Orlando Civil
Rights Attorneys

Civil rights law exists because the Constitution is only as strong as the remedies behind it. When a police officer uses force far beyond what a situation called for, when someone is arrested with no probable cause, or when a jail ignores an obvious medical emergency, the person harmed is usually facing an institution with its own lawyers, its own investigators and every incentive to conclude that nothing went wrong.

King Law was built to represent individuals in exactly that position. We bring claims against law enforcement agencies, municipalities, corrections officials and other government actors in Orlando and throughout Central Florida, in both state court and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division.

These cases are difficult by design. Officers are protected by qualified immunity, cities can only be sued in limited circumstances, and Florida law imposes notice requirements and damages caps that do not apply to ordinary lawsuits. Knowing those rules early is often what determines whether a claim survives at all.

The Federal Route: Section 1983

Most constitutional claims against state and local officials are brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a Reconstruction-era statute that lets a person sue anyone who, acting under color of state law, deprives them of a federal constitutional or statutory right. Section 1983 does not create rights of its own. It is the vehicle that carries an underlying constitutional claim into court — most often a Fourth Amendment claim about an unreasonable search, seizure or use of force, or a Fourteenth Amendment claim about the conditions of confinement.

Two features of § 1983 matter enormously in practice. First, the defendant must have acted under color of state law, which is why the analysis differs sharply between a sworn deputy, an off-duty officer working private security and a purely private citizen. Second, if the case succeeds, 42 U.S.C. § 1988 allows a prevailing plaintiff to recover reasonable attorney’s fees from the defendant. That fee-shifting provision is the reason meritorious constitutional cases can be brought by people who could never pay hourly rates.

Qualified Immunity and Suing the Agency Itself

Qualified immunity shields an individual officer from damages unless the officer violated a constitutional right that was "clearly established" at the time. In practice, courts ask whether existing precedent had already placed the unlawfulness of the specific conduct beyond debate. This is why civil rights litigation is so precedent-driven: the question is frequently not only whether the conduct was wrong, but whether a prior case had already said so clearly enough.

Suing the city or county instead is not a way around that problem, because local governments are not liable simply for employing the officer who caused the harm. Under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), a municipality is liable under § 1983 only where the violation was caused by its own official policy, a widespread custom amounting to policy, a decision by a final policymaker, or a failure to train or supervise that reflects deliberate indifference. Establishing that usually requires digging into training records, use-of-force reporting, prior complaints and internal affairs files rather than just the facts of a single incident.

Florida State-Law Claims and Sovereign Immunity

Alongside a federal claim, the same incident can often support Florida state-law claims such as battery, false arrest and false imprisonment, negligence, or malicious prosecution. These run on a different and considerably less forgiving track.

Florida waives sovereign immunity only within the limits of Fla. Stat. § 768.28. Before suing a state agency or political subdivision, a claimant generally must present a written notice of claim to the appropriate agency and, for state agencies, to the Department of Financial Services, and must do so within the period the statute sets. Missing that presuit notice can bar an otherwise strong claim outright. Section 768.28 also caps recovery against government defendants, and § 768.28(9)(a) generally shields the individual employee from personal liability unless they acted in bad faith, with malicious purpose, or in a manner exhibiting wanton and willful disregard for human rights or safety.

The strategic consequence is that a case against a Florida agency frequently needs to be evaluated as a federal case and a state case at once, with different defendants, different immunities, different caps and different deadlines.

Deadlines Are Shorter Than People Expect

Section 1983 has no statute of limitations of its own; federal courts borrow the forum state’s limitations period for personal injury claims. Florida’s limitations framework was significantly amended in 2023, which has created genuine uncertainty about the governing period for claims accruing after those amendments took effect. Because of that, we treat every civil rights inquiry as potentially time-sensitive rather than assuming the longer period applies.

State-law claims against government defendants carry their own presuit notice window under § 768.28, which can expire well before any lawsuit would otherwise need to be filed. If you believe your rights were violated, the safest assumption is that some clock is already running. Contacting a lawyer early costs nothing and preserves options that cannot be recovered later.

Evidence Disappears Quickly

Civil rights cases are won and lost on records that have short retention windows. Body-worn camera and dashboard camera footage, jail booking video, CAD and dispatch logs, radio traffic, use-of-force reports, and nearby business or doorbell surveillance can all be overwritten or discarded on routine schedules. Sending preservation demands promptly is often the single most valuable early step in a case.

In the meantime, there are things you can do. Seek medical attention and keep every record, because contemporaneous documentation of injuries is far more persuasive than a later description. Photograph visible injuries as they develop, since bruising often becomes more apparent over the following days. Write down what happened while it is fresh, including officer names, badge numbers, vehicle numbers and the identity of any witness. Request a copy of the incident report and any citation. Do not post about the incident publicly — those posts are routinely used to impeach the person who wrote them.