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The Safir Lawyer Blog

Florida DUI, criminal defense, and personal injury, explained by a forensic lawyer-scientist and former public defender. Seven running series cover the science behind the evidence, the cases in the news, the injury claims, and how a defense actually gets built, all in plain English.

Rory Safir

Every post here is written by Rory Safir, one of only six ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida, the author of The Florida DUI Trial Manual, and a former Assistant Public Defender in Tampa.

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The Series

Seven running series, each with its own beat. Pick a lane or read them all.

The Safir WireThe Safir WireLegal news, court rulings, and law changes, read the way a lawyer-scientist reads them.Explore the series ➞Called SafirCalled SafirAthlete and celebrity arrests, broken down by a criminal defense lawyer.Explore the series ➞SafircrackingSafircrackingForensic science, taken apart piece by piece: breath, blood, DNA, drug testing, and the crime lab.Explore the series ➞Fail-SafirFail-SafirFalse alerts, misused databases, and lab failures, and what they mean in a real case.Explore the series ➞Safir HarborSafir HarborHow cases actually get defended, from the first night to the last motion.Explore the series ➞Better Safir Than SorryBetter Safir Than SorryCar crashes, insurance tactics, and what an injury claim is actually worth.Explore the series ➞Rory SafirAsk SafirHave a question about a DUI, an arrest, or an injury claim? Ask it, and the answer may become the next post.Ask your question ➞
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Fourteen Arrests in Two Fraternity Houses: How the Penn State Cocaine Case Would Run in Florida

Fourteen arrests in two fraternity houses, charges running from trafficking down to paraphernalia, and one father charged for trying to help. The Florida version of this case turns on 28 grams, a conspiracy statute punished like trafficking itself, and a dorm case from FSU....
  • Rory Safir
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Michael Caruso Arrest: What the Palm Beach Clerk of Court’s Five Florida Charges Actually Mean

Florida's Office of Statewide Prosecution charged the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court with five felonies. Each charge is a specific statute with its own elements, and the charge list itself tells you the State's theory. A Florida defense lawyer walks through all five....
  • Rory Safir
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Your AI Chat Is Not a Private Journal: What the ChatGPT Case Says About Florida Law

A man's private conversations with ChatGPT became three felony charges in Palm Beach County. The Florida statute that made it possible was rewritten in 2023, and it no longer asks whether you sent the threat to anyone....
  • Rory Safir

What the National College for DUI Defense Is, and Why Faculty Matters

The National College for DUI Defense trains DUI lawyers nationwide. Here is what it is, what its faculty do, and why the science is the part that decides cases....
  • Rory Safir
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A Golf Cart, a Refusal, and the Hearing Most Drivers Never Request

A golf cart DUI arrest carries everything a car arrest carries, including the license suspension, and this one ended with the suspension set aside at the formal review hearing. This post explains what that hearing actually does, why the stop itself was the battleground, and why the result...
  • Rory Safir
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What to Wear to Court in Florida

What to wear to court or jury duty in Florida, from a former public defender: the one rule, what works, what gets noticed for the wrong reasons, tattoos and piercings, and how the answer changes for a jury trial....
  • Rory Safir
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How Many Drinks Is Over the Legal Limit in Florida?

Florida law never counts drinks. It sets alcohol concentration limits, and the number of drinks it takes to reach them moves with body weight, time, food, and the machine doing the measuring. Here is what the limits actually are, why nobody can promise you a safe number, and what matters...
  • Rory Safir
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The State’s Best Witness Was a Helicopter Nobody Listed

A recent Hillsborough County case ended with a felony drug charge reduced to a misdemeanor, two of the four counts dropped outright, and no jail. The method behind that outcome is worth more than the outcome itself, because nothing about it is exotic....
  • Rory Safir
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A DUI Arrest Puts Your CDL at Risk for a Year. Here Is How One Driver Kept His.

For many drivers, a DUI arrest is a legal problem. For a commercial driver, it is a payroll problem....
  • Rory Safir
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A Lazy Eye, and the Check a Florida DUI Officer Is Supposed to Run First

A police officer is on the witness stand. He has spent forty minutes telling a jury that the way a woman's eyes moved on the side of a road proved she was impaired. And I am asking him to define a lazy eye....
  • Rory Safir
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Tony Romo’s OWI Arrest, and the Strange Reason the Same Night Would Be Worse in Florida

On the evening of Thursday, July 23, 2026, a Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy stopped a car on the I-43 high-rise bridge. The driver was Tony Romo, the former Dallas quarterback and, since 2017, the lead NFL analyst at CBS. He was arrested on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, first offense....
  • Rory Safir
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Cannabis DUI Dropped: What a Positive Urine Test Actually Proves

The State offered diversion. Our client turned it down, we sent the prosecutor a forensic packet instead of filing a motion, and the charge was dropped in full....
  • Rory Safir
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RFI Detect: How an Officer’s Radio Undid a 0.179 Breath Test

Everyone who walks into a Florida breath testing room is carrying a transmitter. The operator has a portable radio. The arresting officer has a phone, a body camera on his chest, and more often than not a smartwatch....
  • Rory Safir
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DHSMV Has Opened Rulemaking on the DUI Hearing Rules

The Department has opened rulemaking on the chapter that governs DUI administrative suspension hearings. Nothing has changed yet. Here is what is in scope....
  • Rory Safir

The Florida DUI Trial Manual: A Working Reference for Taking the State’s Science Apart

Every Florida DUI conviction rests on a number the State calls settled science: a breath reading, a blood result, or a score on a set of roadside exercises. It is not settled. Each one is a chain of assumptions the State has to prove and usually cannot....
  • Rory Safir

I Wrote the Book on Florida Nursing Home Cases, and It Is Free

My fourth book is finished, and it is the hardest one I have written....
  • Rory Safir
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The Same Fall, Four Different Injuries: New Pages on Hips, Knees, Shoulders, and Wrists

The same fall breaks a hip at seventy, a wrist at thirty five, and a kneecap at fifty, and the insurance company has a playbook for every one of them....
  • Rory Safir
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Attacked on Someone Else’s Property? There Is a Second Case, and Nobody Tells Victims About It

When you are attacked on commercial property, everyone points you toward one legal process: the criminal case against the person who hurt you....
  • Rory Safir
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A DUI in Sarasota, Manatee, or DeSoto? DETER Is the Most Structured Exit in the Region

If your DUI, or your boating DUI, happened in Sarasota, Manatee, or DeSoto County, your case sits in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, and the Twelfth runs the most structured diversion program in the region. It is called DETER, and I just published a free plain-English guide to it: Safir Guide...
  • Rory Safir
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A First DUI in Hillsborough Comes With a Second Chance. Here Is How RIDR Works

A first DUI arrest in Hillsborough County comes with something most counties cannot offer: a State Attorney program that can end an eligible case as reckless driving with no conviction at all. It is called RIDR, and I just published a free plain-English guide to it: Safir Guide No....
  • Rory Safir

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Arrested for DUI in Florida, the bookI wrote the book on Florida DUIFree to anyone facing a charge in Tampa Bay. Plain English, nineteen chapters, no law degree required.Get your copy →ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist badgeForensic Lawyer-ScientistOne of six attorneys in Florida with the ACS-CHAL designation from the American Chemical Society.What that means for your case →

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Acquittal, Pinellas County: DUI jury acquittal after the HGN eye test was challenged.

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