- Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
- Former Assistant Public Defender
- Licensed to Conduct Breath Alcohol Testing
- Open 24 Hours
Anyone Can Get Arrested for DUI in Orlando, and Robert Malove Built His Practice on That Fact
Robert Malove chose to specialize in DUI defense early in his career for a plain reason: the charge reaches every level of the socioeconomic spectrum. Orlando concentrates that reach. A city that runs on tourism and the workforce behind it puts visitors, hospitality workers, and year-round professionals on the same roads at the same late hours, and a DUI stop treats them all identically.
"you can be a gardener, or you could be a brain surgeon. And you could get arrested for DUI." Robert Malove, recorded interview
Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove is one of fewer than 400 Board Certified criminal trial attorneys among more than 100,000 active members of the Florida Bar, and he has held a Florida Department of Law Enforcement license to conduct breath alcohol testing on the Intoxilyzer series instruments. That license matters in a DUI file because the number the state relies on comes out of that machine.
- Former Assistant Public Defender in Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties
- Florida DUI Training Attorney, designated 1995
- Master's in Forensic Science, The George Washington University
- Metro-Dade Police Academy Field Sobriety Testing Course
- Founding member, National College for DUI Defense
Most people facing a charge call two or three Orlando DUI attorneys before hiring one. Robert's advice for those calls is that the honest answer to who should defend you comes down to background, education, and experience. The list above is what he puts on the table. Ask every attorney you interview for theirs, and put one specific question on it: has this attorney ever been licensed on the breath machine.
An Orlando DUI Arrest Starts a 10-Day Clock on Your License
The citation issued at an Orlando DUI arrest carries a notice that your license is suspended, and it lets you keep driving without restriction for 10 days from the arrest date. Inside that window, paperwork must reach the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV): either a demand for a formal review hearing or a waiver of the hearing in exchange for a hardship license. Florida sets both the temporary permit and the review window in section 322.2615 of the Florida Statutes.
Robert's first-week priority does not change from client to client: "in order to get a restricted permit, by the 10th day, or at least apply by the 10th day, is what we need to take care of right away ..."
What the FLHSMV does to your license depends on what happened at the stop. A refusal brings a 12-month administrative suspension with 90 days of no driving at all. Blowing over the limit brings a 6-month suspension, with no driving at all for the first 30 days. For a first-time client who has to drive to keep a job, Robert often recommends the waiver route, which trades the hearing for a hardship license and skips the hard sit-out entirely. He makes that recommendation with open eyes about the hearing itself: the officers who decide formal reviews are not lawyers, the evidence threshold is low, and a presentation he considered a winner has been ruled against before.
A hardship license is not a full license. It authorizes the driving that keeps a life running: to and from work, required driving on the job, education, religious services, medical care, and a catch-all for anything necessary to maintain livelihood.
DUI school enrollment happens in that same first week, because the hardship application requires it, and clients push back with the same worry every time: "if I enroll in DUI school, am I admitting that I'm guilty?" The answer is no. Enrollment satisfies an administrative requirement, and the administrative case does not decide the criminal one.
DUI Defense in Orlando Splits Into a Criminal Case and a License Case
A Florida DUI charge produces two separate proceedings.
The criminal case belongs to the court system and decides guilt, penalties, and the record you carry afterward.
The license case belongs to the FLHSMV and runs on its own rules, its own deadlines, and its own decision-makers.
Neither result controls the other, which cuts both ways: winning one does not win the other, and losing one does not lose the other. Whether your search said Orlando DUI lawyer or DUI attorney Orlando FL, the case behind it runs on this split, and both halves have to be worked from day one.
On the criminal side, the state can prove DUI two ways under section 316.193 of the Florida Statutes: that your normal faculties were impaired, or that a breath, blood, or urine result came back at .08 or above. For a standard first conviction the statute sets a fine of $500 to $1,000 and allows up to 6 months in jail, and the jail ceiling rises to 9 months when the result is .15 or higher or a minor was in the vehicle.
A plea carries mandatory minimums that outlast the courtroom: at least 6 months of probation, an adjudication of guilt that Florida law does not allow to be sealed or expunged, 50 hours of community service, DUI school, 10 days of vehicle immobilization, and a license suspension. Those terms are why the evidence gets read before the plea form does.
Orlando drunk driving defense starts with that evidence file. The stop video, the body-camera footage, the breath test records, and the machine's calibration and service history each get pulled and measured against the standards the department wrote for itself. Evidence that fails its own standards can come out of the case, and a case is only as strong as the evidence that survives.
Orange County DUI Cases Are Heard in the Ninth Judicial Circuit
An Orlando arrest puts the criminal case in Orange County, inside the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which serves Orange and Osceola counties. Misdemeanor DUI cases are heard at the Orange County Courthouse, 425 N. Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando, and the filing decision belongs to the State Attorney's Office for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which takes time after the arrest to decide what to file. Robert files a notice of appearance early so the defense is heard before that decision is made.
Diversion is decided county by county in Florida. Many counties run first-offender programs that resolve a qualifying case to reckless driving with a withhold of adjudication and a path to apply for sealing; each jurisdiction controls its own program, and some offer none. Whether and how a program applies to an Orange County case gets answered against the Ninth Circuit State Attorney's current posture at the time the file is reviewed. Where programs exist, the recurring disqualifiers are consistent: an accident, a second offense, and sometimes a high breath result.
Orlando's visitors go home; the case does not follow them. An out-of-state defendant's charge stays in Orange County, and the parts that require a personal appearance get sorted by counsel case by case. The 10-day license window is the piece that will not wait for a flight home: it runs from the arrest date wherever you are.
That is the working reality for an Orange County DUI attorney: two calendars, two decision-makers, one client. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove defends Orlando DUI cases on both tracks at once, the criminal case in the Ninth Judicial Circuit's Orange County courtrooms and the license case at the FLHSMV.
The Firm's Orlando Office Is on East Livingston Street, Open 24 Hours
1513 E. Livingston St
Orlando, FL 32803
Open 24 Hours
(954) 861-0384This is the firm's Orlando office. If you searched for a DUI attorney near me from a hotel room mid-vacation or from your own kitchen the morning after, this is the address, and the phone is answered around the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a DUI attorney in Orlando cost?
No single number is honest before the file is read, because the fee follows the work: a refusal, an accident, a prior offense, or a contested license hearing each changes what the defense requires. Robert gives prospective clients the other half of the math instead. A conviction raises your insurance sharply, if your carrier keeps you at all, and that cost repeats every year the conviction sits on a record that cannot be sealed or expunged. Measured against those years, paying for the defense is often the smaller number.
I was arrested for DUI while visiting Orlando. Do I have to come back to Florida for court?
The case stays in Orange County no matter where you live. How much of it requires you in the room depends on the charge, the stage of the case, and the judge, and sorting that out is one of the first things your attorney does. The piece that will not wait is the license: the 10-day window under section 322.2615 runs from the arrest date, not from when you get home, so the administrative filing has to happen while you are unpacking.
Can an Orlando DUI be reduced to reckless driving?
Florida law leaves room for a DUI to resolve as reckless driving, and the county-run first-offender diversion programs are built around exactly that outcome: a reckless driving resolution with a withhold of adjudication and, after completion, an application to seal the record. Whether any of those doors is open in your case depends on the county's program rules, the facts, and your record, and no attorney can promise which way a filing decision goes. What the review adds is knowing which facts matter before anyone commits the case to a path.
Does Orange County have a DUI diversion program?
Diversion is decided county by county in Florida. State law lets each elected State Attorney choose whether to run a program and on what terms, and some circuits offer none at all. The honest way to answer for Orange County is against the Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's current posture at the time your file is reviewed, not from a page that may be out of date. Where programs exist, the recurring limits are consistent: first offenses only, with disqualifiers such as an accident, a second offense, or sometimes a high breath result.
My college-age kid was arrested for DUI in Orlando. What should we do first?
Locate the paper citation first. It contains the notice of license suspension, and the arrest date on it fixes the 10-day deadline for the license filing. If your child is under 21, Florida adds a separate administrative rule: under section 322.2616, driving with an alcohol level of .02 or higher brings a 6-month license suspension for a first violation, and a refusal brings a year. Then get the file in front of an attorney before the window closes. The Orlando office answers 24 hours at (954) 861-0384.
Talk to an Orlando DUI Attorney 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.