative burden to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that both an injunction against domestic or repeat violence was in place against the Respondent and that the Respondent willfully violated the terms or conditions of the injunction. In extreme cases of direct violation of the injunction and/or a continuing pattern of violations, the State may charge the Respondent with the felony of Aggravated Stalking. Aggravated Stalking is a felony.

Possession - If you have been charged with the possession of a controlled substance under Florida Statutes, the State must prove not only that the substance was one of the enumerated substances controlled by Florida Law, but also that you were in possession of the substances at the time of your arrest. The State can prove possession in one of two ways.  First, the controlled substance may be in your actual possession having been found on  your person, in your hand, in your pocket, or in a purse or backpack attached to your body.  For obvious reasons, actual possession of controlled substances is a much easier for the State to prove. Alternatively, the State may attempt to prove your possession of a controlled substance which was in a vehicle in which you were a passenger, a house which you may have shared with others, or in a public location in your vicinity. Merely being close to suspected drugs is not sufficient to meet the State's obligation to prove constructive possession.

Penalties - Many drug offenses carry minimum mandatory criminal penalties.  Also, convictions of any enumerated drug offense may result in a suspension of your driving privilege for up to two (2) years. Penalties for various drug offenses may range from misdemeanor sentences for possession of a small amount (less than 20 grams) of marijuana or drug paraphernalia (pipes, bags, papers, razor blades, or soda cans) used in the consumption of drugs, to felony convictions for possession of large quantities of drugs, possession of prescription or otherwise regulated drugs or the sale/delivery of drugs.

The offense of Driving Under the Influence (DUI), like any other criminal charge, requires the State to prove your guilt beyond all reasonable doubt.  Ultimately, you are entitled to have the issue of whether you operated a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs or alcohol submitted to a jury for their consideration.  It is not necessary that you prove anything.  Rather, the burden rests with the State to prove that you were: Driving or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle on the roadways of the state of Florida; and that you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs; and your normal faculties (defined as the ability to walk, talk, judge distances, act in emergencies, or carry out the normal activities of every day life) were impaired.
 
The State can meet its burden of proving the offense of DUI in one of two ways. First, you may have submitted to an approved test of your blood alcohol level either through having blood drawn or submitting to an intoxilyzer (breath) test.  If the State can be establish that your blood alcohol level was above the legal limit (.08 percent) at the time that your were operating or in actual physical control of a vehicle, the State will have met its burden that you were operating a vehicle with an unlawful blood alcohol level (UBAL).  Although your blood alcohol level as measured by blood or breath may be above the legal limit (.08 percent), the admissibility of this test result or its significance may be challenged in court.  In some circumstances, the reliability of the State's evidence of blood alcohol may be suppressed.  In such cases, at the trial of your DUI, the jury would not be made aware of any test results showing your blood alcohol level. Other evidence collected from you at the scene may include observations made by the officer of your demeanor, physical condition, condition of your eyes, the odor of alcohol about you,  your ability to walk or stand, your reliance upon other objects for support, and/or your performance on standardized field sobriety tests.  In most jurisdictions, your submission to or refusal to submit to a breath test may be video taped at the breath testing facility or county jail.  A copy of the video tape of your performance must be produced by the State. Second, should the State be unable to, or elect not to, proceed under the theory of unlawful blood alcohol level (UBAL) discussed above, the State may also prove the case of DUI against you by proving that, notwithstanding the absence of evidence of blood alcohol level, that you operated a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol to the extent that your normal faculties were impaired.  At trial, under this impairment theory, the State may elect to produce evidence as to your physical condition, your demeanor at the roadside, performance on standardized field sobriety tests, and/or statements which you made at the time of your stop and arrest.

Challenges to the State's evidence of your impairment may take the form of 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 or reaching a favorable negotiated plea.

Florida Statute requires that, upon conviction for a first DUI, the Court shall impose the following minimum sentence: Adjudication of guilt (conviction); One year supervised probation; $250.00 fine plus court costs; 50 hours of community service; Attendance and completion of the DUI Counter-Attack School; Attendance and completion of the Victim Awareness Program; Six (6) months to one (1) year driver's license revocation; and Impoundment of your vehicle.

DUI is one of several enhancable offenses under the laws of the state of Florida.  This means that a second or subsequent conviction of DUI, the Court must impose other mandatory minimum sentences including jail sentences, multiple year driver's license revocations, increased fines, and attendance and completion of advanced DUI schools and alcohol counseling. Despite the minimum mandatory sentencing requirements, the judge in your particular case is free to impose greater punishments based upon aggravating circumstances including, but not limited to, presence of a child in the vehicle, commission of any additional traffic violations at the time of the charge of DUI, damage to property, injury to persons, lack of cooperation with law enforcement, and/or elevated blood alcohol levels. In place of proceeding to trial, many DUI charges are resolved through plea negotiations.  In cases where the State may have difficulty obtaining a conviction of the offense of DUI, the State may agree to amend your charge of DUI to that of Willful and Wanton Reckless Driving.  Under the charge of Reckless Driving, there are no minimum mandatory sentencing requirements. Prior to going to court on your DUI, it is of the utmost importance that you discuss the resolution of your DUI charge with a qualified attorney with experience in the handling of alcohol related driving cases.

Should you fail to complete the requirements of your probation or commit a new law violation while on probation, your probation officer may file with the Court a violation of probation report. Such a report may result in the judge issuing a warrant for violation of probation (VOP). A violation of probation acts as a new crime for which you can be arrested and held without bond.

Should circumstances arise following your sentencing which create a hardship or impossibility to complete the sentence, you may ask the court to modify your sentence, so long as this request is made to the court in writing within sixty days of entry of the sentence.

The crime of theft as defined by Florida Statutes is the taking or attempting to take the property of another with the intent to deprive the owner of the value of the property.  Since the definition of theft also includes the attempt to commit the theft, you may be charged with theft even though you were interrupted prior to the completion of the theft or you changed your mind before completing the theft.

Criminal Penalties
If the value of the item(s) taken is less than $150.00, the theft is a second degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months probation, sixty days in jail, or a $500.00 fine. If the value of the property taken or attempted to be taken is between $150.00 and $300.00, the offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree punishable by up to one year in jail, one year probation, or a $1,000.00 fine. Theft of items valued at less than $300.00 is considered Petit Theft. Petit Theft is one of the several enumerated crimes under Florida Law which is enhancable. That is, upon successive convictions for petit theft, one can be charged with a third degree felony based upon the prior convictions. A third degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison, five years of probation, or a $5,000.00 fine. If the value of the property taken or attempted to be taken is greater than $300.00, but less than $20,000.00, the charge would also be a third degree felony punishable as outlined above. Should the value of the items taken exceed $20,000.00, the charge would be a second degree felony punishable by up to fifteen years in prison, fifteen years probation, or a $15,000.00 fine.

Civil Penalties
In addition to the criminal charge, retailers and merchants will generally make a demand for civil restitution in a letter shortly after the arrest. This letter is generally a form which indicates that the recipient has been charged with the offense of retail theft and that pursuant to Florida Statute, he/she is obligated to pay $200.00 or three times the value of the property taken whichever is greater. In most cases upon being arrested for retail theft, the items attempted to be taken are recovered and the store is not damaged in any way. Nevertheless, many stores have learned that they may make additional money from people charged with theft by making this demand for payment. Even though the statute does permit the store the sue you for committing a civil theft, it is more likely than not that this letter constitutes nothing more than an idle threat and will not be followed by a civil suit.

The police often will stop drivers for violations of the law which are not as serious as criminal traffic offenses, but which may result in the driver being assessed points, paying fines and costs, being required to attend driving school and/or suspending driving privileges. Receipt of 12 points within 12 months or 18 points within 18 months will result in a lengthy license suspension. Examples of non-criminal traffic offenses include, but are not limited to, Unlawful Speed, Failure to Maintain a Single lane, Violation of Right of Way, Careless Driving, Expired Tag and Driving While License Suspended or Revoked Without Knowledge. Failure to correctly address these non criminal offenses may lead to increased insurance rates, loss of CDL and even a driver’s license suspension and if not resolved in a timely matter may result in criminal charges. Every driver charged with a traffic infraction may elect to attend school or pay the ticket with the points assessed, but is also entitled to a hearing if requested in writing within 30 days of the offense. At the hearing, the police officer who issued the citation and any other drivers involved must appear for the citation to be proven. The hiring of an attorney will increase the likelihood of prevailing at the hearing or minimizing the damage done to your driving record.