West Palm Beach Criminal Defense & Personal Injury Lawyers

Your first appearance will be within 24 hours of arrest, at the Criminal Justice Complex, 3228 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach. Palm Beach County holds first appearances seven days a week beginning at 9:00 a.m., including weekends and holidays. The judge reviews the booking slip and probable cause affidavit, then rules on probable cause, release, bond, and conditions. You have the right to an attorney present, and having private counsel appear is often the difference between release and a bond you cannot post.

The Main Judicial Complex is at 205 North Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, just two blocks from our office at 515 North Flagler Drive. First appearance and Adult Drug Court are held separately at the Criminal Justice Complex on Gun Club Road. Cases are prosecuted by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.

Possibly. Palm Beach County operates pretrial intervention and problem-solving courts, including an Adult Drug Court that hears cases at the Criminal Justice Complex on Mondays and Thursdays at 1:30 p.m. Eligibility depends on the charge, your record, and the State’s position. Florida law requires that you enter pretrial intervention voluntarily and only after consulting your attorney.  These programs carry real conditions and are not automatically the better outcome. Talk it through with your lawyer before agreeing.

Substantially. Palm Beach County falls in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Federal cases usually follow long investigations, so the government has built most of its case before you are charged. There is no parole in the federal system. The United States Sentencing Guidelines drive outcomes heavily, pretrial release runs under the Bail Reform Act rather than a bond schedule, and conviction rates are higher than in state court. The most valuable work often happens before an indictment, so if you have received a target letter or grand jury subpoena, or an agent has contacted you, call immediately.

Two years from the accident for most negligence claims, reduced from four years by HB 837 for claims arising after March 2023. Separately and much sooner, you must obtain initial medical treatment within 14 days of a motor vehicle crash to preserve your PIP benefits. Wrongful death claims and claims against government entities follow different timelines.

Yes. There is no PIP for boating accidents, and boat insurance is not mandatory in Florida, so an at-fault operator may carry no coverage. Serious incidents typically trigger an FWC or U.S. Coast Guard investigation alongside your civil claim, and federal maritime law may apply depending on where it happened, which can change both deadlines and available damages. It’s important that you speak to an injury lawyer before giving any statement to an insurer.

A claim against a property owner for harm caused by a third party on premises they failed to make reasonably safe. The key issue is foreseeability: what the owner knew about prior crime at that location and what they did about it. Proving it requires police call histories for the address, prior incident reports, security staffing records and camera footage, much of which is destroyed or overwritten within weeks. Speed matters more in these cases than almost any other.

Case reviews are free. Injury cases are handled on contingency, which means there are no attorney’s fees unless we recover for you. Criminal matters are quoted individually depending on the charge and its posture, and we explain the fee clearly before you retain us.