Contact a DUI Lawyer in Tampa, Florida about Drivers License Suspensions & the Hardship License

If you are charged with DUI in the Tampa Bay area, one of the first DUI penalties involved is the suspension of your drivers license. By immediately contacting Andrew Spicola, a DUI lawyer in Tampa, we can get to work on the options available for your license, including the possibility of reinstating your license, getting a hardship license, or preventing a license suspension.

As your DUI lawyer in Tampa, Mr. Spicola will discuss the details of DUI license suspensions with you, including the fact that there are two separate instances when your license can be suspended for the same DUI.

The two different ways your drivers license can be suspended for the same DUI charge are:

(1) The Administrative Suspension
(2) The Criminal Suspension

In many cases, you will be able to apply for a hardship license during the Administrative Suspension and the Criminal Suspension. For certain DUI charges, however, such as multiple refusals to take a breath test or more than three DUI convictions, no hardship license is permitted at all.

The following is an outline of how the Administrative Suspension of a license typically works:

(a) Refusing the breath test: By refusing to take a breath alcohol test, your drivers license will be placed under Administrative Suspension by the arresting officer. The arresting officer will give you a DUI citation that will serve as a 10-day permit to drive. For your first refusal to take a breath test, your license will be under Administrative Suspension for one year and you will not be eligible for a hardship license until you serve 90 days of the suspension. For your second and consecutive refusals to take a breath test, your license will be on Administrative Suspension for 18 months and you will not be eligible for a hardship license at all during that time.

>(b) Alcohol breath test results of .08 or higher: At the moment of your DUI arrest for an illegal breath alcohol limit, the arresting police officer will place your drivers license on Administrative Suspension and will give you a DUI citation which serves as a 10-day permit to drive. For your first DUI arrest, the Administrative Suspension is 6 months; for your second and subsequent DUI arrests, the Administrative Suspension is one year. After your 10-day permit to drive expires, you must serve 30 days of your Administrative Suspension before you are eligible to apply for a hardship license.

(c) The 10 Day Rule & Your DUI Defense: During the 10-day period in which you are able to drive with your DUI citation, you can request a formal review hearing. At the hearing, you will have a chance to argue that the Administrative Suspension should be dropped and your license should be reinstated. An experienced Tampa DUI lawyer can be very helpful in getting your license back at the formal review hearing. However, the formal review hearing will have no effect on whether or not your drivers license will be suspended if you are convicted of DUI later in criminal court.

The second type of DUI license suspension, the Criminal Suspension, occurs if you are convicted of DUI. You should consult with a DUI lawyer about your case as soon as possible so that you have the best chance of fighting a DUI charge. Andrew Spicola is a DUI lawyer in Tampa, Florida who has years of experience as a former prosecutor and private attorney in the greater Tampa Bay area. By working with this aggressive, experienced DUI lawyer, you’ll be better equipped to avoid a DUI conviction that could lead to the following Criminal Suspensions of your drivers license.

The above DUI penalties are regularly reviewed and sometimes changed by the Florida Legislature, so we recommend that you speak with a DUI lawyer about the latest Florida DUI penalties that apply to your case.

Andrew Spicola is a DUI lawyer in Tampa, Florida providing free consultations. Please contact us for more information. From our Tampa headquarters on Kennedy Boulevard, we serve clients throughout the greater Tampa Bay area including the counties, cities, and towns of Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Dunedin, Oldsmar, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Safety Harbor, Odessa, Pinellas Park, New Port Richey, Largo, Palm Harbor, Lutz, and beyond.