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Florida Statute § 316.193

DUI Defense in South Florida

A DUI arrest in Florida starts two cases at once. The criminal charge moves through the county court on the State's schedule. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles moves against your license on its own track, on its own clock, and that clock gives you 10 days. This page walks through both cases, from a first offense through felony DUI: what the State has to prove, what a conviction costs, where these cases are won, and how we work one.

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Florida Statute § 322.2615

The First 10 Days

The license case is the one most people don't know they have, and it's the one with the shortest deadline.

If you're arrested for DUI and your breath or blood result is 0.08 or higher, or you refuse the test, the officer takes your license on the spot. Under § 322.2615 the officer acts for the DHSMV: the license is seized, a notice of suspension is issued, and, if you're otherwise eligible, you're handed a 10-day temporary permit that expires at midnight on the tenth day. The suspension behind it runs 6 months for a first result of 0.08 or higher and 1 year for a first refusal; with a prior suspension under the same statute, 1 year and 18 months. None of it waits for the criminal case.

Within those same 10 days, you can request a formal review hearing. It's held before a DHSMV hearing officer, not a judge, within 30 days of the request. The officer's packet is the evidence: the arrest affidavit, the breath or blood result or the refusal affidavit, the field sobriety description, and, if the officer sent them, the crash report and video. The hearing officer decides by a preponderance of the evidence whether there was probable cause to believe you were driving or in actual physical control while impaired, and whether your result was 0.08 or higher or, in a refusal case, whether you refused after being told what it would cost.

That hearing matters beyond the license. The defense can subpoena the arresting officer and the breath test operator, and if a subpoenaed officer or technician doesn't appear, the statute requires the department to invalidate the suspension. It's also a chance to question the officer under oath, on the record, months before any deposition in the criminal case. And nothing the department decides can be used against you at the DUI trial. The statute says so directly.

There is another door. A driver with no prior DUI conviction and no prior suspension under this statute can skip the hearing and ask for a restricted license instead. It comes faster and covers work, school, church, and medical driving for the length of the suspension. The cost is that accepting it waives your right to any review of the suspension. That trade is right for some people and wrong for others, and it deserves a conversation before you choose.

When you retain us inside the window, we request the formal review hearing the same day and we don't let the decision default: the request goes in, the officer's packet is obtained, and subpoenas issue for the arresting officer and the breath test operator. If the 10 days have already passed, call anyway. The criminal case is still ahead of you, and the hardship rules below still leave most first-time drivers a path back to driving.

Florida Statute § 316.193

Penalties by Offense

Florida stacks DUI penalties by prior convictions, by how high the number was, and by what happened on the road. These are the statutory figures, with the subsection each one comes from.

6
Months Maximum Jail
First Conviction
Fine of $500 to $1,000. Probation of up to 1 year with at least 50 hours of community service; jail plus probation can't exceed 1 year. License revoked 180 days to 1 year. Vehicle impounded 10 days.§ 316.193(2)(a), (6)(a); § 322.28(2)(a)1
10
Days Mandatory Jail
Second Conviction Within 5 Years
Up to 9 months in jail, at least 10 days of it mandatory. Fine of $1,000 to $2,000. Ignition interlock at least 1 year. License revoked at least 5 years. All vehicles impounded 30 days.§ 316.193(2)(a), (6)(b); § 322.28(2)(a)2
30
Days Mandatory Jail
Third Conviction Within 10 Years
A third-degree felony, up to 5 years in prison, with at least 30 days of jail mandatory. Interlock at least 2 years. License revoked at least 10 years. All vehicles impounded 90 days.§ 316.193(2)(b)1, (6)(c); § 322.28(2)(a)3
0.15
BAC, or a Minor in the Car
Enhanced DUI
First conviction: fine of $1,000 to $2,000, up to 9 months in jail, mandatory interlock at least 6 continuous months. Second: $2,000 to $4,000, up to 12 months, interlock at least 2 years. A test at 0.15 or higher also bars any plea to a lesser offense.§ 316.193(4); § 316.656(2)(a)
M1
First-Degree Misdemeanor
DUI With Property Damage or Injury
A DUI that causes or contributes to damage to the property or person of another. Up to 1 year in jail. A charge under subsection (3) also bars a plea to a lesser offense.§ 316.193(3)(c)1; § 316.656(2)(b)
F3
Third-Degree Felony
DUI With Serious Bodily Injury
Up to 5 years in prison. License revoked at least 3 years. With probable cause of serious bodily injury, an officer can require a blood draw, with reasonable force if needed, without a warrant or an arrest.§ 316.193(3)(c)2; § 322.28(4)(a); § 316.1933(1)(a)

A fourth conviction, at any interval, is a third-degree felony with a fine of at least $2,000 and permanent revocation. Every DUI conviction also carries monthly reporting probation and the DUI program's substance abuse course and evaluation under § 316.193(5), at your expense. If a person died, the charge is DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony with a 4-year mandatory minimum, and that case has its own page: DUI manslaughter defense. If you were on the water, the statute is § 327.35 and the procedures differ: boating under the influence.

§ 322.2615, § 322.28, § 322.271, § 316.1937

Your License: Two Tracks

Two separate authorities can take your license for the same arrest, and winning on one track doesn't automatically win the other.

Track One: Administrative
The DHSMV Suspension
Imposed by the officer at arrest under § 322.2615: 6 months for a first result of 0.08 or higher, 1 year for a first refusal, and 1 year or 18 months with a prior suspension. It can only be challenged through the 10-day review request. If sustained, no hardship license until 30 days after the permit expires in a 0.08 case, or 90 days in a refusal case. If a jury later acquits you of DUI, the department must invalidate a 0.08 suspension. A refusal suspension stands however the criminal case ends.
Track Two: Court-Ordered
Revocation at Conviction
Imposed by the judge at sentencing under § 322.28: at least 180 days and up to 1 year on a first conviction; at least 5 years on a second within 5 years; at least 10 years on a third within 10 years; permanent on a fourth, and permanent for DUI manslaughter. DUI with serious bodily injury carries at least 3 years. If the court doesn't set the period, the department imposes the statutory minimum.

The hardship license

Florida calls it a "business purposes only" or "employment purposes only" license under § 322.271. Business purposes covers work, school, church, and medical driving; employment purposes covers the commute and the job, nothing else. You show the department that the suspension causes a serious hardship, and after a DUI conviction you must first complete the DUI program's course and evaluation. A court revocation of 5 years or less can be petitioned for restricted reinstatement after 12 months; a longer one, after 24, and only after 12 months without driving and drug free. Outside that petition, the department doesn't grant a hardship license to a driver with two or more DUI convictions or refusal suspensions.

The ignition interlock

Under § 316.1937, an interlock is discretionary on a standard first conviction, where the court may order at least 6 continuous months. It's mandatory where § 316.193 says so: at least 6 continuous months on a first conviction at 0.15 or higher or with a passenger under 18, at least 1 year on a second conviction, and at least 2 years on a second enhanced conviction or any third. It goes on every vehicle you own or lease and routinely drive, at your expense.

The 10-day impound

On a first conviction, § 316.193(6)(a) makes a 10-day impoundment a condition of probation. It reaches the car you were driving or any one vehicle registered to you, and it can't run at the same time as jail. A second conviction within 5 years impounds every vehicle you own for 30 days; a third within 10 years, for 90. The court must dismiss the order if your family has no other transportation, and may dismiss it for vehicles driven only by your employees. Someone has to ask.

The Evidence

How the State Proves a DUI, and Where Cases Are Won

A DUI prosecution is a chain, and the State has to hold every link: a lawful stop, a lawful arrest, a reliable test, a correct warning. Here is where the links tend to give.

The Stop
An officer needs reasonable suspicion to pull you over and probable cause to arrest. "Weaving within the lane" and "failure to maintain a single lane" are the stops that get litigated, because the dash camera either supports the report or it doesn't. If the stop fails, everything after it, including the breath result, can be suppressed.
Field Sobriety Exercises
Implied consent covers breath, blood, and urine. It doesn't cover the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand, or the eye test. Those are voluntary, scored by the officer who had already decided to investigate you, and graded against a standard a jury can watch on video. Footwear, road surface, lighting, weight, age, and old injuries all affect the score, and the officer's training records show how he was taught to grade it.
The Breath Test
Florida's approved instrument is the Intoxilyzer 8000. Under § 316.1932, the test must follow a lawful arrest and a request by an officer with reasonable cause. The State's own rules then require a 20-minute observation period, two samples that agree within a set tolerance, a permitted operator, and an instrument on a current inspection schedule. Each of those is a record. Each can be missing or wrong.
The Blood Draw
Section 316.1933 lets an officer require blood only with probable cause that an impaired driver caused death or serious bodily injury. Outside that, a blood draw needs your consent or a warrant. Who drew it and whether they were authorized, how the vial was stored, how long it sat before the lab ran it, whether the preservative held: chain of custody is where blood cases are tested.
The Refusal
A refusal costs a 1-year administrative suspension, or 18 months if you've refused before. Since Trenton's Law took effect in October 2025, a first refusal is also a second-degree misdemeanor under § 316.1939 and a second is a first-degree misdemeanor. But a refusal case is a case without a number. The State proves impairment with the officer's word and the video, and the defense gets to ask whether the implied-consent warning was read correctly and whether the request itself was lawful.
Actual Physical Control
You can be charged while parked. Section 316.193 reaches a person "in actual physical control" of a vehicle, and the State has to prove it: where the keys were, whether the engine ran, where you sat, whether the car could move. A driver asleep in the back seat with the keys in the trunk is a different case from one behind the wheel with the engine on. The statute doesn't say which one wins. The facts do.
§ 316.192, § 316.656

Reduction to Reckless Driving

Florida has no "wet reckless" statute. What people mean by the phrase is a DUI the State agrees to amend to reckless driving, and the reason that matters is written into one short statute.

Reckless driving under § 316.192 is driving with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property: up to 90 days in jail and a $25 to $500 fine on a first conviction. When alcohol or drugs contributed, § 316.192(5) still sends you to the DUI program's course and evaluation. On paper, that isn't far from a first DUI. So why does the reduction matter so much?

Because of § 316.656. Subsection (1) forbids any court from withholding adjudication on a DUI. A DUI plea is a conviction, every time, and Florida's sealing statute doesn't reach a conviction. Reckless driving carries no such bar: a withhold is possible, and a withhold is what opens the door to sealing. Reckless driving also carries no mandatory revocation under § 322.28 and no mandatory interlock.

The same statute closes that door for some cases. Under § 316.656(2)(a), a judge can't accept a plea to a lesser offense from a driver whose breath or blood test showed 0.15 or higher. Under (2)(b), the same bar applies to anyone charged under § 316.193(3): a DUI with property damage, injury, serious bodily injury, or death. In those cases the path to a reduction, when there is one, runs through the evidence and the State's charging decision, not the plea colloquy. Whether the number on the breath ticket should ever reach a jury decides a great deal.

When a reduction is realistic, what gets it done, and what it looks like on a second offense are covered in two longer pieces: Can a DUI Be Reduced to Reckless Driving in Florida? and Can a Second DUI Be Reduced to Reckless Driving?

The Process

How We Work a DUI Case

Plenty of lawyers will tell you they fight DUI cases. Here is what that means at this firm, in the order it happens.

01
The Hearing Request
The day you retain us, we request the formal review hearing with the DHSMV, inside the 10-day window, and we subpoena the arresting officer and the breath test operator to it. It's the first sworn testimony in the case, and we treat it that way.
02
Preservation Letters
Dash camera, body camera, booking area video, and breath room video all sit on retention cycles that run out. We send written preservation demands to the arresting agency and the jail before those cycles end, so the video exists when discovery arrives.
03
The Instrument's Records
We pull the FDLE inspection records for the specific Intoxilyzer used in your case, its maintenance and repair history, and the permits of the operator and the agency inspector. An instrument out of inspection, or an operator out of permit, is a result the State has to defend before a jury ever sees it.
04
The Observation Period and the Two Samples
We obtain the breath test affidavit, the observation log, and the printed result card, and we check the 20-minute observation window against the video and the two samples against the tolerance the State's rules require. A result that didn't follow the rules is a result the jury may never hear.
05
Training Records
We request the arresting officer's DUI detection and field sobriety training records, and prior sworn testimony where it exists. How the officer was taught to administer and score the exercises, and how he did it on the roadside with you, don't always match.
06
The Prosecutor Conversation
Before arraignment, we talk to the assigned prosecutor with the file in hand: the stop, the video, the records, the gaps. That conversation goes differently when the defense already knows the case better than the State does.
07
Trial Preparation From Day One
Every DUI file is built as if it's going to a jury: the suppression motion drafted, the cross-examination outlined from the records, the exhibits marked. Most DUI cases don't go to trial. The ones that resolve well usually resolve because the State understood this one could.

Houson Lafrance tries cases and teaches trial advocacy, and the file gets built the way a trial lawyer would build it because that's who is building it. You'll get a straight assessment of where your case is strong, where it isn't, and what we'd do if it were ours. Then it's your decision, and we carry it out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Florida DUI Defense: Questions Answered

Direct answers to the questions people ask in the first phone call after a DUI arrest.

No answer fits every case, and the choice has consequences either way. A refusal means a 1-year administrative suspension, or 18 months with a prior refusal, under Florida Statute 316.1932. Since October 2025, a first refusal is also a second-degree misdemeanor under Florida Statute 316.1939, and a second is a first-degree misdemeanor. The State can argue a refusal to the jury as consciousness of guilt. On the other side, a breath result of 0.15 or higher blocks any plea to a lesser offense. A longer, honest discussion is here: Should You Refuse a Breath Test in Florida?
DUI under Florida Statute 316.193 is driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while your normal faculties are impaired or with a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08 or higher. DUI manslaughter is a DUI that causes or contributes to a death. It's a second-degree felony with a 4-year mandatory minimum and permanent license revocation, and a second DUI manslaughter conviction is a first-degree felony. The firm has a dedicated page on DUI manslaughter defense.
Under Florida Statute 316.193, a first conviction carries a $500 to $1,000 fine, up to 6 months in jail, up to 1 year of probation with 50 hours of community service, DUI school with a substance abuse evaluation, a 10-day impound, and a license revocation of 180 days to 1 year. At 0.15 or higher, or with a passenger under 18, the fine rises to $1,000 to $2,000, jail to 9 months, and an ignition interlock of at least 6 continuous months becomes mandatory. Full breakdown: First-Time DUI Penalties in Florida.
Related Pages

Read Further

F.S. § 316.193(3)(c)3
DUI Manslaughter Defense
When a DUI involves a death: the 4-year mandatory minimum, the blood draw, and the defense.
F.S. § 327.35
Boating Under the Influence
BUI on the water: FWC stops, marine field sobriety, and the differences from a DUI.
F.S. § 316.193
Florida Statute 316.193 Explained
The DUI statute in plain English, subsection by subsection.
From the Blog
Can a DUI Be Reduced to Reckless Driving?
When a reduction is realistic, why it matters, and what makes it possible.
From the Blog
First-Time DUI Penalties
Every penalty a first conviction carries, from the fine to the impound, with the statute for each.
Reference
Legal Glossary
Definitions of the terms used throughout the firm's legal pages.

Arrested for DUI in South Florida?

The license clock is already running, and the criminal case is right behind it. Call, tell us what happened, and we'll tell you where you stand and what has to happen first.

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