You may be charged with a Florida DUI (known as DWI or OUI in some states) if law enforcement believes you were driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. You will be charged with driving (or boating) while intoxicated if tests show you drove with any amount of drugs in your system -- including some legally prescribed drugs as well as street drugs -- or a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or greater. For drivers under age 21, that legal limit drops to just 0.02%. For commercial drivers (such as truckers and delivery drivers), it’s 0.04%.

Your tolerance, weight and physical fitness level are not important when determining whether you are “legally drunk.” A 100-pound woman and a 250-pound athlete are both considered legally impaired if tests show they both have a BAC of 0.08%, even though one may be substantially more intoxicated. Similarly, it does not matter whether the vehicle was even on -- sleeping in the backseat of a parked car is enough to establish that the vehicle was under your “control.”

A first DUI is only a misdemeanor in Florida, but because drunk driving can and does lead to deaths, law enforcement and society take it very seriously. A DUI conviction has multiple criminal and civil penalties, as well as non-legal consequences that can make life harder for the driver. For a first drunk driving conviction, offenders face:

• A night in jail (up to eight hours or until the offender is no longer intoxicated)
• Up to six months in jail after conviction
• A fine of $500 to $1,000
• Fifty hours of community service, or a fine of $10 per hour of service
• Optional probation for up to a year
• Mandatory DUI classes
• For most offenders, impoundment of the vehicle for up to 10 days
• Driver’s license revoked for six months to a year
• An instant and steep increase in auto insurance premiums

Naturally, those penalties only increase after subsequent convictions. They also rise, even on a first offense, if the accused had a BAC if 0.15% or greater; had a minor in the vehicle; or was involved in an accident of any kind. People with commercial driver’s licenses will lose their commercial licenses for a year.

If you’re facing these steep penalties, you should contact a Fort Lauderdale DUI criminal defense attorney right away. You are not necessarily guilty just because you tested at 0.08% or above.  Balliro can find multiple ways to break down the prosecution’s case, including problems with evidence and rights violations. Even if you would prefer to plead guilty, our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense lawyers can negotiate a lighter penalty for you than you would likely get on your own.

A Word About Blood Alcohol Testing -- Florida Implied Consent

When you use Florida roads or apply for a Florida driver’s license, you agree to take a chemical test (blood, breath or urine) when law enforcement suspects you of driving while intoxicated. If you refuse those tests, you will automatically lose your driver’s license for a year -- twice as long as the suspension for a first DUI. This is called the implied consent law.

This is unfortunate, because BAC tests have well-known limitations and flaws. The breath test, which is the most commonly used test, can be thrown off by any number of factors, including weather, the subject’s physical health and anything else the subject may have eaten or drunk recently. Blood and urine tests can have time-delay problems that create false negatives as well as false positives. And human error -- particularly problems with how law enforcement handles the sample -- can contaminate a sample and cast doubt on the results. At Balliro, our Miami-Dade DUI defense attorneys investigate all drunk driving cases to ensure that faulty or tainted evidence is never used.

If you have ever been pulled over for suspicion of intoxicated driving, you may also have been asked to perform field sobriety tests -- physical tests such as walking a straight line or following an officer’s finger. Unlike with chemical tests, you may refuse to take these tests without legal penalty -- and studies show that they are even less reliable than breath testing. However, law enforcement may see even a polite refusal as aggression, so drivers may be arrested or breath-tested anyway.

Protect Your Driver’s License -- Call Balliro Right Away!

If you were arrested for drunk driving in Florida, your driver’s license will be suspended automatically -- unless you move fast enough to fight it. Law enforcement may not tell you, but you can fight for your license at an administrative hearing with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. However, this hearing is not granted automatically -- you must request it, and you must do so within ten days of your arrest. If you miss that deadline, you waive your right to any hearing at all.

You can -- and should -- have a Fort Lauderdale DUI criminal defense attorney represent you at this hearing.  Balliro takes these hearings seriously, using experts and scientific evidence to prove that you deserve to keep your driving privilege. Importantly, this hearing is completely separate from your DUI case; winning one does not guarantee winning the other. If you can involve Balliro early, we can coordinate our defenses for both cases, giving you the best shot we can at keeping your criminal record and your driving record clean. We can also help with related DHSMV matters, such as applications for a hardship license.

Free Consultation on Florida DUI

If you were arrested and charged for DUI, you need an experienced attorney on your side. At the South Florida DUI criminal defense law firm of Balliro, we have handled tens of thousands of clients throughout Florida who have been arrested and charged with DUI. When you retain the services of Balliro, you get not only a wealth of experience, but also sound advice, personalized attention and aggressive representation. You get the comfort of knowing you can reach your Fort Lauderdale intoxicated driving defense lawyer anytime in case of an emergency -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week and every day of the year.

And of course, you get a face-to-face consultation that is free of charge and completely confidential. To set one up, you can call Balliro toll-free at 1-866-ARRESTED or contact us online today.