- Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
- Former Assistant Public Defender
- Licensed to Conduct Breath Alcohol Testing
- Phones Answered 24 Hours
A Sarasota DUI Attorney Who Is Board Certified and Trained on the Breath Machine
Fewer than 400 of the Florida Bar's more than 100,000 active members are Board Certified criminal trial attorneys. Robert Malove is one of them, and he spent part of his career on the state's side of the breath machine: licensed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to administer breath alcohol testing on the Intoxilyzer series, the same family of instruments that produces the number in a Sarasota 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
When Robert is asked how to choose between attorneys, his answer stays the same: the difference is background, education, and experience. The list above is his, and it is the list any DUI attorney in Sarasota you interview should be able to produce on request. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove learned to run the state's breath test before he ever cross-examined an operator over one, and that order of operations shapes how every file gets read.
DUI Defense in Sarasota Puts the Video Next to the Breath Number
A breath result over .08 answers one question. It does not answer whether the person on the roadside video looks like the number, and in the era of dash cameras and body-worn cameras, that footage exists in nearly every file. Robert has spent decades reading the two against each other, and he is blunt about which one can fail first: "sometimes the video undermines the reliability of the breath test."
"you're not going to tell me that the person that I can see with my own eyes ... is impaired because they got a number on your box." Robert Malove, recorded interview
That is the argument he makes with the footage running. A report may describe slurred speech where the audio is clean, or a driver who could not keep his balance where the video shows him planted and following directions. Robert's description of what a report can call a failure: "They raised their foot for 36 seconds as opposed to 30 seconds. They followed all of your instructions."
The roadside exercises themselves get the same scrutiny. Robert's standing advice to anyone who asks is to decline them, because no one performs them with a gymnast's precision, and the report will treat the smallest deviation as evidence of impairment. By the time an officer says he smells alcohol, the exercises are no longer a chance to pass. They are evidence collection for an arrest that is usually already decided. On a Sarasota file that starts with them, the defense work is showing how little that graded performance actually proves.
Behind the video sit the machine's own records. Every breath result rides on calibration, maintenance, and the department's administrative standards, and a result that was not produced properly can be challenged before it ever reaches a jury.
The Absorption-Phase Defense Turns on Timing
Alcohol does not reach the bloodstream the moment it is swallowed. Robert makes the point with an aspirin: swallow one for a headache and nothing happens right away, and nobody would call you under its influence in that first minute. Alcohol behaves the same way. In his words, "somebody might have it on board, but it might not have hit their system yet." Toxicology calls that window the absorption phase, and it matters because the breath test never happens at the moment of driving. It happens at the station, an hour or more later, after the number has had time to climb.
The hypothetical he walks through is specific: "They have a nightcap, not impaired. They're sitting at a red light. Some little old lady bangs into the back of them." The police arrive at a crash the driver did not cause, smell alcohol, and the clock does the rest: "while, at the time of the accident, you were under the legal limit, now an hour later, maybe the alcohol gets absorbed into your system, and you're slightly over the legal limit."
Robert is careful about what this is and is not. He calls timing challenges "the kinds of arguments that we like to make" in negotiation with a prosecutor, arguments aimed at weakening the state's number and improving the offer. They are not a guarantee, and no honest attorney sells them as one. Whether the absorption window matters in your case depends on when you drank, when you drove, and when you blew, which is exactly why the file gets read before anyone talks about a plea.
A Sarasota DUI Arrest Starts Two Cases and a 10-Day Clock
Every Florida DUI runs as two proceedings at once.
The criminal case in county court decides guilt and punishment.
The administrative case at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) decides the license, and each can be won or lost independently of the other.
The license side moves first. Under section 322.2615 of the Florida Statutes, the citation serves as a 10-day temporary permit, and the same 10 days are the window to request a formal review of the suspension. A refusal carries a 12-month administrative suspension with no driving at all for the first 90 days; a test over the limit carries a 6-month suspension with 30 hard days. For a first-time client who depends on driving, waiving the hearing in exchange for a hardship license avoids sitting out those hard days, and that decision has to be made on purpose, with counsel, before day 10.
On the criminal side, section 316.193 lets the state prove DUI either through impaired normal faculties or through a breath, urine, or blood result at .08 or above. For a standard first conviction the statute sets the fine at $500 to $1,000 and caps jail at 6 months; at .15 or higher, or with a minor in the vehicle, the cap rises to 9 months and the fine range doubles. What actually happens in a given case turns on the facts and the county where it is heard, and no outcome gets promised here.
What a plea locks in is the part most callers have not been told: a minimum of 6 months of probation, an adjudication of guilt that can never be sealed or expunged, 50 hours of community service, DUI school, 10 days of vehicle immobilization, and the license suspension. That permanence is why the evidence gets pulled apart first, and why comparing Sarasota DUI lawyers is worth doing before the arraignment date, not after the plea.
How the Firm Serves Sarasota
The Law Offices of Robert David Malove does not publish a Sarasota street address, and this page will not show you a map that pretends otherwise. What the firm brings to Sarasota County is the same thing it brings everywhere in Florida it works: the file, the video, the machine records, and the deadlines, handled by an attorney who has defended DUI cases since 1984.
Sarasota County misdemeanor DUI cases are handled in county court, primarily at the Judge Lynn N. Silvertooth Judicial Center, 2002 Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota, with some south-county cases assigned to the South County Courthouse in Venice. Both sit inside Florida's Twelfth Judicial Circuit, which covers Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties.
If you searched for a DUI lawyer near me from a Sarasota tow lot or the parking lot outside the jail, the answer is one call, not a drive. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove takes Sarasota DUI calls on the firm's 24-hour main line at (954) 861-0384.
The main line is answered 24 hours a day, and the 10-day license clock does not wait for business hours.
Get Help TodayFrequently Asked Questions
How much does a DUI lawyer in Sarasota cost?
The fee depends on what the file holds. A breath number, a refusal, an accident, a prior offense, or a contested license hearing each changes the amount of work, so the quote follows the file rather than a menu. Robert also walks callers through the other column of that ledger: a conviction raises insurance sharply, sometimes past the point of being insurable at all, and the adjudication can never be sealed or expunged. Measured over the years those costs run, the defense is often the smaller number. A Sarasota County DUI lawyer should be able to explain both columns before quoting anything.
Can the breath test be wrong in a Sarasota DUI case?
The number is evidence, not a verdict. Three questions get asked of every breath result: whether the machine was calibrated and maintained to the department's own standards, whether the video of the stop matches the impairment the number implies, and when the drinking happened, because alcohol still being absorbed can push a reading over the limit an hour after the driving even if the driver was under it behind the wheel. Any of the three can undermine the reliability of the result. Whether they do in your case is a question for counsel with your file open.
Where are Sarasota County DUI cases heard?
Misdemeanor DUI cases in Sarasota County are handled in county court, primarily at the Judge Lynn N. Silvertooth Judicial Center at 2002 Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota. Some cases from the south of the county are assigned to the South County Courthouse in Venice. Both courthouses sit inside Florida's Twelfth Judicial Circuit, which covers Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties.
Does Sarasota County have a DUI diversion program for first offenders?
Florida leaves diversion to each jurisdiction, so the answer depends on the current rules of the state attorney's office in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, and this page will not print a claim it has not verified. What is uniform across the state: where a first-offender program exists, it typically resolves the charge to reckless driving with a withhold of adjudication, accident cases and second offenses are excluded, and the wrong procedural move early in the case can cost eligibility. Ask about your county's program before your arraignment date.
My husband was arrested for DUI in Sarasota overnight. What happens first?
Locate the traffic citation. It is also the notice of license suspension, and it starts a 10-day clock on the license decision. Note the arraignment date on the paperwork, and hold off on procedural decisions until an attorney has read the file, because early choices can close doors that should stay open. The main line, (954) 861-0384, is answered 24 hours.
Talk to a Sarasota 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.