Defenses to Crimes

Criminal Law 101

There are many defenses to crimes out there.  There are things you may want to say or communicate to the prosecutor – then again, there are probably things you prefer they not know about.  Maybe it was something that happened during the police encounter?  Either way, it is critical to do the simple act of calling a qualified attorney to represent you.  It’s free after all!  Consultations do not cost you anything with our firm.

Many lawyers will tell you that you have to go to trial to asset these defenses.  That is simply untrue.  You can file a motion to suppress or a motion to dismiss or a stand your ground motion (aka immunity motion) well in advance of trial and avoid the stress of pushing your case to trial.  Trial should be a last resort.  Why put yourself through all that stress when you can simply have a pretrial motion?  Another benefit of filing motions (along with defense witness lists) is that the filing itself signals to the prosecutor that you mean business.  Often times, I will get a much better offer on my cases after I file a motion or defense witness list.

But if you do need to go to trial, we will be ready to go with you.  At trial, judges must inform the jury of these defenses, which can be found in the list below.  In addition to your theory of defense, there are several standard defenses available to anyone charged with a crime in Florida.  Call us to discuss those defenses more.

An experienced attorney should know to assert these defenses in your case at the appropriate time. Strategically, it might be in your best interests to assert a defense early on. Other times, that might not be the case. Attorneys can file motions to dismiss based on these defenses far in advance of trial. Alternatively, whether the defense exists can be left up to the jury to decide (in which case, the Judge will have to read for them the appropriate jury instruction).