Safir Injury & Criminal Defense Law, PLLC

10/09/2026

How fast was the car going? A detective answered with internet vehicle weights, Google Maps and a protractor, and a Florida appeals court just reversed two convictions over it.

This week’s caselaw edition of Reasonably Safir walks a week of Florida appeals court decisions case by case, with a deep dive on when a police officer’s opinion turns into expert testimony.

New caselaw episode every week. Link in bio, or search Reasonably Safir wherever you listen.

10/08/2026

A 911 caller describes someone. Police find a person who matches. Is that enough to stop him?

This week’s caselaw edition of Reasonably Safir walks a week of Florida appeals court decisions case by case: a man walking his snakes (yes lol), acquitted of resisting a stop the deputies never had grounds to make, a hot-car conviction reversed, and a deep dive on when a 911 call justifies a traffic stop.

New caselaw episode every week. Link in bio, or search Reasonably Safir wherever you listen.

10/06/2026

Resisting without violence in Florida only covers an officer “in the lawful ex*****on of any legal duty.” That means the stop itself is part of what the State has to prove. And Florida doesn’t ban windshield tint. The law allows a transparent strip along the top, above the line where the driver’s forward view begins. The arrest affidavit never said where the tint was or how anyone could judge that on a moving car in the dark.

Before the State filed anything, I wrote to the prosecutor and asked the office to watch the body camera video before deciding. The State filed a No Information. No plea and no conviction.

Arrested but not charged yet? The window to do something is open right now. The full story is on the blog, link in bio.

10/03/2026

Had a wonderful time in San Antonio at the DUIDLA fall session! Over the years, this organization has given me so much, I've met so, so many great folks, and learned so much each and every time. Twice a year this conference brings together some of the legendary criminal trial lawyers from across the country and I was truly honored to also have the opportunity to speak this time and give just a little bit back. I look forward to speaking again at Charleston in the Spring!

09/30/2026

A Florida DUI breath test suspension lasts six months. This one just got thrown out, because the Department let the hearing sit for too long.

When you blow over the limit in Florida, the officer takes your license and hands you a notice of suspension. That starts a second case, against your license, that runs separately from the criminal case. You have 10 days to ask for a formal review, and once you do, the law gives the Department 30 days to schedule the hearing.

Here, the Department continued the hearing on its own and promised a new date “in due course.” No date came. The temporary permit expired, and the whole suspension period actually ran out, with no hearing at all.

The criminal case had already been resolved. The license case was still worth fighting, because a suspension that stands counts as a prior. If there’s ever a next time, a prior administrative suspension turns the next one from six months into a year.

When a new hearing officer finally reached out (he was extremely fair and one of the best ones), we asked to hold the hearing that week instead of waiting. We called no witnesses and made the Department stand on its own paperwork. Then we filed a written motion showing that the arresting officer never saw the driver drive, and that nine months of silence after the Department’s own continuance is not the prompt review the law requires.

Then the order came. The Department set aside the suspension because it failed to timely schedule the hearing.

09/29/2026

Dropped today: a golf cart DUI, a refusal charge, and a resisting charge. All three.

Florida’s DUI law covers golf carts, and our client’s arrest started two cases, the criminal charges and a license suspension.

First, we won the administrative license case at a formal review hearing.

The arresting officer's dash camera showed a pass on the right that’s legal in Florida. We built our motion to suppress on that officer's testimony from that hearing, where she said her dash camera spoke for itself. And, she was right, it did speak for itself. It was a bad stop.

The case went from a 60 day jail offer and probation to... gone.

You’ve got ten days to ask for a formal review hearing. It’s the first chance to put the officer under oath. It's a big reason these cases get won. You can read more about this on my website. Link in bio.

09/29/2026

A Florida DUI refusal suspension lasts a year. This one just got thrown out, because the paperwork from law enforcement never reached the Department.

When you refuse a breath test in Florida, the officer takes your license on the spot and hands you a notice of suspension. Many folks assume that settles it. It actually starts a second case, against your license, that runs separately from the criminal case.

That license case runs on paper. Within five days, the officer is supposed to send the Department your license, an affidavit explaining why the officer believed you were impaired, an affidavit saying you refused, and the notice of suspension. Whatever the agency sends in becomes the record the hearing officer decides on.

We had already gotten the criminal DUI no-filed, meaning prosecutors declined to file charges. The suspension stayed anyway. In Florida, how the criminal case ends does not change a refusal suspension.

So the license case had to be won on its own record. We asked for a formal review inside the 10 day window, and we kept pushing on it.

Then the order came. The Department set aside the suspension because no packet was ever received from law enforcement.

09/27/2026

If the State wants to use a blood test against you in a DUI case, who has to come to court and answer questions about it?

Florida’s courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have been working through that question for twenty years. When a lab report is prepared for a prosecution, the person who actually ran the test generally has to take the stand and face questions, and a stand-in reading from that person’s records usually will not do. A hospital test done for medical treatment is treated differently.

That is this week’s deep dive on Reasonably Safir, along with a week of Florida appeals court decisions told case by case. The theme of the week: what a jury actually gets to hear.

Ten criminal decisions and three injury decisions: a Sarasota sexual battery conviction reversed over one word the jury never heard, PTSD evidence after Oquendo, the First and Fourth Districts split on the mental condition instruction, two punitive damages proffers against commercial drivers, and...

09/27/2026

Two days in Orlando at Blood, Breath & Tears, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' DUI seminar.

Friday's advanced track went deep on blood testing, breath testing, rising BAC, and how to turn all of that science into reasonable doubt for a jury.

It was great to meet up with fellow Criminal Mastermind members Adam Rossen, Deandra Grant and Zarina Hernandez.

Adam's session covered AI in DUI cases. The details stay with the defense attorneys who were in the room.

Deandra taught two of Friday's sessions, one on cross-examining blood evidence and one on closing argument, and both were incredible.

Every hour in a room like this goes back into the cases we handle for our clients.

09/20/2026

He got 45 months in prison after probation officers knocked and nobody answered.

The officers had come to a Sarasota rooming house during curfew. The judge decided he wasn’t home. He said he’d been asleep in a back bedroom, where a window air conditioner drowned out noise from outside.

Neither officer had been inside the house or knew where his bedroom was. The testimony didn’t establish how long or how loudly the officer knocked.

Florida’s Second District reversed the revocation and ordered probation reinstated. On this record, the majority found no basis to infer that he would have heard the officers. One judge dissented, arguing that the trial judge could reasonably infer he was away.
I walk through both sides in the new Reasonably Safir caselaw episode. Your probation conditions still apply. What interested me here was how the State tried to prove a violation, and what the testimony actually established.

Florida caselaw for the week of September 18, 2026: Sarasota curfew proof, a Manatee bond hearing, a DUI stop, postconviction claims, stalking, and future medical expenses. Smith and Kafus lead a practical discussion of curfew hearing preparation. Criminal, injury, and public-sector employment...