{"id":893,"date":"2021-09-06T11:28:55","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=893"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:38:06","slug":"florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Discusses Penalties for Traffic Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While people often think of traffic offenses as minor infractions, they can often result in significant penalties. Additionally, the sentencing guidelines for traffic violations carry the same weight as other crimes, and if a court fails to provide them their due regard, it may result in the reversal of a sentence. This was demonstrated in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/edca.4dca.org\/DCADocs\/2021\/0347\/210347_DC13_09152021_104238_i.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florida opinion<\/a> issued in a traffic case in which the State appealed the sentence imposed on the defendant as illegal. If you are charged with a traffic offense, it is critical to retain an assertive Clearwater traffic violation defense lawyer to help you protect your rights.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>History of the Case <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is alleged that the police stopped the defendant for running a stop sign. During the stop, the officer learned that the defendant\u2019s license was suspended. As such, the defendant was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license. The traffic citation and probable cause affidavit indicated that the defendant had three prior convictions for driving with a suspended license.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, however, the information only listed on a prior conviction for driving with a suspended license. The defendant entered a no-contest plea in exchange for a sentence of payment of court cost and an adjudication. The State objected, arguing that the statute defining the offense required a mandatory ten-day jail sentence for third and subsequent convictions. The court denied the State\u2019s objections, adjudicated the defendant guilty, and required him to pay court costs. The State then appealed, arguing the sentence was illegal. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/#more-893\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While people often think of traffic offenses as minor infractions, they can often result in significant penalties. Additionally, the sentencing guidelines for traffic violations carry the same weight as other crimes, and if a court fails to provide them their due regard, it may result in the reversal of a sentence. This was demonstrated in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traffic-violation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Criminal Appeal: Penalties Traffic Violations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Pinellas County, a criminal charge case can hinge on penalties traffic violations. See how this ruling your defense. See what may help your defense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Criminal Appeal: Penalties Traffic Violations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In Pinellas County, a criminal charge case can hinge on penalties traffic violations. See how this ruling your defense. See what may help your defense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Criminal Appeal: Penalties Traffic Violations","description":"In Pinellas County, a criminal charge case can hinge on penalties traffic violations. See how this ruling your defense. See what may help your defense.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Criminal Appeal: Penalties Traffic Violations","twitter_description":"In Pinellas County, a criminal charge case can hinge on penalties traffic violations. See how this ruling your defense. See what may help your defense.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Florida Court Discusses Penalties for Traffic Violations","datePublished":"2021-09-06T15:28:55+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:38:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/"},"wordCount":526,"articleSection":["Traffic Violation"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-penalties-for-traffic-violations\/","name":"Criminal Appeal: Penalties Traffic Violations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-09-06T15:28:55+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:38:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"In Pinellas County, a criminal charge case can hinge on penalties traffic violations. 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