Criminal Attorney in Florida

Criminal attorney in Florida

By Stephen G. Cobb, Board Certified Criminal Trial Law Specialist


First of all, if you are searching for a a criminal defense attorney in Florida, it helps if you both narrow your search and clarify your intentions. The broad phrase "criminal attorney" pulls up over 423,000,000 results. No one is going to interview 423 million criminal defense attorneys.

Let's change it to "criminal attorney in Florida". This narrows our search to 68,500,000. This is still far too many to carefully examine and select. If we add "Okaloosa County, Florida" to our criminal attorney search we still have 488,000, about ten times Okaloosa County's population.

Now, we have a problem by simply using geography with such a broad search term: there is criminal court held in Crestview in north Okaloosa County and a second one in South Okaloosa County in Fort Walton Beach. You have the same problem in Walton County next door with some criminal attorney offices located in DeFuniak Springs while others are located in South Walton County where there is another courthouse annex just like in Okaloosa County.

Here's the best part: virtually all local criminal attorneys practice in both counties at all four courthouses.

Here is the best way to modify your search: ask a better, more specific question. Instead of using such a broad phrase like "criminal attorney" or one that is too specific to geography such as "Fort Walton beach criminal attorney", try one focusing on skill, experience and expertise.

In Florida, the single most important review for a criminal attorney in Florida is the no nonsense review known as Board Certification. Less than 1% of Florida attorneys can survive this hardcore review.

The Florida Bar doesn't solely use Google style customer reviews at all since they are not reliable for much of anything. The Florida Bar requires actual, specific reviews by trial judges and court room opponents along with a two day exam most experienced criminal attorneys (85%+, year in and year out) fail. Board certification is extremely hard for a reason: consumers of legal services deserve to know the truth about who is and who is not considered by the Florida Bar to be the true masters of criminal law. Those masters, whether in private practice or government service are the real experts in Florida criminal law.

Don't be fooled in your search for a criminal attorney by unreliable "credentials" such as Super Lawyers, etc. In truth, there are no Super Lawyers, criminal or otherwise. Such purported "National" or "Super" credentials mean absolutely nothing to the Florida Bar.

If the Florida Bar doesn't pay attention to such resume fluff, neither should you. If you want the best criminal attorney to handle your case, look for a Board Certified Specialist in criminal trial law. Your search time will be a lot shorter and a lot more effective. When you are looking for a criminal attorney to help you with a legal matter serious enough that jail or prison time may be involved, then look to where the specialists look for quality legal care. As any criminal attorney you contact a single question: "Are you a criminal trial law specialist certified by the Florida Bar?"

The answer is either "yes, I am" or the long story of why you shouldn't care. You should care. Your life, freedom and future are on the line.