DUI Administrative
License Suspensions

After a driving under the influence (DUI) arrest, the arresting officer seized your driver’s license (DL) and handed you a DUI citation that operates as your 10-day driving permit and notice of administrative license suspension. The administrative suspension happens immediately at your DUI arrest and before any court date.
You have 10-days after the arrest to contest the administrative suspension. You can also obtain a 42-day driving permit so you can continue to drive while your DUI attorney fights to get the administrative suspension invalidated.
The Brevard County Bureau of Administrative Review (BAR) office is located at 2325 S. Babcock Street in Melbourne, FL 32901 or call at (321) 984-4910. Before you go to or call the Melbourne BAR office, call Murphy & Downs to discuss the difference between a formal review hearing, an informal review hearing, or a waiver review hearing. This is a very important decision.
DUI Administrative License Suspensions of the DL
Florida Statutes provides for the suspension of one’s driver’s license (DL) for driving under the influence (DUI). The statute authorizes a law enforcement officer (LEO) to suspend one’s DL when that person is driving or in physical control of a vehicle and has a breath-alcohol level of .08 or higher.
If that does not get you, a law enforcement officer may also suspend the driving privilege of one who refuses to submit to a urine, breath, or blood-alcohol test. If the driver refuses to perform a lawfully requested urine, breath, or blood test, the officer must notify the driver that his or her license will be suspended for a year, or eighteen months if the driver has previously had his or her license suspended for failure to submit to such tests.
Once the license is suspended, the driver may request review by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DMV) through an administrative hearing before the Department within ten days after issuance of the notice of suspension. The statute further provides that the review hearing will essentially function as a trial before the DMV.
Length of the DUI Administrative Suspension
Florida’s DUI Administrative Suspension is effective immediately, although a hearing officer with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (BAR) can invalidate the administrative suspension during a review hearing.
The length of the administrative suspension periods include:
First Suspension for an .08 or above Alcohol Level: 6 months
After first Suspension for an .08 or above Alcohol Level: 12 months;
First Suspension for Refusal to Submit to Breath Test: 12 months; or
After first Suspension for Refusal: 18 months.
The arresting officer will issue a temporary driving permit valid for 10 days from the date of arrest, provided the driver is otherwise eligible.
Formal Review Hearing Attorney
If you were arrested for DUI and given notice that your driver’s license will be administratively suspended, then immediately contact an experienced DUI defense attorney in Brevard. Call the law office of Murphy & Downs to find out why he recommends demanding a formal review hearing to contest the administrative suspension.
We can help you get a 42-day permit so that you can continue to drive while he fights the case. Even if he can’t get the administrative suspension invalidated, he can subpoena and question all of the witnesses in the case which can be extremely helpful in the criminal DUI case, especially when the arresting officer alleges that you refused to submit to a breath, blood or urine test.
Administrative Suspension Invalidated
Recent statistics from the BAR Officers shows that for all of the administrative suspensions invalidated, the hearing officers gave the following reasons listed in descending order by percentage:
The Arresting Officers Fails to Appear
No DUI Packet Received by the BAR
The Breath Test Operator Fails to Appear
Conflicting Evidence
No Valid Breath Test
No Attestation to the Probable Cause Affidavit
Missing or Illegible Documents
The Driver Did Not Refuse
No or Improper Implied Consent Warnings
Questions During the Formal Review Hearing
During a formal review hearing for the license suspension, the hearing officer in Melbourne, FL, is limited to the following questions, which must be established by a preponderance of the evidence:
Whether the law enforcement officer had probable cause to believe that the person whose license was suspended was driving or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in this state while under the influence of alcoholic beverages or chemical or controlled substances.
Whether the person whose license was suspended refused to submit to any such test after being requested to do so by a law enforcement officer or correctional officer.
Whether the person whose license was suspended was told that if he or she refused to submit to such test his or her privilege to operate a motor vehicle would be suspended for a period of 1 year or, in the case of a second or subsequent refusal, for a period of 18 months.
Or in a case involving a breath or blood alcohol concentration reading, whether the driver’s BAC was over the legal limit of .08.