Floridas Stand Your Ground Law: What You Need to Know

The legal cite for the Justifiable Use of Force law that Stand Your Ground amended is Fla. Stat. 776-2011. Stand Your Ground removes the duty to retreat that used to be a basic requirement of selfdefense law. Allows an individual to remain in a potentially dangerous situation and meet force with force, including deadly force if they reasonably feel that they are in danger of great bodily harm. Stand Your Ground provides immunity from prosecution, civil actions and even detention or individuals who claim self-defense under this law. Stand Your Ground expressly states that police may not even arrest individuals unless police can determine probable cause that the alleged self-defense was unlawful. Stand Your Ground removes the decision regarding whether the individuals fear of great bodily harm was reasonable from the judge and/or jury and leaves it solely in the hands of the police. Stand Your Ground provides for the awarding of attorney fees, in a civil action, for a defendant if it is determined that they were entitled to the protection of this law. The exact language of the amended Justifiable Use of Force law, otherwise known as Stand Your Ground, Fla. Stat. 776.013(3), 776.041(1)-(3) is as follows:
776.013(3) A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony. 776.041(1)-(3) (1) A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer. As used in this subsection, the term criminal prosecution includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting the defendant.

(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection
(1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful. (3)The court shall award reasonable attorneys fees, court costs, compensation for loss of income, and all expenses incurred by the defendant in defense of any civil action brought by a plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant is immune from prosecution as provided in subsection (1).