Practice Areas
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence cases are always unique. These offenses range widely from misdemeanor offenses involving a minor shove or a slap, to felony cases involving extreme violence.
Quite often there are accompanying emotional issues; a couple beginning a divorce or a custody battle involving children. There are escalating emotions, and at some point police become involved.
Just as often, there are emotional issues with perhaps less at stake; a family on a vacation in South Beach, or perhaps arriving to Miami to start a vacation cruise. Many times alcohol is a factor. An argument unexpectedly escalates from verbal to physical, and again, police become involved.
After the arrest, the people involved must return to their lives, returning to Atlanta or New York or California, or wherever their lives are centered. However, they have an approaching court date to consider. In need of a domestic violence lawyer? Call us about your case, and we’ll discuss how we can help you.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Mental Health Cases
People with a mental health struggle often find themselves dealing with the criminal court system. It is sometimes reported that the county jails are the primary providers of mental health care. This is unfortunate, where a person needing treatment is placed into a system designed to punish behavior.
Our office has considerable experience with mental health cases, ranging from relatively minor offenses that occur where the person was suffering a crisis because they did not take their medication, to more extreme cases where the person is responding to voices and suffering from schizophrenia and perhaps committing violent acts.
These cases are always different, the facts are always different, and sometimes the person has an involved family and a support system, and sometimes the person has very little.
I have experience with all levels, from cases involving involuntary hospitalization and commitment under a Baker Act proceeding to avoid injury to the person or another, up through serious offense trial cases where the person was not capable of appreciating right from wrong at the time of the offense.
Further, many times the person’s competence to stand trial must be raised. This occurs where the person is unable to meet the basic statutory criteria requiring that the person understand what is happening to them.
I have considerable experience and involvement with all forms of these mental health cases, and I can guide the family and the person through the complexities of the criminal court system. Call us about your case, and we’ll discuss how we can help you.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Drug Offenses
In August 2019, the State Attorney’s Office in Miami-Dade County notified all Law Enforcement Agencies within the 11th Judicial Circuit that it would no longer prosecute cannabis cases, based on Florida State Legislation legalizing possession of “hemp”, a form of the plant cannabis sativa.
Of course, the State Attorney’s office still prosecutes many other drug offenses, including possession with intent to sell and trafficking in many controlled substances including cocaine, MDMA, oxycodone, and other drugs designated in Florida’s drug statute.
Many of these offenses include statutory minimum mandatory prison terms in addition to statutory fines. For example, if a person is convicted of possession with intent to sell cocaine, and that person’s arrest was within 1,000 feet of a school, Florida Statutes provide for a 3-year minimum mandatory prison term.
Another example to consider is cocaine trafficking, where the amount of cocaine the person is arrested with is at least 28 grams but less than 200 grams. In such a case, a conviction can be expected to involve a 3-year minimum mandatory prison term. It should also be noted that Florida Statute §893.135 provides for imposing a $50,000 fine in addition to the prison term in this case.
As the drug trafficking amounts increase, so do these minimum mandatory prison terms and statutory fines. For example, a cocaine trafficking arrest involving at least 200 grams but less than 400 grams implicates a 7-year minimum mandatory prison term. Where the cocaine amount is at least 400 grams up to 150 kilograms, the prison minimum mandatory term becomes 15 years, along with applicable fines.
For the drugs Ecstasy (MDMA), Heroin and Oxycodone, these drugs and others all have statutory minimum prison terms and fines.
Of lesser consequence but still important to note, these offenses generally include a suspension of the person’s driver’s license privileges for two years upon a conviction. Call us about your case, and we’ll discuss how we can help you.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Career Criminal Designation
The State of Florida has enacted statutes applicable in State Circuit Courts that provide for sentencing enhancements if the person is proven to have a criminal history involving certain offenses.
For example, at the lowest level of Career Criminal Status, a person may find themselves designated as a “Habitual Offender”, where the person has two prior felony convictions, one of which is not a felony drug offense, and they are charged with a new crime committed within five years of their last conviction, or release from prison, probation or community control.
In the case of a Third Degree Felony, this “Habitual Offender” designation can increase the person’s maximum sentence permissible by law from five years in prison to ten years in prison, doubling the person’s sentencing exposure.
In the case of a Second Degree Felony, this “Habitual Offender” designation can increase the person’s maximum sentence permissible by law from fifteen years in prison to thirty years in prison, doubling the person’s sentencing exposure.
In the case of a First Degree Felony, this “Habitual Offender” designation can increase the person’s maximum sentence permissible by law from thirty years in prison to life in prison.
There are additional Career Criminal Status designations, including designation as a “Prison Releasee Reoffender”, as a “Habitual Violent Offender”, and as a “Violent Career Criminal”.
These higher level Career Criminal Status designations involve mandatory minimum prison terms.
If you or your family member are involved in a case where these sentencing enhancement statutory designations apply, please call us about your case, and we’ll discuss how we can help you.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Firearm Offenses
The State of Florida has enacted a statute often referred to as the “10/20/25-LIFE” statute. This statute essentially provides for statutory minimum mandatory prison terms where a firearm is used to commit certain specified offenses.
For example, if a person commits a robbery by threat of violence or physical force, that offense is categorized as a Second-Degree Felony, punishable by up to 15 years in state prison.
Where that offense involves a firearm, the 10/20/25-Life statute adds prison minimum mandatory terms to the maximum punishment. In this example, the person committing the robbery and possessing a firearm during the commission now faces a 10-year minimum mandatory prison term.
Where the firearm is discharged, but does not strike anyone, that person possessing and discharging the firearm faces a 20-year minimum mandatory prison term.
And where the firearm is discharged as strikes someone, who suffer serious bodily injury or death, the minimum mandatory prison term becomes 25 years.
The person accused must be the actual possessor of the firearm for these minimum mandatory terms to apply.
If you or your family member are involved in a case where these firearm minimum mandatory prison terms apply, please call us about your case, and we’ll discuss how we can help you.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Illegal Search and Seizure and Illegally Obtained Statements
The U.S. Constitution, the Florida State Constitution and Florida Statutes all provide for protections against police misconduct in obtaining evidence or confession statements.
In a common example, when a person is arrested they often wonder why they were not advised of their right to remain silent pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
Often the police are investigating a case where the evidence that have gathered is not quite enough to make a “probable cause” arrest. So, they seek your statement – hoping that you will make a statement they can call a confession of admission of guilt. Your statement, added together with whatever other evidence they’ve gathered can sometimes meets their burden of having “probable cause” to make the arrest.
My advice to every client is to invoke your right to remain silent and tell the police you want to talk to Scott Miller.
When is your Miranda right triggered? At a point when you are detained by the police, not free to leave, and they police are asking you questions regarding the crime.
Under this scenario, they are required to advise you of your 6th Amendment right to counsel – yes, you can have your lawyer present – and of your 5th Amendment right again self-incrimination – yes, you have the right to remain silent.
If the police have obtained your statement in violation of your rights, please call us to discuss your case and how we can offer assistance.
The next area involves illegal search and seizure. Here again, Article 1 of the Florida Constitution, Section 12, Searches and Seizures, provides that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. This right shall be construed in conformity with the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court.
This means there are rules the courts follow regarding exactly how the police obtain their evidence.
Did the police enter your home or property and conduct a search without a search warrant or other legal basis for a warrantless entry?
If the police have obtained evidence in violation of your rights, please call us to discuss your case and how we can offer assistance.
Don't See Your Charge?
We handle a wide range of charges from misdemeanors to capital offenses.
Petit Theft, Driving Under the Influence,
Driving while License Suspended
Yes, our office handles homicides and drug trafficking cases, but please note that we handle many lesser cases every day of every week as well.
For example, If you are accused by a department store of taking items without paying, please call us to help. We investigate and learn whether there is video evidence, witnesses and more. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the State Prosecutor’s case, and advise you through the process.
If you are accused of driving under the influence, please call us to help. In Florida the DUI laws are strict, and can involve a mandatory conviction for a first offense. Sometimes, there are paths to a better result than a DUI conviction. Every case is different, so please call us to make an appointment and tell us what happened to you. We never rush to close the case, instead conducting an analysis of the evidence and all potential defenses. If a trial is required, we are ready to go to trial.
If you have been charged with a misdemeanor offense, please call us to discuss your case and how we can offer assistance.