Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

I practice criminal law in Miami so please take my statement with some regard. The public defender will not try to lessen the amount on the items nor will they even really work on your case until trial. They will work out a deal for you on your sounding date to try to close out the case. They may get you a good deal, they may not. At this moment you are somewhat of a feather in the wind.

This is what can be done in your case: the items are valued at their purchase prices, so if you are telling me that the Garmin is old and worn that tells me that the guy bought it when those things were $300 plus; the phone the same; and the clothes would need to be examined to determine price. Regardless being over the $300 mark puts this in the felony catagory. It's not really worth the time valuing the merchandise because we can still get the case into the county level by doing what is called charge bargaining. That means that we speak to the State Attorney and negotiate a deal whereby they amend the charges to a petite theft, send it down to County Court and you take a plea bargain to close the case out. The benefit is that you do not have a felony record.

Additionally, if you have not been arrainged yet, in almost every case I speak with the State Attorney in charge of deciding if the State will actually file charges against you and see if we can keep them from even filing charges against you. That means that the case would be no actioned and you walk out of court without ever having to do community service, pay fines, or pay court costs; which in this case would be upwards of $1,000.

And there is always the option of defending the case, but I would need to see the arrest form to determine if the merit of the defense. If you have the public defender take the case you will save a little money but you most likely will be dealing with this case for about the next 6 to 12 months before closing it out.

If you would like to discuss your case please call my office anytime 305.670.3119 and we can have a consultation to discuss all of the facts and the probabilities of clearing your case. If money is an issue my firm does offer a HOPE Program geared at those that don't have the means of hiring a private attorney; I can see if you qualify if it is an issue.

All My Best,

Joseph Vredevelt

305.670.3119