BenchRecon Data Study · Florida
Florida criminal case outcomes by type of representation, 3,003,839 charges analyzed.
We grouped 3,003,839 Florida charge dispositions from the state's public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court data by the type of representation recorded, public defender, private attorney, self-represented, or court-assigned counsel, and report the recorded outcome rates for each. The breakdown is also shown within each charge category and county.
Read these as descriptive, not causal. These rates are not adjusted for charge severity, criminal history, or case facts, and they are not a measure of attorney performance or public-defender quality. Defendants with different representation differ systematically before any lawyer acts, who qualifies for a public defender, who can afford private counsel, who proceeds pro se, so the differences below largely reflect who is in each group (selection effects), not what the representation did. Nothing here ranks one type of representation against another.
“Incarceration” means a sentence to county jail or state prison; the rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence (a lower bound). Dispositions span 1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20 (96.9% from 2000 or later; median disposition year 2022); the figures are not time-normalized.
Aggregate analysis. Reproducible from public records. No individual defendant, charge, or case is identified.
3,003,839charge dispositions with a recorded representation type
5representation types broken out
10charge categories broken down by representation
70.3%of all charges have a recorded representation type
Statewide outcomes by type of representation
The recorded outcome rates for each type of representation across all Florida charges. The differences are large, but, as the caveat above explains, they reflect differences in who each type of representation serves at least as much as anything else. The same caution applies to every table on this page.
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 1,362,144 | 57.5% | 91 days | 16.1% | 5.5% | 3.1% |
| Private Attorney | 811,929 | 38.2% | 303 days | 24% | 12.4% | 4% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 751,013 | 28.1% | 39 days | 26.4% | 11.2% | 6.7% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 41,131 | 72.5% | 914 days | 9.2% | 1.5% | 1.7% |
| Conflict Counsel | 37,622 | 71.4% | 364 days | 14.8% | 3.9% | 1.8% |
Methodology & limitations
Source & method
- Source: public Florida FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court case data. Snapshot analyzed: 2026-06-21.
- Population: 3,003,839 charge dispositions whose recorded type of representation is one of the published categories, 70.3% of all 4,273,369 charges. The grain is one charge, not one case.
- Type of representation: the FDLE COUNSEL_CATEGORY field, public defender, private attorney, self-represented, and the two court-assigned categories (court-appointed private counsel and conflict counsel).
- Excluded representation classes: records with a blank representation type (about a quarter of all charges, representation simply unknown) and a heterogeneous “Other” catch-all (whose outcome profile is dominated by non-criminal and administrative dispositions) are excluded entirely so they cannot be mistaken for a representation type.
- “Incarceration” defined: a charge is counted as incarceration only when its sentence is a sentence to county jail or state prison. The rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence, a lower bound, because the source confinement field is blank when no custodial sentence is recorded.
- Median confinement: the median maximum confinement term, in days, among the charges in a cell that resulted in a jail or prison sentence with a positive term. Reported only where at least 10 such charges exist.
- Small cells suppressed: any cell with fewer than 10 charges is excluded from every figure.
- Reproducible: every figure is regenerated by a verification script run against the public FDLE CJDT source data, and the aggregate is published as a downloadable CSV.
What the data does NOT show
- Not causal. Not a quality ranking. These rates are not adjusted for charge severity, criminal history, plea posture, or case facts. They are not a measure of attorney performance and not a measure of public-defender quality. Nothing here says one type of representation is better or worse than another.
- Selection effects dominate. Defendants with different representation are not comparable groups. Public defenders represent indigent defendants, who, before any lawyer acts, more often face serious charges, prior records, and pretrial detention, all of which independently raise the incarceration rate. A higher recorded rate for a representation type reflects who is in that group, not what the representation did.
- A floor, not a true rate. The confinement field is populated only when a custodial sentence is recorded, so the incarceration rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence, a lower bound.
- Not time-normalized. The figures pool every disposition in the extract regardless of year (1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20).
- Charge category is coarse. A statute-chapter grouping mixes offenses of very different severity, so even the within-charge tables do not hold severity constant.
- No individual defendant, charge, or case is identified. This study reports aggregates only.
By charge category
The same breakdown within each of Florida's highest-volume charge categories. Looking within a charge category narrows, but does not eliminate, the selection problem: a statute-chapter grouping still mixes offenses of very different severity, and the groups still differ in criminal history and pretrial posture. Read these as descriptive within-category rates, not as the effect of representation.
Drug Abuse Prevention and Control (752,630 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 273,420 | 67.1% | 97 days | 19.6% | 3.4% | 1% |
| Private Attorney | 124,662 | 56.2% | 364 days | 21.5% | 7.5% | 1.2% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 87,381 | 55.8% | 120 days | 25.5% | 5.3% | 1.4% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 10,342 | 72.7% | 548 days | 9.2% | 1.1% | 1.6% |
| Conflict Counsel | 8,866 | 74.3% | 241 days | 16.6% | 2.6% | 0.9% |
Driver Licenses (688,906 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self or Unrepresented | 201,538 | 12.8% | 12 days | 37.2% | 21.1% | 3.3% |
| Public Defender | 139,997 | 41.5% | 30 days | 16.4% | 11.1% | 1.8% |
| Private Attorney | 127,773 | 14.5% | 30 days | 33.2% | 21.3% | 2.6% |
| Conflict Counsel | 1,484 | 60.8% | 60 days | 11.3% | 5.2% | 1.2% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 1,383 | 52% | 90 days | 7.2% | 0.3% | 0.7% |
Theft, Robbery, and Related Crimes (450,205 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 178,029 | 65% | 178 days | 14.8% | 4.5% | 1.1% |
| Private Attorney | 72,819 | 48% | 364 days | 19.7% | 16.7% | 1.6% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 49,498 | 44.2% | 60 days | 23.9% | 12.7% | 2.4% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 6,551 | 78.7% | 1,096 days | 8.9% | 1.6% | 0.6% |
| Conflict Counsel | 6,323 | 73.2% | 366 days | 14.6% | 4.9% | 1% |
State Uniform Traffic Control (340,438 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Attorney | 114,859 | 25.1% | 30 days | 27.9% | 5.5% | 0.8% |
| Public Defender | 81,364 | 46.2% | 60 days | 12.7% | 3.3% | 1.2% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 53,898 | 30.8% | 37 days | 18.6% | 3.5% | 0.9% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 1,024 | 63.5% | 731 days | 5.8% | 0.7% | 1.3% |
| Conflict Counsel | 1,000 | 69% | 311 days | 7.3% | 2.8% | 1.1% |
Assault; Battery; Culpable Negligence (317,965 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 137,939 | 56.4% | 150 days | 17.4% | 10.8% | 2.6% |
| Private Attorney | 66,145 | 40.6% | 214 days | 25% | 19.9% | 2% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 27,660 | 46.8% | 91 days | 24.5% | 10% | 3.4% |
| Conflict Counsel | 4,210 | 68.1% | 364 days | 16.2% | 5.7% | 2.2% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 3,850 | 67.7% | 731 days | 11.1% | 3% | 1.4% |
Burglary and Trespass (286,404 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 129,495 | 63% | 97 days | 12.5% | 2.6% | 2.9% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 39,852 | 57.5% | 15 days | 13% | 2.1% | 2.5% |
| Private Attorney | 39,733 | 54.1% | 366 days | 17.2% | 7.7% | 2% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 3,803 | 80% | 1,461 days | 9.9% | 1.4% | 0.6% |
| Conflict Counsel | 3,473 | 75% | 456 days | 15.3% | 3.2% | 1.2% |
Obstructing Justice (202,216 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 81,316 | 57.5% | 56 days | 15.2% | 4.6% | 3.6% |
| Private Attorney | 32,331 | 38.8% | 91 days | 21.4% | 12% | 2.1% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 25,332 | 52.8% | 30 days | 20.2% | 4.9% | 3.7% |
| Conflict Counsel | 1,947 | 66.8% | 150 days | 13.5% | 3.6% | 4.4% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 1,641 | 61.2% | 364 days | 9.9% | 1.8% | 1.3% |
Motor Vehicle Licenses (91,040 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self or Unrepresented | 27,758 | 7.7% | 10 days | 32.5% | 35.8% | 5.6% |
| Public Defender | 15,034 | 28.1% | 20 days | 20.8% | 18.6% | 5.8% |
| Private Attorney | 12,968 | 8.6% | 30 days | 34.2% | 24% | 16.8% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 126 | 25.4% | 60 days | 19% | 2.4% | 4.8% |
| Conflict Counsel | 99 | 37.4% | 60 days | 20.2% | 10.1% | 5.1% |
Weapons and Firearms (83,415 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 30,145 | 68.3% | 366 days | 18% | 3.9% | 1.7% |
| Private Attorney | 23,806 | 59.5% | 591 days | 21.5% | 7.1% | 1.5% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 5,413 | 58.6% | 411 days | 20.9% | 5.7% | 1.9% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 1,704 | 83% | 1,662 days | 7% | 0.4% | 2% |
| Conflict Counsel | 1,490 | 79.4% | 1,096 days | 11.7% | 1.8% | 1.9% |
Arson and Criminal Mischief (74,767 charges statewide)
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 30,770 | 57.9% | 71 days | 18.1% | 6.2% | 2% |
| Private Attorney | 13,338 | 40.8% | 120 days | 25.1% | 15.7% | 1.4% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 6,678 | 44.8% | 59 days | 23.5% | 6.4% | 3.3% |
| Conflict Counsel | 1,102 | 68.6% | 150 days | 21% | 5.6% | 0.9% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 935 | 67.7% | 364 days | 12.4% | 2.4% | 1.2% |
By indigent status
Outcomes by recorded indigent status and type of representation. Indigent status is itself part of the selection story, indigence is the gateway to a public defender, and it correlates with the case characteristics that drive outcomes, so this cut illustrates the confound rather than resolving it. Records with unknown indigent status are excluded.
Indigent: Yes
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Defender | 579,524 | 61.5% | 75 days | 18.5% | 6.4% | 3.9% |
| Private Attorney | 100,472 | 61.6% | 364 days | 18.3% | 6.2% | 2.1% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 35,459 | 53% | 77 days | 17.3% | 3.9% | 2% |
| Conflict Counsel | 16,665 | 75% | 364 days | 16.5% | 3.3% | 1.9% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 15,473 | 81.9% | 1,050 days | 10.7% | 1.1% | 1.6% |
Indigent: No
| Type of representation | Charges | Incarceration | Median confinement (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion | Dismissed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Attorney | 497,026 | 36.5% | 364 days | 24.2% | 9.1% | 4.7% |
| Public Defender | 424,881 | 51.1% | 180 days | 15.3% | 3.8% | 2.9% |
| Self or Unrepresented | 398,276 | 34.3% | 60 days | 25.7% | 4% | 9.4% |
| Court Private or Assigned Counsel | 23,270 | 65.2% | 1,035 days | 7.9% | 1.5% | 1.7% |
| Conflict Counsel | 9,938 | 61% | 366 days | 14.6% | 3.9% | 2.3% |
Cite this analysis
Journalists and researchers, please link to this page as the source, and please preserve the descriptive, not-causal framing when you cite the figures.
BenchRecon, “Florida criminal case outcomes by type of representation” (descriptive, uncontrolled aggregates; FDLE CJDT Clerk-of-Court data, 2026-06-21). https://benchrecon.com/florida/representation-outcomes
Download the full aggregate as a CSV file to reproduce or re-analyze any figure. See also the Florida sentencing outcomes by county and charge study and the Florida criminal statutes reference.
Get the comparables for your charge and county
BenchRecon's Sentencing Comparables work from this same public data, returning the outcome distribution for a specific charge in a specific Florida county, with every figure cited to the underlying record.
Common questions
- What is this data and where does it come from?
- It is a descriptive, uncontrolled aggregate analysis of 3,003,839 charge dispositions from Florida's public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) statewide Clerk-of-Court case data, broken down by the type of representation recorded for the charge. It is reproducible from the public source data and identifies no individual.
- Does this rank one type of representation against another?
- No. These are descriptive, uncontrolled rates. They are not adjusted for charge severity, criminal history, plea posture, or the facts of any case, and they cannot be read as a measure of attorney performance or public-defender quality. Defendants with different representation differ systematically before any lawyer is involved: who qualifies for a public defender (indigent defendants, often facing more serious charges and pretrial detention), who can afford private counsel, and who proceeds pro se are not comparable groups. The differences below largely reflect who is in each group (selection effects), not what the representation did. Nothing here implies that one type of representation produces a different result than another for a comparable defendant.
- Why does the public-defender column often show a higher incarceration rate?
- Because public defenders represent indigent defendants by definition, and indigence correlates with more serious charges, prior records, and pretrial detention, which independently raise the incarceration rate. This is a composition difference between the groups, not evidence about the quality of public defense. Comparing raw outcome rates across representation types without those controls would be misleading, which is exactly why this page reports the rates as descriptive and refuses to rank representation types.
- How is 'incarceration' defined, and is the rate exact?
- A charge counts as incarceration only when its sentence is a sentence to county jail or state prison. The rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence, a lower bound, because the source confinement field is blank when no custodial sentence is recorded. The under-recording applies across all representation types, so it does not by itself drive the direction of the differences, but every rate should be read as descriptive only.
- Why are some representation types or cells missing?
- Two representation classes are excluded entirely: records where the type of representation is blank (about a quarter of all charges, where representation is simply unknown) and a heterogeneous "Other" catch-all whose outcome profile is dominated by non-criminal and administrative dispositions. Any individual cell with fewer than 10 charges is also suppressed for statistical reliability and privacy.
- Can I use these figures for a specific case?
- No. These are unadjusted statewide and county aggregates and cannot predict any specific case, which depends on its charge, facts, and history. For sentencing comparables tailored to a specific charge and county, see the Sentencing Comparables tool, which works from the same public data and cites every figure.