Fort Myers Legal Issues Blog

There are many factors that are considered by prosecutors when they decide which specific drug law to utilize when filing charges. If an individual was arrested for possession of a narcotic, prosecutors will consider the severity of the drug in question and the arrestee's intent for those narcotics. Possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it will therefore carry the possibility of much harsher penalties than an arrest for simple possession of marijuana.

There are other factors that can cause enhanced drug charges. Distributing, manufacturing or possessing a drug with intent to distribute or manufacture while close to a school, child care business or public housing can result in enhanced penalties. Again, the severity of the drug alleged to be involved will be key in just how severe the potential penalties will be.

No one wants a legal situation to become more complicated than it has to be. Unfortunately, some people who face criminal charges could wind up in more complex predicaments because details about the situation that led to the arrest resulted in enhanced charges.

In particular, it is possible for aggravated DUI charges to come against you if a Florida police officer stops your vehicle and believes that certain factors have made your situation more serious than a standard DUI stop. If you do face aggravated charges, you will undoubtedly want to make sure that you know why authorities believed the enhance charge suited your case.

If you are considering or in the process of ending your marriage, then you know that there are several legal issues that you have to address. Unless you are fortunate enough to end your marriage on amicable and cooperative terms, then a number of these issues can become quite contentious. Amongst them is child support. This financial obligation is meant to ensure that children and their custodial parents have the financial resources needed following a divorce, but it sometimes is either insufficient for the custodial parent or overly burdensome for the noncustodial parent. This is when child support modification may be warranted.

Under Florida law, a child support order can be modified if a parent can show substantial life changes. Usually this involves a noncustodial parent losing his or her job or seeing a decrease in wages. In these circumstances, a court may decrease the amount owed under a child support order so that it is more manageable for the noncustodial parent. This, in turn, may prevent arrearages from building up and deterring the noncustodial parent from making any payments at all. A modification may be warranted under other conditions as well, such as when a child's financial needs become greater because he or she becomes ill or disabled.

Drug charges are serious. Depending on the specifically alleged crimes, an individual can be threatened with jail or prison time, enormous fines, and a criminal record that can affect just about every aspect of his or her life. With so much on the line, those who are accused of drug crimes need to be active in seeking out a competent criminal defense. This is true even if it seems like the evidence stacked against an individual is insurmountable.

This is because sometimes the evidence that is relied upon by prosecutors can be suppressed, meaning that it can't be used against an individual in court. Evidence is most often suppressed when it has been collected subsequent to a Fourth Amendment violation, meaning that there was an illegal search or seizure. While the police are able to obtain a warrant to search an individual's home, car, or property, there are a number of justifications for a warrantless search. This is usually where Fourth Amendment violations occur. Even evidence is gathered subsequent to one of these violations, then all of that evidence, even if otherwise admissible at trial, is deemed inadmissible.