If you were arrested for DUI in Hillsborough County or the surrounding area, the fight to keep your license runs through the Tampa Bureau of Administrative Reviews. This is the DHSMV office where the formal review hearing happens, where hardship licenses are issued, and where the ten-day clock on your administrative suspension comes due.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Address | 2814 East Hillsborough Avenue, Tampa, FL 33610 |
| Phone | (813) 276-5795 |
| [email protected] | |
| Hours | Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., unless posted otherwise |
| Counties served | Hillsborough, plus Hernando, Citrus, Marion, Pasco, Polk, and Sumter |
| How to demand a hearing | Form 78065 with the $25 filing fee, within 10 days of arrest; an attorney can submit it electronically with a credit card authorization |
The Bureau of Administrative Reviews was reorganized in 2019, leaving eight offices statewide, and Tampa is the regional office for the Hillsborough area. Procedures and figures last verified June 2026.
What the Tampa BAR handles
The Tampa office is one of only eight Bureau of Administrative Reviews offices left in Florida after the 2019 reorganization, and it serves a wide region beyond Hillsborough. It is where your formal review hearing is held, where you apply for a hardship license, and where a first-time offender can file a waiver review for immediate reinstatement. The reorganization also pushed the department toward attorney hearing officers, after a state report found the prior system was inadequately staffed and trained.
Acting within the 10 days
The demand for a formal review hearing has to reach the Tampa BAR within ten days of your arrest, on Form 78065 with the $25 fee. I file it electronically with a credit card authorization and pick up your 42-day driving permit so you keep driving while we contest the suspension. From there the office must schedule the hearing within thirty days. The formal review hearing page explains what happens next and how these suspensions get invalidated.
What the hearing itself looks like
Once the demand is filed, the Tampa office schedules the formal review within about thirty days and issues a temporary permit so you keep driving in the meantime. At the hearing, a Department hearing officer takes testimony under oath, your attorney can cross-examine the officers, and the hearing officer decides whether to sustain, amend, or invalidate the suspension. The full mechanics, the scope of review, and the case law are on the formal review hearing page, and the specific defects that win are on the grounds to invalidate page.
Serving Hillsborough drivers
The Tampa BAR office handles administrative reviews for Hillsborough County, which sits in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. Because we practice across the bay, we file at whichever office matches the county of arrest, the Tampa office for Hillsborough cases and the Clearwater office for Pinellas and the surrounding region, so the demand lands in the right place inside the ten days.
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. I demand the formal review hearing in DUI cases and appear at the Tampa and Clearwater Bureau of Administrative Reviews offices, because that hearing protects your license and locks in the officers early. Learn more about my background.
Tampa BAR questions
Where is the Tampa BAR office?
The Tampa Bureau of Administrative Reviews is at 2814 East Hillsborough Avenue, Tampa, FL 33610, open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It handles DUI administrative suspension hearings for Hillsborough County and several surrounding counties, including Hernando, Citrus, Marion, Pasco, Polk, and Sumter.
What happens at the Tampa BAR?
It is where the formal review hearing to challenge your administrative suspension takes place after a DUI arrest in the Tampa area. The hearing officer, now an attorney under the reorganized system, reviews the documents and any testimony and decides whether to sustain, amend, or invalidate the suspension. Drivers also go there to apply for hardship licenses and to handle waiver reviews.
How do I request a hearing at the Tampa BAR?
Within ten days of your arrest, submit Form 78065 with the $25 filing fee. An attorney can submit the application electronically to the Tampa BAR email with a credit card authorization, which also secures your 42-day driving permit. The 30-day clock to schedule your hearing starts once the fee is paid.
Are the Tampa BAR hearing officers neutral?
The hearing officers are employed by the DHSMV, which is also the party suspending your license, and that dual role has long drawn criticism. After the 2019 reorganization the department moved to attorney hearing officers. A driver can still raise the structural concern, but the practical answer is to come prepared to show the suspension cannot be sustained on the law and the documents.
Do I have to attend the Tampa BAR hearing in person?
Many hearings are conducted by telephone, but having an attorney appear, often with a court reporter, to question the subpoenaed witnesses is what makes the hearing valuable. I demand the hearing, serve the witnesses, and put the Department to its proof rather than treating it as a formality.
Related: the formal review hearing, how a suspension gets invalidated, the Clearwater BAR office, the 10-day decision, and the license and interlock overview.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Florida administrative suspension and review process is governed by sections 322.2615, 322.2616, and 322.64, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 15A-6 of the Florida Administrative Code, and license revocation, hardship, and reinstatement are governed by sections 322.271 and 322.28. Deadlines are short and the rules change, so confirm current requirements with the DHSMV or an attorney. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
