Florida Traffic Law

There is a Florida Statute that penalizes you for simply possessing a handcuff key. It is found in section 843.021, Florida Statutes, and is titled, "Unlawful possession of a concealed handcuff key." I'm writing this post because this is the kind of "slow creep" law that the government produces without anyone noticing. Yet year over year they add up making more and more unwitting individuals criminals. This law prohibits the following behavior: Any person who possesses a concealed handcuff key commits a felony of the third degree, punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison. Notice that the "title" and the "prohibited behavior" of the law says that there an unlawful way to possess a handcuff key when you conceal it. At least that is what I take from it. Luckily, the creators of this crime have included some definitions that cannot be overlooked (but usually are - mainly by law enforcement). The first definition is the “In custo...

What Happens If SB488 and SB1612 Becomes Law Eric Dirga is an attorney in Orlando practicing criminal record expungement and sealing law. You can contact him at 407-841-5555 or email him at ejdirga@ejdirga.com. A proposed amendment to Florida's Record Sealing and Record Expungement law may mean that you will be able to expunge multiple cases. If the proposed amendment becomes law the effective date will be October 15, 2015. Sounds good but there are some changes that are not so good: For judicial expungement and non-judicial sealings you will have to wait 1-year after your case is closed (supervision ended) before you can start. AND THE BIG ONE: From the end of your case you want judicially expunged or non-judicial sealed to the day you apply for relief you cannot have been charged or arrested for any other offense. The Big One The Big One means if you have an old case you want sealed or expunged that is eligible under the current law but will be ineligible und...

I started this post thinking that it should be relatively easy to explain when you can use the HOV lane in Florida. Instead, I have come away more frustrated with the law, lawyers, legislators, and any big government advocate out there. This is a classic example of bureaucratic "___________" (input word here). How Would You Write The HOV Law? Before we get into the baloney of how the Florida legislature wrote the HOV law, let's imagine that we wrote it or just imagine how you think it was written. With a little thought we would come up with something like: HOV means High Occupancy Vehicle and that type vehicle can be any vehicle that has a driver and at least one passenger. HOV Lane means a lane designated for use by an HOV. A designated HOV lane requires that any vehicle driven in that lane have at least 2 people in that vehicle. If there is only one person in the vehicle while driving in an HOV lane that person is breaking the law and if caught shall be issued...

Let's take a look at section 318.15 of the Florida Statutes. This section basically says that if a driver fails to either pay the ticket (bad), elect driving school (good), or challenge the ticket within thirty days of receipt of the citation the Clerk shall notify the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles [Department] within 10 days of such failure. Immediately after that notification the Department will issue a suspension notice to the driver that takes effect 20 days after the date of the letter. Additionally, if the driver fails to appear at a scheduled hearing the Clerk will notify the Department with the same result. What we are talking about here is the letter that people receive telling them that "Hey! Guess what - your license is suspended effective on blah, blah date! Have a great day!" What the letter fails to state clearly is that there are options to the driver to "repair" the situation. But hey, the silver lining is that they noticed yo...

March 4, 2013 I have been fighting red light camera tickets since 2010. Over the last two years it has become clear that there some very disturbing things going on with the red light camera cases and specifically the companies that have installed them. Before I go too far into this post I want to make sure my position is clear. Running red lights is one of the most hazardous things a person can do. The main cause for running a red light is speed - not texting or any other politically correct target of the day - it is speed. When a person drives over the speed limit they all think the amber light has been shortened to accommodate more camera tickets. It's not the time of the amber, it is the speed of the vehicle. Additionally, the cities and counties that are fighting to push these tickets through are just trying to do what is right, what they believe is their job to do. They are doing nothing wrong in the prosecution of these cases. However, they need to start looking at w...