If you were just arrested for DUI in Florida, two clocks started running the moment the officer took your license — and one of them is much shorter than most people realize.
Here’s the part that surprises almost everyone: a DUI arrest triggers two completely separate proceedings that happen in parallel. There’s the criminal case, which moves through the court system on its own timeline. And there’s an administrative license suspension through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) — and that one moves fast, whether or not you’re ever convicted of anything.
The 10-day deadline that matters most right now
When you were arrested, the officer should have taken your physical license and issued you a 10-day temporary permit along with a notice of suspension. Florida law gives you exactly 10 days from that notice to request a formal or informal review hearing — miss it, and the suspension takes effect automatically, separate from whatever happens in your criminal case. This is the single most time-sensitive thing to act on immediately, because it’s the one deadline that doesn’t wait for a lawyer, a court date, or anything else.
If you took a breath or blood test and were over the legal limit, the administrative suspension for a first offense runs 6 months. If you refused the test, it’s a full year — and that’s before getting into what refusing now means for the criminal side of your case (more on that below).
What the criminal penalties actually look like
For a standard first-offense DUI with no aggravating factors, Florida law sets the range at:
- A fine between $500 and $1,000
- Up to 6 months in jail (the statutory maximum — not a guarantee, but the ceiling the court is working within)
- Up to 1 year of probation
- A minimum of 50 hours of community service (the court can allow you to pay $10/hour instead if community service would create a genuine hardship)
- Vehicle impoundment or immobilization for 10 days
- A mandatory substance abuse course with a psychosocial evaluation
If your blood alcohol level was 0.15 or higher, or there was a minor in the vehicle, the penalties increase substantially: fines jump to $1,000–$2,000, jail exposure rises to 9 months, and the court is required to order an ignition interlock device for at least 6 continuous months.
If the DUI caused property damage to another person, it becomes a first-degree misdemeanor. If it caused serious bodily injury, it becomes a third-degree felony — a meaningfully different situation than a standard first offense, and one where the stakes change considerably.
Refusing the test is no longer just an administrative issue
Until recently, refusing a breath or blood test on a first DUI stop was purely an administrative matter — a license suspension, nothing more. As of October 1, 2025, that changed. Under a new law (HB 687, known as Trenton’s Law, named for 18-year-old Trenton Stewart, who was killed by a repeat drunk driver in 2023), a first refusal is now a criminal charge — a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, on top of the one-year administrative suspension. If your arrest involved a refusal, that’s a materially different situation than it would have been a year ago, and it’s worth understanding that distinction clearly.
The part nobody mentions until it’s too late
A DUI conviction in Florida is not eligible for expungement or sealing — Florida law explicitly excludes it from post-conviction relief. It stays on your criminal record permanently, and on your driving record for 75 years. That’s not a scare tactic; it’s simply how long the record follows you when insurance companies, employers, and law enforcement pull it during a background check or a traffic stop years from now.
What to actually do right now
None of this is meant to be alarming for its own sake — it’s meant to be accurate, because the version of this information most people get is either sanitized down to nothing useful or exaggerated to scare them into calling someone immediately. The real, practical takeaway is this: the 10-day window to challenge your license suspension is running whether you act on it or not, and it’s worth understanding your actual situation — the specific facts of your stop, your BAC, whether you refused, whether anyone was in the car with you — before that window closes.