Refusing to Blow
If you are arrested for a DUI, the FL Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will suspend your license upon your arrest. You are allowed to drive with no restrictions for the first 10 days after your arrest, however, on the 11th day you will begin a 30 day period where you will not be allowed to drive for any purpose (“the hard suspension period”). After the 30 day hard suspension period, you will be eligible to obtain a Business Purposes License (“BPO”), which will limit your driving ability to include only driving necessary to maintain livelihood, including driving to and from work, necessary on-the-job driving, driving for educational purposes, and driving for church or medical purposes.
If you refuse to take a breathalyzer test, the penalties on your license and your driving abilities change significantly. Your privilege to drive can be suspended for one (1) year for a first refusal, or eighteen (18) months if your privilege to drive has previously been suspended as a result of a refusal to submit to a lawful test of your breath, urine, or blood.
By refusing the breathalyzer test, you are not keeping any potential evidence of guilt from the State Attorney. The only thing you are doing is not giving the State Attorney any evidence of what the breathalyzer machine says your blood alcohol content is, which means that the prosecutor will not be able to argue that you had a DUI because your blood alcohol content level exceeded .08. The prosecutor can still argue that your refusal to take the breathalyzer test is evidence of your consciousness of guilt; you did not blow because you knew you were driving drunk. The prosecutor can also argue that because driver’s licenses are vital and necessary to people’s everyday lives, no one would knowingly let their license be suspended for one (1) year unless they were trying to hide something.
