Every Florida felony sentence starts with arithmetic. The Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet — § 921.0024, Florida Statutes — converts your charge, your record, and the alleged harm into points, and the points set the floor the judge works from. If you or someone you love is facing a felony in Orange or Osceola County, understanding the scoresheet is understanding the case. Here is the math, current as of July 2026, with worked examples.
How the points are assigned
Every felony offense in Florida is ranked on a severity scale from Level 1 to Level 10. The primary offense — the most serious charge scored — earns points by its level:
| Offense level | Primary offense points | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1–2 | 4 / 10 | Lowest-severity felonies (many third-degree property offenses) |
| Level 3–4 | 16 / 22 | Grand theft, many fraud counts, felon-in-possession variants |
| Level 5–6 | 28 / 36 | Aggravated assault variants, burglary of a dwelling, higher thefts |
| Level 7–8 | 56 / 74 | Aggravated battery, trafficking tiers, robbery |
| Level 9–10 | 92 / 116 | Armed offenses, first-degree felonies against persons |
On top of the primary offense, the scoresheet adds points for additional counts, for your prior record, and — most powerfully — for victim injury: 4 points for slight injury, 18 for moderate, 40 for severe, 120 for death, with separate values for sexual offenses (40 for contact, 80 for penetration). Injury points stack onto the total and routinely do more damage to a defendant's position than the charge itself. Certain case types also carry multipliers and enhancements that scale the subtotal upward.
The 44-point line — and the formula above it
Two numbers decide the architecture of every scoresheet case:
At 44 points or below, a non-prison sentence — probation, community control, county jail time as a condition — is lawful. Not guaranteed: the judge may still impose prison up to the statutory maximum. But the door to a non-prison resolution is legally open, and skilled advocacy is about walking through it.
Above 44 points, prison becomes the presumptive baseline, and the lowest permissible sentence is set by formula: (total points − 28) × 0.75 = the minimum prison term in months. The judge cannot go below that number without a lawful downward-departure ground. At 363 points or more, a life sentence becomes permissible.
Three worked examples, using nothing but the verified statute:
Example one. A single Level 5 felony with no priors and no injury scores 28 points. That is under 44 — probation is on the table, and for a first offense it is often the fight worth having.
Example two. A single Level 7 felony scores 56 points. The formula gives (56 − 28) × 0.75 = 21 months as the floor. Every plea negotiation in that case is a negotiation about whether the resolution beats 21 months.
Example three. A Level 8 felony (74 points) with moderate victim injury (18 points) totals 92. The floor becomes (92 − 28) × 0.75 = 48 months. Notice what happened: the injury finding added over two years to the minimum before anyone discussed the facts. Scoresheet litigation — contesting injury classifications, consolidating counts, correcting prior-record entries — is sentencing defense.
What can move the number
Downward departure. Florida law (§ 921.0026) authorizes sentences below the calculated floor on specific, proven grounds — among the most used: the defendant's minor role in the offense, an unsophisticated and isolated offense paired with genuine remorse, the need for restitution outweighing prison, certain treatment-amenability circumstances, and legitimate, uncoerced plea bargains. Departures are not mercy; they are litigation. The ground must be plead, proven, and defended on the record or it evaporates on appeal.
Scoresheet accuracy. Prior-record points from misclassified out-of-state convictions, injury points unsupported by the evidence, counts scored that should have merged — scoresheet errors are common, and every erroneous point is 0.75 of a month someone would have served.
Charge architecture. The scoresheet begins with what the State chose to file. A Level 7 negotiated to a Level 5 does not shave the sentence — it changes the entire lawful range. This is why serious felony defense front-loads its effort into the charging window and the motion calendar rather than saving the argument for the sentencing hearing.
One caveat that overrides everything: statutory minimum mandatories — drug trafficking tiers, 10-20-Life firearm minimums — sit on top of the scoresheet. When a mandatory floor is higher than the formula's floor, the mandatory wins, and no departure ground can defeat it.
Common questions
No — under 44 means a non-prison sentence is lawful, not automatic. The judge retains discretion up to the statutory maximum of the charge. What the sub-44 score does is create the space for advocacy: mitigation, restitution posture, treatment plans, and negotiation all have somewhere to land. Above 44, that space has to be created by departure grounds or by changing the scoresheet itself.
The State Attorney prepares it, the defense checks it, and yes — they are wrong often enough that checking is malpractice-level mandatory. Common errors: out-of-state priors scored as higher-level Florida analogues, victim-injury points without evidentiary support, and additional counts scored when they should not be. Every point removed lowers the floor by three-quarters of a month.
They can — injury points attach to harm the evidence shows the offense caused, and they are litigated at sentencing, not assumed. The classification (slight vs. moderate vs. severe) is frequently contestable, and the difference is enormous: slight adds 4 points, severe adds 40. That single classification fight can swing the floor by more than two years.
Whichever floor is higher controls. A trafficking count might score a 25-month floor on the formula but carry a 3-year statutory minimum — the 36 months wins, and no downward departure can pierce it. This is why mandatory-minimum charges are fought at the charge level, not the sentencing level.
Yes — the most serious becomes the primary offense at full points and the rest score as additional offenses at reduced values, all summing into one total. This is why "just adding a count" is never harmless and why charge-bargaining (dropping or merging counts) is often worth more than sentence-bargaining.
Your scoresheet is a draft until the defense checks the math.
Related
Criminal Defense at Mack Law
A felony-only practice: how we work, what we defend, and why the first 72 hours matter.
Drug Trafficking & Minimum Mandatories
The § 893.135 weight thresholds — where mandatory floors override the scoresheet entirely.
Violent Felonies
Where injury points and enhancements drive exposure — and where they can be fought.
The Felony Process
Arrest to resolution in Orange County — the timeline, the hearings, and the decision points.
General information about Florida sentencing law — not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Point values, the 44-point threshold, and the lowest-permissible-sentence formula from § 921.0024, Florida Statutes; departure grounds from § 921.0026 (verified July 2026). Every case depends on its facts; prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.