MANATEE COUNTY-BRADENTON DUI DEFENSE ATTORNEYS

Manatee County, Florida is located on the West Coast of Florida just south of the sunshine skyway Bridge.  The brand new Manatee County Judicial Center is located at 1051 Manatee Avenue West in Bradenton, FL 34205.  The Judicial complex was recently completed and its has state of the art technology.  There were 1,187 DUI arrests in Manatee County in 2007.  A majority of the DUI arrests were conducted by the DUI unit of the Manatee County Sheriffs Office.  That unit typically has 4-5 deputies whose primary enforcement is DUI and traffic offenses.  Almost all of the Manatee County DUI squad deputies have vehicles that are equipped with radar, lasers, and video cameras.  In addition, most of these deputies have attended advanced training in DUI detection and enforcement, field sobriety testing, and breath test operations.

There are two criminal Judges assigned to listen to cases at the Manatee County Judicial Center.  Currently, Judge K. Douglas Henderson is assigned to criminal division 1.  That means that Judge Henderson is assigned criminal cases where the Defendant's first letter of the alphabet is from A-L.  The other county court Judge is the Honorable Robert Farrance.  Judge Farrance is assigned to listen to criminal cases for the second half of the alphabet.  Typically, your first court appearance in the Manatee County Judicial Complex is about 30-45 days after your arrest.  That court date is an arraignment and is the first opportunity to answer to the criminal charge under Florida law.  Since most DUI cases are not resolved at the arraignment, the case will automatically get continued to another court date referred to as a pre-trial conference.  If the case is not resolved with a negotiation, then the case will end up being tried to a Jury.  Every DUI defendant is entitled to a Jury trial and the Jury's verdict must be unanimous.  

If you have a pending DUI case in Manatee County, Florida call our office at 1-800-FIGHT-IT.  In addition check out our case results.  Although every case is different, this is a great indication of our past results.