Rory Gene Safir

Rory Safir is a DUI and criminal defense attorney in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the founder of Safir Injury & Criminal Defense Law. He is one of fewer than 120 attorneys nationwide, and as of this writing one of only six in Florida, to earn the ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist designation from the American Chemical Society. That designation means he is trained to challenge forensic evidence using the same scientific principles crime labs and toxicologists use to produce it.

Rory earned the designation after intensive hands-on training at Axion Analytical Labs in Chicago, where he studied forensic gas chromatography, pharmacology, and toxicology. He knows how DUI blood testing works because he has run the machines himself, and that background lets him find errors in chemical testing that other attorneys miss. His criminal practice centers on DUI defense, with a heavy emphasis on cases involving breath, blood, and urine evidence and drug DUIs. He is recognized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as both a practitioner and an instructor of Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, qualified to teach law enforcement officers and attorneys how the roadside exercises are supposed to be administered, and he serves on two national task force committees of the National College for DUI Defense: alcohol and drug testing devices, and trial advocacy. He also holds a 10.0 Justia Lawyer Rating based on reviews from fellow attorneys.

Rory wrote the book on Florida DUI in the most literal sense: he is the author of "Arrested for DUI in Florida: What a Forensic Lawyer-Scientist Wants You to Know Before You Plead," along with two companion books on Florida injury law, "Hurt in a Florida Car Crash" and "Hurt on Someone Else's Property."

Before founding his firm, Rory served as an Assistant Public Defender in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in Tampa, where he defended hundreds of cases and earned a reputation as a tough, strategic trial attorney. Alongside his criminal defense work, he represents injured people in car crash and premises liability cases across Tampa Bay, and he is a member of the National Association of Premises Liability Attorneys.

Clients rely on Rory to challenge unreliable evidence, expose flawed science, and deliver a personalized, aggressive defense. He does not blindly trust the government's science; he checks the data himself. If your case involves breath, blood, or urine evidence in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa, or anywhere in the surrounding Tampa Bay counties, you need a defense attorney who speaks the language of the lab. Rory Safir is that lawyer.