- Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
- Former Assistant Public Defender
- Licensed to Conduct Breath Alcohol Testing
- Open 24 Hours
Key West DUI Attorney Robert Malove Is One of Fewer Than 400 Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyers in Florida
Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove is licensed to conduct breath alcohol testing on Intoxilyzer series instruments, the same machine family that produces the number at the center of a Florida DUI file. His credentials are on the record:
- 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
Anyone comparing Key West DUI lawyers can check every item on that list. The item to ask about first is the breath-testing license, because a lawyer trained to administer the test reads a breath result the way the department is supposed to produce it, and knows where the gap between the two tends to open. Few Florida defense attorneys have ever held that license. Search pages ranking the best DUI lawyer in Key West cannot verify any of this; the Florida Bar and the credential list above can.
A Vacation DUI Arrest in Key West Follows You Home
If you were arrested here on vacation, the case does not board the plane with you, but its consequences do. Two clocks started the moment of the arrest. The administrative clock runs at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV): the citation doubles as a suspension notice, and under section 322.2615 of the Florida Statutes you have 10 days to put paperwork in front of the agency, either a demand for a review hearing or a waiver that opens the door to a hardship permit. The criminal clock runs at the Monroe County courthouse, starting with an arraignment date where the formal charges are announced. Neither clock pauses because your return flight left on time.
Robert has watched what a suspension does to working people for decades. In his words, "The biggest disruption to anybody's life, especially in this day and age, is mobility." For a visitor the disruption compounds: Florida cannot take a license another state issued, but it controls your privilege to drive on Florida roads, and through the interstate agreements Florida participates in, the arrest and any suspension can reach your home state's licensing agency. The firm's guide to how Florida law handles an out-of-state driver's DUI walks through those agreements and what they set in motion.
The practical move is the same whether you are still on the island or already home: get the citation in front of a Florida lawyer inside the 10 days, by phone if you have already left. The court decides which appearances it requires, counsel can ask the judge to keep them to a minimum, and the work between dates moves by phone and email.
Some Key West cases never touch a road. Florida law carries variations of the driving offense, and boating under the influence is the one Robert names first, because an island ringed by charter docks, sandbars, and rental slips produces BUI stops the way the mainland produces traffic stops. The defense instincts carry over, the evidence differs, and the firm handles both charges from the same office.
Refusing the Breath Test Suspends Your License for a Year
Florida's implied-consent law, section 316.1932, sets the price of refusal: a first refusal suspends your driving privilege for 1 year, and a second refusal after a prior refusal suspension runs 18 months and is itself charged as a crime under section 316.1939. Robert walks clients through the harder edge of the first number: no driving at all for the first 90 days of a refusal suspension, three times the hard period that follows a test over the limit.
He also hears the same explanation for the refusal again and again:
"I ask people, why didn't you take the breath test? And they said, well, that's because I hear all the time, you know, these things are unreliable ... you don't want to give them evidence." Robert Malove, recorded interview
The bar-stool version of that advice leaves out the statute. Refusing does deny the state a number, and in exchange it hands the FLHSMV a longer suspension with a harder front end, plus a refusal the prosecutor will argue shows consciousness of guilt. What Robert tells people who ask him what to do in a stop is more specific. Once an officer says they smell alcohol, the decision to arrest has usually been made and everything that follows only adds evidence, which is why his roadside advice is to decline the field sobriety exercises. On the breath test, his counsel runs opposite to the folklore: take it, then ask, clearly and on camera, for an independent blood test. Under a Florida Supreme Court decision Robert has used in his own cases, law enforcement must reasonably accommodate that request, and when officers fail to, the remedy can be exclusion of the breath result.
Most people call after those decisions were already made, one way or the other. A refusal case and an over-the-limit case each leave a file worth reading: the stop, the video, the machine's paperwork. Where the number survives scrutiny and where it does not is exactly what a DUI attorney in Key West with a breath-testing license was trained to see.
Monroe County DUI Cases Are Heard at the Freeman Justice Center in Key West
A Key West DUI is prosecuted in Monroe County, inside the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, the court circuit for the Florida Keys. The circuit sits at three locations along the island chain, and Key West arrests land at the Freeman Justice Center, 302 Fleming Street, in the same Old Town grid as the firm's office. Drivers arrested farther up the Keys, nearer the Marathon Branch Courthouse or the Plantation Key Government Center in Tavernier, are in the same circuit, so a search for a Florida Keys DUI lawyer from Marathon or Islamorada ends at the same three courthouses and the same phone number.
The Law Offices of Robert David Malove defends DUI and BUI cases across Monroe County and the Florida Keys, and Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove represents both visitors and residents in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. Many Florida counties run first-offender diversion programs, and each elected state attorney controls whether a program exists in that circuit and on what terms. Whether a diversion path fits a Monroe County case is a question Robert answers with the file open, because eligibility decisions made early, including how the arraignment is handled, can shape which doors stay open. DUI defense in Key West starts before the first court date for that reason.
The Eaton Street Office Is Open 24 Hours
524 Eaton St, Ste 211
Key West, FL 33040
Open 24 Hours
(954) 861-0384Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove defends Key West DUI cases from the firm's office at 524 Eaton Street, minutes from the Freeman Justice Center, and the office phone is answered 24 hours a day. Arrests here happen on island time, late, and a search for a DUI lawyer near me at 3 a.m. still reaches a phone that gets picked up. Visitors who fly home before their court date can start the work from this room and continue it by phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a DUI lawyer in Key West cost?
Fees among Key West DUI lawyers follow the file, so there is no flat number to print honestly. A refusal, an accident, a prior offense, or a contested license hearing each changes the work. For visitors there is a second column in the math: court dates can mean flights back to the island, and part of what counsel does is ask the court to keep required appearances to a minimum. The fee conversation at this office starts with the facts of the arrest.
I was arrested for DUI on vacation in Key West. Do I have to come back to Florida for court?
The case stays in Monroe County, and the court decides which appearances it requires. Your lawyer can ask the judge to limit them, and much of the work between dates happens by phone and email. What cannot be handled later is the 10-day administrative window, which runs from the arrest date wherever you live. Florida also reports what happened here through interstate agreements, so the arrest can reach your home state's licensing agency. Send the citation to a Florida lawyer before the deadline, whether you are still on the island or already home.
Does the 10-day rule apply to an out-of-state driver's license?
The 10-day window runs from the arrest date no matter which state issued your license. Florida cannot take another state's license, but it controls your privilege to drive on Florida roads, and the suspension it issues can follow you home through the interstate compacts Florida participates in. The paperwork choice, a review hearing or a waiver, still has to reach the FLHSMV by day 10.
What happens after a first-offense DUI in Monroe County?
Two cases start at once: a criminal case in county court and an administrative case at the FLHSMV over your license. For a standard first conviction, section 316.193 of the Florida Statutes sets a fine of $500 to $1,000 and allows up to 6 months in jail, rising to 9 months at a .15 reading or with a minor in the vehicle. A plea also brings mandatory terms, including probation, DUI school, community service, vehicle immobilization, and an adjudication of guilt that stays on your record. What actually happens turns on the facts, the evidence that survives review, and the practices of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. Whether a diversion path fits a Monroe County first offense is a case-by-case question to ask a Monroe County DUI lawyer early.
Is a DUI lawyer available in Key West at night or on weekends?
Yes. The Eaton Street office is open 24 hours, and (954) 861-0384 is answered around the clock. DUI arrests in Key West do not keep business hours, and the 10-day clock starts at the arrest, so the call does not need to wait for Monday.
Talk to a Key West 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.