Stephen Cobb | Fort Walton Beach - Destin Criminal Defense Lawyer

When a postal worker was falsely accused of racing on the highway resulting in the death of a local senior, a little over a year of hard work resulted in an acquittal and complete exoneration for charges that included Vehicular homicide. When a family contacted me because a family member was arrested while experiencing a mental health breakdown, we were able to get a dismissal negotiated after the prosecutor saw the brain images which proved my client needed treatment, not harsh punishment.

People don't care how much you know until they know you care. We created and continuously update our success system, Coping with Stress During Criminal Prosecution, in order to help individuals and their entire families with a support system designed to provide around the clock support.

Someone in need of legal services can make their search easy simply by limiting their search to lawyers who are officially certified as a Board Certified Specialist. Social media ratings are not recognized by the Bar. They have no meaning other than to give uncertified lawyers false credentials for selling legal services to gullible consumers. In my field, a consumer can slog through over 100,000 lawyers or select from the >1% who are official experts in their field and still have over 300 to choose from.

The single most effective way to use local knowledge is to use it for the legal equivalent of good cop, bad cop. One lawyer is the "good lawyer" while the other play the "bad lawyer" role. This is more effective than most would believe until they see the results.

The most important information you need to know: what to do and what not to do. Most will instinctively do harmful things to their case while mistakenly believing they are helping themselves. Criminal law is like walking through a minefield, and the mines that can blow up your life are not marked to make it easy to find them.

Every criminal case must have an intake interview so that we have a brief statement of facts that are known, names of those involved, prior record (if any) and some other information. Without this information beforehand, the free initial consultation time gets wasted collecting it, the time expires, and the prospective client has learned nothing useful. I believe an initial consultation is a time for the legal specialist to educate and advise the client, both parties decide whether or not to move forward with retention, fees and costs must be discussed, and the objectives of representation must be clear.

Less than 1% of Florida lawyers are certified by the Florida Bar, and I am one of them. Yet the biggest distinction is that I am the leading legal expert on the use of SPECT brain imaging in criminal cases worldwide. See, Chapter 14, The Brain Defense by Kevin Davis.

I am able to help people, whether they are dealing with a false accusation or facing over punishment. With my brain imaging mitigation cases, I am able to help people get the brain treatment needed instead of harsh punishment which does nothing for society or the person accused. 100% of the people guilty of crimes that I have sent for brain imaging studies since 2005 have had abnormal brain scans: we have the technology to solve the very problem of crime itself and to change the foundation of the criminal justice system from crime and punishment to crime and treatment. This is my mission in life. People are suffering, we can end it, the time to do it is now.

My day starts at 5 a.m with a quick round of exercise and then I get to work immediately until the job is done. Then, it's rather common (and expected) to find me surf casting off of the beach as I have since childhood. I also enjoy travel, language learning and tournament axe throwing.

Yes: there are too many groups of people that are targeted and picked on. My surf casting has been far more interrupted by aggressive police officers harassing young people hoping to find a reason to arrest them for underage drinking than by rowdy teenage drinkers. I see people being pulled over and hassle searched on the beach roads because they have a person of color in their vehicle, because they are young, because they have a license plate from a state that legalized marijuana, etc., and will never be silenced: this type of government aggression is wrong and not to be tolerated.

• Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Okaloosa-Walton chapter) | Past President | 2007 - Present
  Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Okaloosa-Walton chapter) | Secretary | 2006 - 2008
  Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,(Okaloosa-Walton Chapter) | President | 2002 - 2006
  Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Okaloosa-Walton chapter) | Member | 2002 - Present
  National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers | Member | 2000 - Present
  Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers | Member | 1998 - Present
  The Florida Bar Association | Member | 1989 - Present

• Top Ten Award | National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys | 2014
  Invitation Only Membership, Peer Recognition | National Trial Lawyers Association | 2013
  Certified Criminal Trial Law Expert (recertification) | The Florida Bar Board of Legal Education and Specialization | 2012
  Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist (recertification) | Florida Bar Board of Legal Education and Specialization | 2007
  Initial Certification, Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist | Florida Bar Board of Legal Education and Specialization | 2002
  Recognized | Who's Who of Business and Executives USA | 2000

• Anonymized case results: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  Most law firms just put up the cases that they have won. The truth is, even the best lawyers have cases they have lost. Quite often, this is because a client ignored the specialist’s advice and took a case to trial when they should have settled. So, we did something different at Cobb Law Firm: we put our worst losses first. Everyone on your team believes in candor towards you, the client. The link is pretty candid, and none of our past clients have been identified. In or experience, the last thing anyone charged with a crime wants to happen is to have their dirty laundry aired over the Internet forever. Thus these results are real cases involving real people, but we have left the identifying data out.

• Florida Criminal Law (2017), Sunshine Publishing in conjunction with Speakeasy Marketing

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