The first 10 days are the most important when arrested for DUI in Hillsborough County. The DUI process includes two parts. First, if you refuse a breath test or blow over the legal limit of a .08 your license will be administratively suspended by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. If you are arrested by the Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the University of South Florida Police, or the Florida Highway Patrol, the Officer will confiscate your license and notify the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as to whether you refused a lawful test or blew above the legal limit of a .08. Once that information is received by the Department a license suspension is coded on your driving record. YOU HAVE 10 DAYS TO CHALLENGHE THE SUSPENSION of your license by requesting a formal review hearing.

Assuming you were not suspended for any other reason the yellow Uniform Traffic Citation is your license for the first 10 days. This allows you to drive for any reason. You must file your challenge to the license suspension at Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles bureau of administrative review in Hillsborough County. The office is located at 2814 East Hillsborough Avenue. Once that challenge is filed and if you are eligible you will receive a 42 day business purposes only permit. Within those 42 days the hearing will be held where we will try and overturn the license suspension.

Because of the variety of issues that can arise, there are fixed rules about how the DHSMV hearing will be held. The hearing officer will be trying to establish whether there was probable cause to arrest you for DUI and whether there was a lawful breath test above a .08 or, in the case of a refusal, whether there was a lawful refusal of the breath test.