Supreme Court of Florida - January 2003 Opinion Summaries

THOMAS v. STATE OF FLORIDA

Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus
In a motion for postconviction relief, claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on allowing defendant to waive the right to appeal,...

BUTLER v. STATE OF FLORIDA

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing
A trial court may sentence a defendant to a term in excess of the statutory maximum for an offense committed after October 1, 1998, where the lowest...

CAUFIELD v. CANTELE

Attorney's Fees, Contracts, Injury & Tort Law, Property Law & Real Estate
Plenary appeal is proper for a district court to review a trial court determination of attorneys' fees and costs after voluntary dismissal, and the...

RYKIEL v. RYKIEL

Civil Procedure, Family Law, Tax Law
A divorce decree may provide that alimony payments are to be excluded from the gross income of the payee and not deducted by the payor, and in such a...

DERIUS v. ALLSTATE INDEM. CO.

Attorney's Fees, Health Law, Injury & Tort Law, Insurance Law
The decision of United Auto. Ins. Co. v. Rodriguez, 808 So.2d 82 (2001), rendered erroneous certain language, contained in Perez v. State Farm Fire...

GETHERS v. STATE OF FLORIDA

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing
Absent the execution of an arrest warrant, a defendant who is in jail in a specific county pursuant to an arrest on one or more charges need not be...

CARIBBEAN CONSERVATION CORP. v. FLORIDA FISH & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMM'N

Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Environmental Law
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has regulatory and executive powers with respect to marine life, but the Department of...

STATE OF FLORIDA v. ABREU

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
Section 90.803(22), Florida Statutes, is unconstitutional in criminal proceedings to the extent that it allows the prosecutor to use at trial a...

ASHLEY v. STATE OF FLORIDA

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing
A trial court can correct a "scrivener's error" during sentencing without violating double jeopardy, where defendant had no expectation of finality...