Applying Criminal Laws to the Public Display of a Hate Symbol: Part Two of Two

Applying Criminal Laws to the Public Display of a Hate Symbol: Part Two of Two March 22, 2017 Our Meetup group held two “ripped from the headlines” topic discussions about issues surrounding an incident that took place on a Florida university campus early this year. That incident consisted of one person, wearing an armband with […]

Candidate for Simplified Dissolution in Florida?

Claire in Florida asks: I have been married for several decades and I want to file for a divorce. I have been the sole supporter in my household for the past several years. We have resided in my mother’s home since she passed away many years ago. There was an outstanding small mortgage on the […]

Do I have to show the police my ID?

Amanda asks: “If a police officer asks me for my ID, do I have to give it to them?“ To answer this question, I spoke with Craig Lawson, who is a criminal defense attorney in south Florida. Naturally, Craig began his answer with, “It depends.” What does the answer depend on? It depends on whether […]

Florida DV Victim Goes to Jail

Update (Sept. 1, 2016): The judge described in this post was charged with violations of Florida’s judicial conduct rules and reprimanded by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court. Read the story in the Orlando Sentinel. Original post (Oct. 7, 2015): A Florida judge found a domestic violence victim and single mother of a year-old child […]

Tenants Defending Eviction Actions Must Pay Money … and Attention

Among the more common legal issues that people handle on their own without an attorney are those involving relationships between landlords and tenants. Landlords don’t always keep their promises or comply with various laws concerning maintaining the properties they rent to tenants, and tenants don’t always keep their promises to pay rent and keep the […]

Librarians Help Pro Se Litigants Every Day

Librarians are among the few professionals who are on the front lines helping people who represent themselves in court. When I decide to do some legal research in a law library, I first think about going to the local courthouse. If the local courthouse doesn’t have a law library (not all of them do because […]

Law Libraries in Florida

That’s right. We compiled a list of all the law libraries that are open to the public throughout the state of Florida, and created a table with links to the library websites. We also included links to the local courts, just because we thought you might find that info handy, too. If you want to […]

C.R.’s Story of Legal Abuse

One day many years ago, C.R. met a handsome and charming man. That’s right – her nightmare began, as they often do, as a dream. You know the story: They were young and beautiful and he swept her off her feet with fireworks and dizzying chemistry. He lavished her with romance until C.R. felt loved […]

Our Message to the Florida Courts

The Florida Court’s Long Range Strategic Planning Workgroup recently solicited comments from the public to assist in its mission to set goals and priorities for the coming years. Here are our comments to the Workgroup, submitted online earlier today: Dear Long Range Strategic Planning Workgroup: An area needing improvement in Florida’s courts concerns judicial training […]