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If you’re being investigated, accused, or even charged with a criminal offense, then you have to be careful not to interfere with any stage of the legal process. This prohibition on conduct includes interfering with witnesses, victims, and informants.

Mandatory minimum sentences have been widely criticized by the media in Florida and throughout the United States, particularly as the adoption of marijuana legalization and a softening approach to drug enforcement has increasingly become a topic of serious conversation. In fact, many activists view criminal justice reform as fundamentally linked to mandatory minimums.

If you’ve been charged with a DUI in Florida after being pulled over by an officer, then you may be able to secure a dismissal of the DUI case on the basis that the officer lacked “reasonable suspicion” to initiate a traffic stop.

In television shows and movies centered around the practice of criminal law, the victim’s choice of whether to press charges is portrayed as a matter of fundamental significance. Reality is quite a bit different. Though the victim’s decision not to press charges could be quite beneficial for a criminal defendant, it is not the end-all-be-all that it is so often construed to be in media portrayals.

In Florida, and elsewhere in the United States, the battle over what evidence is admissible and inadmissible is central to the vast majority of criminal disputes. Though — thanks to the popularity of police procedural shows and court dramas — many criminal defendants are at least vaguely aware that their statements can be used against them in a court of law, the complexities are not well understood by those who lack legal training.

Though probation can be quite difficult — particularly in situations where the probate court imposed excessive, unreasonable, and otherwise unjustified probationary conditions that limit your freedoms — it’s certainly better than a term of imprisonment.

When many people think of drug violations, they generally think of the more obvious criminal charges — possession of illegal substances, drug trafficking, drug use, and others. Many fail to properly consider (or simply forget about) the possession of drug paraphernalia.

The Fowler Law Group has been featured on Forbes.com about how we ensure the best possible outcome to our clients’ cases by creating systems within our organization. In the article, attorney James Fowler shares what he does that allows him to focus on being the best lawyer he can be for his clients.

He was just fourteen years old – housed at a juvenile detention facility for injuring another child with a soda can during an altercation. He was due to be released in just a few short weeks – and looked forward to meeting the new puppy his grandmother had waiting for him. Tragically, however, the child never made it home and was found dead in his cell following three consecutive days complaining of agonizing, debilitating pain.

In Florida, criminal defendants may be able to exclude damaging evidence from being introduced on the basis of an evidentiary privilege.  One privilege that often applies to Florida criminal defendants is the psychotherapist-patient privilege.