Orlando False
Arrest Attorneys

Being arrested for something you did not do is disorienting in a way that is hard to convey. Beyond the hours or days in custody, there is the booking photograph, the record that shows up in background checks, the missed work, and sometimes the job that does not survive it. People frequently assume that because the charges were later dropped, the arrest itself must have been unlawful. That is not how the legal test works.

King Law handles false arrest and false imprisonment claims in Orlando and throughout Central Florida, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the federal constitutional violation and, where appropriate, under Florida common law against the arresting agency.

Probable Cause Is the Whole Question

A warrantless arrest is constitutional if it was supported by probable cause. Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time would lead a reasonable person to believe that the individual had committed an offence. It is a lower bar than the proof required for conviction — considerably lower — and it does not require the officer to be correct.

This is the point most often misunderstood. An officer can arrest someone who turns out to be entirely innocent without violating the Constitution, provided the information they had at the time met the probable cause threshold. Conversely, an arrest made without probable cause is unlawful even if evidence discovered later would have justified it. The analysis is frozen at the moment of the arrest, based on what the officer actually knew.

Related to this is arguable probable cause, which is how qualified immunity operates in this context. Even if a court concludes there was no actual probable cause, the officer is generally immune if a reasonable officer in the same circumstances could have believed probable cause existed. In practice, defeating a false arrest claim requires showing not merely that the officer was wrong, but that no reasonable officer could have thought the arrest was justified.

Florida Arrest Authority

Florida sets out when an officer may make a warrantless arrest in Fla. Stat. § 901.15, which includes situations such as a felony or misdemeanour committed in the officer’s presence, probable cause to believe a felony has been committed, and specific statutory categories including certain domestic violence and battery circumstances. Where an arrest falls outside any statutory authorisation, that failure can support both a state-law claim and evidence relevant to the federal one.

Florida also recognises false imprisonment, which covers unlawful restraint of a person against their will and does not require formal booking. Being detained in a patrol car, a back office or a holding area without lawful justification can qualify. A closely related claim is malicious prosecution, which requires more than a bad arrest: it generally requires that a criminal proceeding was commenced against you without probable cause, with malice, and that it terminated in your favour, causing damage.

Sovereign Immunity and Presuit Notice

State-law false arrest claims against a Florida agency run through Fla. Stat. § 768.28, the limited waiver of sovereign immunity. A claimant generally must serve a written notice of claim on the appropriate agency — and, for state agencies, on the Department of Financial Services — within the statutory period before filing suit. That requirement is strictly applied, and missing it can extinguish a claim that was otherwise sound.

Section 768.28 also caps recoverable damages against government entities and generally shields the individual officer from personal liability unless they acted in bad faith, with malicious purpose, or with wanton and willful disregard for human rights or safety. Because that standard is demanding, the federal § 1983 claim is often where the substantive weight of a false arrest case sits.

How the Criminal Case Affects the Civil One

How your criminal case ended shapes what civil claims remain available. Under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), you generally cannot pursue a § 1983 claim that would necessarily imply an outstanding conviction was invalid. A conviction on the charge you were arrested for is therefore usually fatal to a false arrest claim based on that same charge.

Outcomes short of conviction are treated differently, and the differences are technical. A dismissal, a nolle prosequi, an acquittal, or a no-information filing each carry different implications, and some resolutions that feel favourable — certain diversion programmes or pleas to a lesser offence — can complicate a subsequent claim considerably. Withheld adjudication in Florida raises its own questions.

The practical takeaway is that decisions made in the criminal case can quietly foreclose the civil one. If you are currently facing charges and believe the arrest was unlawful, that is a reason to have both matters considered together rather than sequentially.

What Helps Your Claim

Keep every piece of paper generated by the arrest: the arrest affidavit, the probable cause affidavit, the notice to appear or citation, booking and release records, bond paperwork and the eventual disposition. The arrest affidavit is especially important because it states the officer’s own contemporaneous account of what they believed and why, which is the exact material the probable cause analysis examines.

Document the consequences, since they are what damages are measured by. Time in custody, bond or bail paid, legal fees incurred defending the charge, wages lost, employment or professional licensing consequences, and the effects on your housing or schooling all count. Keep pay records and any written communication from an employer.

Preserve anything that contradicts the official narrative: receipts, timestamped photographs, phone location history, messages, or witnesses who can place you elsewhere. And note nearby cameras, because body camera footage and third-party surveillance are often overwritten within weeks.