A Florida DUI is built one piece at a time: the stop, the field sobriety exercises, the arrest, and the breath, blood, or urine test. The defense is built the same way. I rebuild every case from the first contact forward, because a problem near the front reaches everything that follows it, and a single broken link can take the rest of the case down with it.
Where Most DUI Cases Are Won
The strongest defenses usually live in the parts of the case the State treats as routine. Each of these is its own area, with its own rules and its own ways to come apart.
Defenses for Specific Situations
Some defenses turn on the facts of where you were and what you were driving. These pages cover the situations that come up most often, each grounded in the Florida statutes and cases that control it.
How I Use These Defenses Together
These are not separate boxes to check. A bad stop can take the test with it, a defective checkpoint can end a case before impairment is ever argued, and a privilege issue can remove your own words from the State's proof. The point of working the whole case at once is to find the issue that does the most damage to the prosecution, and then press it.
I started out as an Assistant Public Defender in Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in Tampa, and today I am one of six ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida. Every DUI I take gets rebuilt from the first contact forward, the stop, the exercises, the arrest, and the test, because a problem at the front of the case reaches everything that comes after it. Learn more about my background.
Common Questions
What are the most common defenses to a Florida DUI?
Most DUI defenses challenge the stop, the arrest, or the testing. If the officer lacked a lawful basis to stop you, or did not follow the rules for the field sobriety exercises or the breath or blood test, key evidence can be kept out. When enough evidence is excluded, the case often cannot go forward.
Can a DUI be dismissed before trial?
Yes. A motion to suppress that knocks out the stop, the arrest, or the test can leave the State without enough to proceed, which frequently leads to a reduction or a dismissal rather than a trial.
Do I have a defense if I was not driving on a public road?
Possibly. The DUI statute reaches private property, but the way police came to be involved off the public road can itself be a defense. The private-property page covers how that works.
How do I know which defense fits my case?
It depends on the facts, the video, and the discovery. I review the whole record from the first contact forward and build the defense around the issue that does the most to undermine the State's proof.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Driving under the influence is defined in section 316.193, Florida Statutes, and actual physical control is addressed in Florida Standard Jury Instruction 28.1 and the decisions discussed here, all of which are fact-specific. Outcomes depend on the particular record, and the law changes, so confirm current requirements with an attorney. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
