Acting fast to save your license in Pinellas County is extremely important. You will need to either fight the charges or make challenges to your automatic license suspension. To do this fast and effectively, you should hire a private criminal defense lawyer immediately.
We welcome you to receive a free consultation with us today, for a swift and aggressive defense that can also help you avoid the threat of jail time.
Below, we will guide you through your options of:
- Fighting your charges
- Challenging the license suspension.
- Obtaining a hardship license.
- Enrolling in DUI school.
Table of Contents
Don’t Delay or Do Nothing!
- Do NOT sit around and do nothing.
- Doing nothing will see you lose your driving privileges for at least 6 months.
- At this point, you have nothing to lose.
- This is true, regardless of the criminal offense or traffic offense.
- Contact a Pinellas County Criminal Defense Lawyer ASAP.
Fight Your Charges
The most aggressive option you have to save your license in Pinellas County is fighting against your charges. Depending on what actually happened, you’ll have various options here. It’s not just a case of ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’, as if your rights were infringed then your arrest may have been unlawful – so your case could be thrown out entirely. For example:Challenge The Stop
- Did the officer have reasonable suspicion that you were committing a traffic infraction?
- Did the officer have probable cause that you were committing a crime?
- If the answer is no, the state will be forced to drop your charges.
Challenge Field Sobriety Tests
- Do you have any physical impairments that could have been misinterpreted?
- Was the police officer qualified to perform the test?
- Were you given clear instructions?
Challenge the Equipment
- Was the BAC machine maintained and operated to regulation and maintenance standards?
- Was it outdated?
- Did the officer observe you for 20 minutes before the test?
- Was the machine calibrated correctly?
- Was the officer qualified to perform the test?
- Were you given clear instructions?
Challenge The Refusal
If you were arrested for refusing a BAC test, then we can review:- Was there a language barrier issue?
- Was the police officer impatient and arrested you because of that?
- Do you have physical or mental health issues that led you to refuse the test?
Act Fast – Challenge the Suspension
After a DUI arrest in Pinellas County, your license will be automatically and near-immediately suspended via a filing to the DHSMV of a ‘Uniform Traffic Citation’. Your next step is critical.- You must act fast to challenge the suspension to retain your license.
- You have just 10 days from the date of your arrest to make the challenge (including weekends and holiday dates).
Appealing against a Suspension
In some cases, the DMV will reject your challenge. But all is not lost. Our criminal defense lawyer can still appeal against the suspension via ‘a petition for writ of certiorari’ to the Pinellas County courts to save your license.Get a Temporary Hardship License
By challenging your license suspension within 10 days of your arrest, you open the doors to acquiring a temporary ‘hardship license;.- Hardship licenses are valid for 42 days.
- Hardship licenses allow you to drive for essential purposes such as employment, while the challenge for your license suspension is ongoing.
- The DMV describes a temporary hardship license as: “a driving privilege that is limited to any driving necessary to maintain livelihood, including to and from work, necessary on-the-job driving, driving for educational purposes and driving for church and for medical purposes; no driving for any other purposes is allowed.”
Admit Defeat, But Enroll in DUI School
An alternative option is to save your license in Pinellas County is to waive your rights to a formal review hearing.- Immediately obtain a hardship license.
- Enroll in a DUI school and provide proof of it to the Bureau of administrative reviews, within 10 days of your arrest.
- This will forfeit your right to have the suspension thrown out entirely.
- The license suspension will remain on your record, regardless of the outcome of your criminal charges.
