- Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
- Former Assistant Public Defender
- Licensed to Conduct Breath Alcohol Testing
- Open 24 Hours
A Gainesville DUI Attorney Licensed on the State's Breath-Testing Instrument
Fewer than 400 of the Florida Bar's more than 100,000 active members hold Board Certification in criminal trial law, and Robert Malove is one of them. Before he ever cross-examined a breath test operator, he took the state's own training: the Metro-Dade Police Academy course in field sobriety testing and a Florida Department of Law Enforcement license to conduct breath alcohol testing on the Intoxilyzer series, the instrument family behind the breath number in an Alachua County DUI file.
- Former Assistant Public Defender in Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties
- Florida DUI Training Attorney, designated 1995 in Miami
- Master's in Forensic Science, The George Washington University
- Metro-Dade Police Academy Field Sobriety Testing Course
- Founding member, National College for DUI Defense
That license is rare on the defense side of the courtroom. Robert says few criminal defense attorneys he has known ever held the certificate to administer breath tests. The point of holding it was never to run the machine. It was to learn, from the operator's chair, every requirement the test can fail.
Most people arrested here compare two or three Gainesville DUI attorneys before hiring one, and any DUI attorney in Gainesville you interview should be willing to hand over a list like the one above. Ask each driving under the influence lawyer in Gainesville you call what their training on the instrument itself was. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove learned Florida's breath testing and field sobriety procedures in the state's own courses before he ever challenged them in court, and the Board Certification on his wall is a separate credential entirely, earned through contested trials.
The 10-Day Clock Runs Out Before Your First Court Date
A Florida DUI arrest produces a notice of license suspension and a temporary permit good for 10 days. Inside that window, section 322.2615 of the Florida Statutes gives you exactly one choice to make with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV): demand a review hearing, or waive it. For a first offense, waiving can open the hardship license route without the hard no-driving period, and the hardship permit is what keeps a working person driving to work, to class, and to medical appointments while the case is pending. The numbers Robert gives callers are blunt: a refusal means a 12-month administrative suspension with no driving at all for the first 90 days, and a breath test over the limit means 6 months with 30 hard days. Which option fits your facts is a decision to make with counsel before day 10, because after day 10 it is made for you.
The license fight is only half the case. DUI defense in Gainesville runs on two separate tracks: the administrative case at the FLHSMV, which can only reach your license, and the criminal case in Alachua County court, inside the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which decides guilt and penalties. Winning one does not win the other. When the firm is hired inside the first 10 days, the deadline gets protected first, DUI school enrollment starts because the hardship application requires it, a notice of appearance goes in so the defense reaches the state attorney's office before the filing decision is made, and the evidence gathering begins while the evidence still exists.
Evidence is where these cases actually move. The traffic stop on video, the field sobriety exercises measured against how the training manual says they must be administered, the Intoxilyzer's calibration and service records pulled and read against the department's own standards. What fails those checks can be challenged, and challenged evidence is how a case changes shape, whether the endgame is a diversion resolution, a reduced charge, or trial.
A First Offense Can End as Reckless Driving Instead of a DUI Conviction
Florida builds a deliberate incentive into first-offense cases, and it is the single most important thing for a first offender in Gainesville to understand before the arraignment date arrives. Robert describes the structure plainly:
"many counties have diversion programs for a first offender where they can resolve their case to a lesser charge of reckless driving, receive a withhold of adjudication, and after they complete their probation and all the terms and conditions that are required, they can apply to have their records sealed." Robert Malove, recorded interview
Reckless driving instead of DUI. A withhold of adjudication instead of a conviction. A record that can be sealed instead of one that never closes. That is the incentive, and it comes with gates: a case involving an accident does not qualify, a second offense does not qualify, and some programs turn away high breath test results.
The other thing to understand is that no statewide rule guarantees the offer. Each state attorney controls whether their circuit runs a program and on what terms, and some parts of Florida run none at all. What the Eighth Judicial Circuit makes available to a Gainesville first offender, and under what conditions, is a question to put to counsel with your file open, not a promise to read on a law firm's website. For a first offense in Gainesville, Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove focuses the early weeks on one distinction: a case that resolves to reckless driving with a withhold of adjudication can eventually be sealed, and a DUI conviction never can.
A DUI Conviction Follows a Record That Is Just Getting Started
Florida law is unusually rigid about DUI convictions. Section 316.656 forbids any court from suspending, deferring, or withholding adjudication of guilt on a DUI conviction. There is no judicial mercy valve. A conviction is an adjudication, an adjudication cannot be sealed or expunged, and the mandatory minimums that ride with a plea under section 316.193 stack on top: for a standard first conviction, a $500 to $1,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail, rising to 9 months at a .15 result or with a minor in the vehicle, plus probation, DUI school, 50 hours of community service, and vehicle immobilization.
The permanence lands hardest on people whose records are still short. Every job application, professional licensing board, and apartment lease that runs a background check for the rest of your working life gets the same answer, because Florida gives you no mechanism to change it. Someone thirty years into a career absorbs that differently than someone two years into one. That asymmetry, not the fine and not the jail ceiling, is usually the heaviest number in a first-offense file, and it is the reason the reckless-driving path in the section above is worth protecting from the first phone call.
Robert's read on a first offense is unsentimental. It is the moment to wake up, and he says so without softening it: "You have to be accountable for your behavior." The firm holds the same honesty in the other direction. When a client's drinking is the real problem underneath the case, the firm encourages treatment rather than pretending the charge is the whole story, because the clients who never face the problem are the ones who come back with a second file and none of the first-offense options left.
The Gainesville Office Is Open 24 Hours, Minutes From the Criminal Courthouse
311 NE 1st St
Gainesville, FL 32601
Open 24 Hours
(954) 861-0384The office sits in downtown Gainesville, minutes from the Judge Stephan P. Mickle, Sr. Criminal Courthouse on S Main Street, where Alachua County DUI cases are heard. If you searched DUI lawyer near me from a phone in a parking lot this morning, this is the address, and the phone is answered around the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a DUI lawyer in Gainesville cost?
A fee quote before anyone reads the file is a guess. A refusal, a prior offense, an accident, or a contested license hearing each changes the amount of work, and the fee follows the work. The comparison Robert walks callers through runs longer than the case: after a conviction, insurance premiums climb for years, carriers can drop coverage outright, and the record itself never comes off. Set against what a permanent conviction costs over a working lifetime, the defense is often the smaller number.
Will a DUI stay on my record forever in Florida?
A conviction will. Section 316.656 of the Florida Statutes forbids any Florida court from withholding adjudication on a DUI conviction, and an adjudicated DUI cannot be sealed or expunged later. That permanence is why the first-offender path matters so much: a qualifying case resolved through a diversion program to reckless driving with a withhold of adjudication is not a DUI conviction, and after probation and every required condition is completed, you can apply to have that record sealed. Which door a first case goes through gets decided early, while both are still open.
What happens after a second or third DUI in Florida?
The first-offender options close. Diversion programs are built for first offenses, so a second charge starts with that door shut. Under section 316.193, a second conviction carries a $1,000 to $2,000 fine and at least a year of ignition interlock, and when it falls within 5 years of the first, at least 10 days of jail are mandatory. A third conviction within 10 years of a prior is a third-degree felony with at least 30 days of jail. The defense work is the same evidence review as a first case, with more riding on every record that can be challenged.
What happens to my license if I refuse the breath test in Gainesville?
Refusing costs more license than failing. A first refusal brings a 12-month administrative suspension under section 322.2615, against 6 months for a test over the limit, and the numbers Robert gives callers are harder still at the front end: no driving at all for the first 90 days of a refusal suspension, against 30 after a failed test. The 10 days after arrest are when that damage gets managed, by demanding a review hearing or by waiving it so a hardship license application can move without the hard sit-out. Which move fits depends on the stop, the video, and any prior history.
Is the DUI limit different for drivers under 21 in Florida?
Yes. Florida holds drivers under 21 to a 0.02 standard, a fraction of the .08 that applies to everyone else. Under section 322.2616, a first reading of 0.02 or higher suspends the license for 6 months, refusing the test suspends it for a year, and a reading of 0.05 or higher keeps the suspension in place until a licensed substance abuse course is completed. That suspension is administrative, and it can run alongside a criminal DUI charge rather than replacing one. It is a license case and a criminal case at once, and both deserve counsel inside the same 10 days.
Talk to a Gainesville DUI Lawyer Before Your 10 Days Run Out
Robert Malove is a Board Certified criminal trial attorney, one of fewer than 400 in the state out of more than 100,000 active members of the Florida Bar. The distinction requires at least 25 contested cases and a minimum of 20 jury trials every 5 years.
If you are under investigation, have been arrested for DUI, are facing a second charge, or have a conviction on your record and want an expert criminal defense attorney on your side, fill out this form or call us now at (954) 861-0384.
The Law Offices of Robert David Malove serves clients across Florida, with DUI defense teams in nine offices: Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Key West, and Sarasota.