Almost every criminal traffic case is won or lost at the same place, the stop. Before the State can prove what you did, it has to justify why the officer pulled you over and what happened next, and that is the ground where these cases are most often beaten. This is the defense side of this section, and it ties directly into the Fourth Amendment and forensic work that runs through our DUI and search-and-seizure practice.
The Stop Has to Be Lawful
A traffic stop is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and Florida follows Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996), and State v. Holland, 680 So. 2d 1041 (Fla. 1997). The officer needs a genuine, objective traffic basis for the stop, and a private motive does not matter if that basis is real, but a stop with no real infraction is unlawful. When the stop fails, a motion to suppress can keep everything that followed, the driving pattern, the statements, and the test results, out of the case.
I began as an Assistant Public Defender in Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in Tampa, and today I am one of six ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in the state. A criminal traffic case is won in two places, at the stop and on the element the State has to prove, whether that is a willful and wanton state of mind, actual knowledge of a suspension, or knowledge that an officer was ordering you to stop. I push on both. Learn more about my background.
A Stop Cannot Be Dragged Out
Even a lawful stop has a shelf life. It can last only as long as the task that justified it, and an officer who prolongs it to fish for something else without new, reasonable suspicion crosses the line, as Cresswell v. State, 564 So. 2d 480 (Fla. 1990), and Rodriguez v. United States, 575 U.S. 348 (2015), make clear. The timeline on the dash and body camera video is where these arguments are made or lost.
The Forensic Attack
When a traffic case involves alcohol, drugs, or a crash, the science becomes the battleground. The breath and blood testing, the field investigation, and the crash reconstruction are all open to challenge, and reading that evidence the way the State’s analyst does is the heart of the work. As one of six ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida, that is the fight I bring to these cases.
Common Questions
Can the traffic stop in my case be challenged?
Often, yes. A traffic stop is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, so the officer needs a genuine legal basis for it. If there was no real traffic violation, or the stop was extended beyond its purpose without new suspicion, a motion to suppress can keep the evidence that followed out of the case, which can end the charge.
Does it matter that the officer had another reason for stopping me?
Not by itself. Under Whren v. United States, a stop is valid if there was an objective legal basis for it, even if the officer had another motive. The defense is not that the officer was suspicious, it is whether there was an actual, objective traffic basis for the stop in the first place.
What happens if the officer kept me too long?
A stop has to last only as long as the task that justified it. If the officer prolonged the stop to investigate something else without reasonable suspicion, that extension is unlawful, and the evidence found during it can be suppressed. The timeline of the stop is something we examine closely on the video.
How does the forensic side fit into a traffic case?
When alcohol, drugs, or a crash is involved, the same forensic questions that run through a DUI case run through these, the breath and blood testing, the field investigation, and the crash reconstruction. Testing that evidence the way the State's own analyst would is central to the defense and is the core of the lawyer-scientist approach.
Is a motion to suppress worth filing even if it might lose?
Frequently, yes. A motion to suppress forces the State to put its stop and its evidence on the record under oath, which creates discovery and pressure even when the motion does not win outright. Many cases improve or resolve because of what the suppression hearing reveals.
Related: Criminal Traffic overview, Misdemeanor traffic offenses, Felony traffic offenses, and License and the DHSMV.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The offenses discussed in this section are governed by sections 316.192, 322.34, 316.061, 316.191, 322.03, and 316.1935, Florida Statutes, among others, and the law changes, so penalties should be confirmed against the current statute. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
