Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Frequently Asked Questions About Depositions In Florida Criminal Cases
All defendants in criminal cases have the right to due process of law, which means that the state and all other parties involved in the case must follow the legal procedures correctly. Unless the defendant quickly decides to plead guilty, then there is a pretrial discovery phase where both the prosecution and the defense… Read More »
Florida Just Got Less 420 Friendly
How 420 friendly is Florida? It depends who you ask, and to some extent, it depends on the day. If you walk along the beach in Tampa, you will probably find at least one person who has smoked a joint on the very same beach every day since the 1980s and has never faced… Read More »
How Soon Should A Criminal Trial Begin?
Time flies when you’re having fun, but it inches along at a snail’s pace when you are sitting in a jail cell. While serving a prison sentence is such an unpleasant experience that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that you have the right to have a professional attorney help you avoid it even… Read More »
Trying To Hide Your Drugs At The Last Minute Is Much Worse Than Letting The Police Find Them
It is entirely possible that the police will search your car even if you do not consent to the search. It is also possible that they know that they are violating your rights, but they think that they can get away with it, because they assume that you will be among the 94 percent… Read More »
What Determines Whether A Criminal Case Goes To Federal Court?
If you read the news carefully, you might have noticed that some people convicted of crimes serve sentences in federal prison, while others serve sentences in state prison. (Of course, there are plenty of cases where a conviction results in a sentence that does not involve prison, but those cases are less likely to… Read More »
Florida Classifies Nitazenes As Schedule I Controlled Substances
You can get criminal charges for illegal possession, sale, or manufacture of drugs on any of the five schedules of the federal Controlled Substances Act or any of the drugs that Florida law includes on any of the five schedules, but Schedule I controlled substances take illegality to a whole new level. The drugs… Read More »
Can You Get Criminal Charges For Breach Of Fiduciary Duty?
It is possible to steal money from a stranger’s wallet if you can manage to do so without the stranger noticing you, and with enough hacking knowledge, you can break into a computer’s hard drive and steal credit card numbers, but any financial crime that is more complex than simple theft involves a pre-existing… Read More »
Not All Fake Documents Are Forgery
Fake isn’t always bad. How many extraverts have cultivated their social confidence by adopting a “fake it ‘til you make it” strategy; fake sociability can get you through a social occasion as easily as real sociability. Likewise, imitations of expensive consumer products are often just as good as the real thing; “my jewelry is… Read More »
Is It A Crime To Make A Secret Recording Of A Phone Conversation?
People who have grown up in the Internet Age are used to the fact that, whenever they go out in public, someone might be recording with a cell phone camera. For all you know, you might be an extra in someone’s homemade film if you happened to walk by within the camera’s view while… Read More »
Your Rights Under The Sixth Amendment
Every provocateur, if challenged, will invoke the First Amendment, and you can find bumper stickers alluding to the Second Amendment on cars on almost every road and in almost every parking lot in Florida, but then there are the Constitutional amendments that people usually do not think about unless they are facing criminal charges. … Read More »