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The Safir Wire

Florida DUI, criminal defense, and personal injury, explained by a forensic lawyer-scientist and former public defender. Celebrity cases, courtroom strategy, and the science behind the evidence, in plain English.

Rory Safir

Every post here is written by Rory Safir, one of a handful of ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida and a former Assistant Public Defender in Tampa.

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How Many Jurors Decide a Florida Criminal Trial? Six, Twelve, and the Eight That Decide Death

Two Tampa juries heard similar murder trials; one recommended death and one life. Florida uses six jurors for felonies, twelve for capital cases, a unanimous verdict, and eight of twelve for death, and the Supreme Court is now reviewing the six....
  • Rory Safir
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Can Florida Police Stop You Just for Carrying a Gun? A Federal Appeals Court Said No

Two Miami-Dade detectives stopped a man at gunpoint because he had a pistol in his hoodie. The Eleventh Circuit vacated his conviction: in Florida a concealed gun alone is not reasonable suspicion. What the ruling means if you carry....
  • Rory Safir
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Asleep in a Running Truck in Tampa: The Welfare Check That Became a DUI

Deputies woke a man asleep in a running truck at a Tampa apartment complex and a DUI followed. A judge suppressed it; the appeals court reversed. Where a welfare check ends, and why a parked truck can still be a DUI in Florida....
  • Rory Safir
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Florida Took the Word ‘Lawful’ Out of Resisting With Violence: What the Officer Jason Raynor Act Changed

One act signed June 16, 2026 removed the word lawful from three Florida statutes, defined good faith to include an arrest later found unlawful, and repealed the rule that an officer may not use force in a knowingly unlawful arrest. Resisting without violence was left alone....
  • Rory Safir
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Police Took His Blood Without a Warrant. The Court Just Took Back the Rule They Used.

A driver refused a blood draw after a fatal crash and police took it anyway. The Fourth District affirmed suppression and receded from the sentence prosecutors had been citing as a probable cause exception to the warrant requirement....
  • Rory Safir
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Florida’s Super Speeder Law: What Section 316.1922 Actually Says

Florida created the crime of dangerous excessive speeding on July 1, 2025, and a first conviction carries jail. The bill was rewritten three times before it passed, and many summaries still describe the earlier draft....
  • 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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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
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Armed Volunteers Can Now Guard Florida Churches. Here Is What the New Law Does Not Change.

Since July 1, 2026, a volunteer with a concealed weapon license can provide armed security at a Florida church, synagogue, mosque, or other place of worship without holding the state security licenses that used to be mandatory....
  • Rory Safir
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Florida’s New Domestic Violence Law Is Here, and the Monitoring Pilots Start in Pinellas and Pasco

Florida’s domestic violence laws got their biggest overhaul in years on July 1, 2026, when House Bill 277 took effect....
  • 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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