Florida · State + county defense
Florida criminal-defense references, in one place.
Free, source-linked Florida references for the defense bar, the substantive charge statutes, the Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Evidence Code, the DUI and traffic framework, and the full officer-records trail, each reproduced verbatim from its official source. Pull the officer who testifies, then build the rest of the case around the record.
Charges, procedure & evidence
- Florida criminal statutes
The substantive charge chapters, verbatim catchlines, each linked to the official Florida Legislature text.
- Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure
The rules that run a case, speedy trial, discovery, pretrial motions, pleas, reproduced verbatim, source-linked.
- Florida Rules of Evidence (Chapter 90)
Hearsay, privileges, and impeachment rules, grouped and linked to the official code section by section.
- Florida criminal jury instructions
The Florida Standard Jury Instructions in criminal cases, by chapter, each linked to the official Florida Bar instruction.
- Florida DUI & traffic offenses
The DUI and serious-traffic charge framework with its penalty structure, source-linked.
- Florida breath-test rules (FAC 11D-8)
The Implied Consent Program breath- and blood-test rules, the two-sample 0.020 rule, twenty-minute observation period, and instrument inspection, reproduced verbatim and source-linked.
- Intoxilyzer breath-test operator lookup (pilot)
Search the breath-test operator or arresting officer on your DUI case in the FDLE Intoxilyzer 8000 Subject Test Electronic Data — instrument, agency, test date, last inspection, and any exception flag, verbatim and source-linked.
Officer records
- Officer background check
How to pull a Florida officer's full public record before the suppression hearing.
- Officer disciplinary records
FDLE/CJSTC certification discipline, revocations, suspensions, and accepted relinquishments.
- Police use-of-force records
Where Florida use-of-force and complaint records live, and how to demand them.
- Officer certification statutes
The statutes governing Florida officer certification and decertification.
Records access
- Florida public-records (Chapter 119) requests
The Chapter 119 records-demand path, what to ask for, and which agency to send it to.
Charge statutes
- Florida Battery & Assault Statute
Chapter 784 — assault, battery, and felony battery, source-linked to Florida Legislature.
- Florida Drug Possession & Trafficking Statute
Chapter 893 — controlled-substance schedules, possession, trafficking, and sentencing thresholds.
- Florida Theft & Robbery Statute
Chapter 812 — petit theft, grand theft, robbery, carjacking, and property-value thresholds.
- Florida Homicide & Manslaughter Statute
Chapter 782 — murder degrees, manslaughter, and vehicular homicide, source-linked.
- Florida Sexual Battery Statute
Chapter 794 — sexual battery, penalties, and registration consequences.
- Florida Burglary Statute
Chapter 810 — burglary, trespass, and armed-burglary degrees, source-linked.
- Florida Fleeing & Eluding Statute
§ 316.1935 — fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, degrees and penalties.
Tools
- Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet calculator
Enter the scoresheet factors and see the total sentence points and the lowest permissible sentence, computed verbatim from Fla. Stat. § 921.0024. Free.
- Embed a free tool on your firm's site
Add the officer-discipline lookup or the scoresheet calculator to your own website with one line of HTML. Free, no API key.
Florida data studies
- Florida officer-discipline data
FDLE/CJSTC discipline records across all Florida agencies — revocations, suspensions, and crimen-falsi offenses, searchable by agency.
- Florida sentencing outcomes by county and charge
3.9 million charges analyzed — actual vs. guideline sentences by county, offense type, and demographic, drawn from FDLE CJDT clerk-of-court data.
- Florida felony sentencing scoresheets
How often sentences fall below the guideline floor, by charge and county — FDC scoresheet data, searchable and downloadable.
- Florida case outcomes by type of representation
Descriptive, uncontrolled outcome rates by type of representation (public defender, private, self-represented, court-assigned) and charge — FDLE CJDT clerk-of-court data. Not a quality ranking; selection effects dominate.
- Florida case disposition outcomes by charge and circuit
How often charges are dismissed, diverted, acquitted, or convicted — by charge category and judicial circuit, from FDLE CJDT clerk-of-court data. Descriptive court-disposition rates; not a circuit or office ranking and not a drop-rate prediction.
- Florida adjudication-withheld rates by charge and county
Of the charges a Florida court adjudicated, how often it withheld adjudication instead of entering a conviction — by charge category, county, and offense level, from FDLE CJDT clerk-of-court data. Descriptive rates; not a county leniency ranking and not a prediction.
- The financial cost of a Florida conviction
Recorded court costs, fines, and restitution on Florida charges — the median and 25th-to-75th percentile dollar amounts by charge category and county, from FDLE CJDT clerk-of-court data. Descriptive distributions; not a county-cost ranking and not a prediction of what a defendant will owe.
Start with the officer
Run the officer testifying against your client.
BenchRecon's Officer Lookup searches a Florida officer's FDLE/CJSTC and incident-ledger record free, each row cited to its public source. The $147 brief turns it into a filing-ready, citable deliverable with the records-demand path attached.