- Board Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
- Former Assistant Public Defender in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties
- Licensed to Conduct Breath Alcohol Testing
- Open 24 Hours
Your West Palm Beach DUI Attorney Was an Assistant Public Defender in Palm Beach County
Robert Malove learned criminal courtrooms from the inside, as an assistant public defender in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties, before four decades of DUI defense in private practice. He is Board Certified in criminal trial law, a distinction held by fewer than 400 of the more than 100,000 active members of the Florida Bar.
- Florida DUI Training Attorney, designated 1995
- Master's in Forensic Science, The George Washington University
- Licensed to conduct breath alcohol testing on Intoxilyzer series instruments
- Founding member, National College for DUI Defense
The breath-testing license is the credential worth asking about, because the breath number is usually the state's cleanest exhibit. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove has held a Florida Department of Law Enforcement license to conduct breath alcohol testing, on the same instrument family behind the number in a Palm Beach County DUI file.
When you interview more than one lawyer this week, use Robert's own standard for choosing between them: background, education, and experience. Ask every DUI attorney in West Palm Beach you call whether they have ever held a breath-testing license, then compare the answers you get.
Waiving the Hearing Is the Mechanism That Avoids the Hard Suspension
A Florida DUI arrest starts an administrative case against your license before any judge sees the criminal file. The citation notifies you that the license is suspended and works as a permit for 10 days, and by the 10th day your paperwork must reach the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) under section 322.2615 of the Florida Statutes. Only two filings exist: a demand for a formal review hearing, or a waiver of that hearing.
The stakes are the hard no-driving days. In Robert's explanation, a refusal brings a 12-month suspension with no driving at all for the first 90 days, and a breath test over the limit brings a 6-month suspension with 30 hard days. The waiver is the way around them.
"there's a mechanism to avoid the hard suspension of whether it's 90 days or 30 days before you can get a work permit by waiving the hearing" Robert Malove, recorded interview
The advice tracks the client's life rather than a formula. A first-time client who has to drive, to a job, to a classroom, to a parent's house, is usually told to waive and take the permit rather than gamble away 30 or 90 hard days on a hearing. A prior DUI closes the waiver route. And for clients whose real problem is simply staying mobile, Robert's counsel in the interview was blunt: "clients who are affluent and need to get around ... waive the hearing and ... get a permit".
Waiving requires enrolling in DUI school before the hardship application goes in, and enrolling admits nothing in the criminal case. The license case and the criminal case run on separate tracks, each winnable or losable on its own, which is why DUI defense in West Palm Beach means working both at once. The firm protects the day-10 deadline first, then reads the rest of the file.
A DHSMV Hearing Officer, Not a Judge, Decides the License Case
Fighting the suspension sounds better than waiving it, until you look at the room where the fight happens. A formal review is conducted by a hearing officer designated by the department under section 322.2615, and Robert describes that bench without varnish: "You don't have the most sophisticated ... hearing officers who are not lawyers and trained by the DHSMV." The evidence bar is low, and the agency that suspended the license trains the person reviewing it.
He has also lived the downside. Robert has presented review hearings he was certain he had won on the evidence and still watched the hearing officer rule against him, leaving those clients to sit out the full 30 or 90 hard days a waiver would have avoided. None of that predicts any particular hearing. It is the risk that gets weighed, case by case, against what a successful challenge could recover, and it is the reason the hearing-or-waiver call belongs in front of counsel while the 10-day window is still open.
A Hardship License Covers Work, School, Church, and Medical Driving
A hardship permit is not your license back. Section 322.271 of the Florida Statutes defines business-purposes driving as driving necessary to maintain livelihood, and Robert walks every client through what that covers before they count on it:
- Driving to and from work
- Necessary on-the-job driving
- Driving for educational purposes
- Driving for church and for medical purposes
The livelihood catch-all reaches further than the list, and Robert flags it as interpretation territory rather than a blank check. Ordinary discretionary driving stays off the table, so the household logistics get planned around the permit. Positioning the application inside the 10-day window is part of the first week's work, along with the DUI school enrollment the application requires.
Palm Beach County Ties Diversion Eligibility to Your Arraignment
Palm Beach County DUI cases are prosecuted in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and cases are heard downtown at the Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley Courthouse, 205 North Dixie Highway, minutes from the firm's Clematis Street office. The county offers a diversion path for qualifying first offenders, and the door into it can close at the first hearing.
Robert names Palm Beach County, alongside Broward, as a county where demanding discovery at the arraignment and setting the case for trial is treated as forfeiting eligibility for the diversion program. Board Certified criminal trial attorney Robert Malove of The Law Offices of Robert David Malove reads the full file before the arraignment date in a Palm Beach County DUI case, because a discovery demand filed on the wrong case can forfeit the one resolution worth keeping open.
Where the client qualifies, diversion resolves a first offense to reckless driving with a withhold of adjudication, and after completing the program the client can apply to have the record sealed. An accident on the case, a second offense, or a high breath result can keep you out. Each state attorney's office controls its own program, so the terms are local and the eligibility read happens early.
The Firm's West Palm Beach Office on Clematis Street Is Open 24 Hours
319 Clematis St, #1002
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Open 24 Hours
(954) 861-0384The office sits at 319 Clematis St in the middle of downtown West Palm Beach, minutes from the county's main courthouse. If the search that brought you here was DUI lawyer near me, or a family member is looking for a DUI lawyer in West Palm Beach, FL while you are still being processed, this is the address, and the phone is answered around the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a DUI lawyer in West Palm Beach cost?
A Palm Beach County DUI lawyer prices the work after reading the file, because the file sets the work. A refusal, an accident, a prior offense, or a contested formal review each adds hours and stakes, so quotes you collect while comparing West Palm Beach DUI lawyers will move with those facts. Robert frames the other side of the ledger for clients doing this math. A conviction keeps billing you after the case ends, through insurance that rises sharply if a carrier will keep you at all, and through a record that Florida law does not allow to be sealed or expunged.
Should I waive the DHSMV hearing after a West Palm Beach DUI arrest?
Waiving trades away the chance to invalidate the suspension and buys immediate access to the hardship-license application, with no 30-day or 90-day hard suspension to sit out. Fighting keeps the challenge alive in front of a department hearing officer who is not a judge, where Robert has won on the evidence and still lost the ruling. His general rule from the interview is that a first-time client who depends on driving usually waives, and a client with a prior DUI cannot use the waiver. The decision has to reach FLHSMV by day 10, so it should be made with counsel while the window is open.
When is a DUI a felony in Florida?
Under section 316.193, a third conviction for an offense that occurs within 10 years of a prior conviction is a third-degree felony, a fourth conviction is a felony regardless of when the priors happened, and a DUI causing serious bodily injury is a third-degree felony. Cases involving a death are charged as DUI manslaughter and carry heavier felony exposure. Anyone facing those facts should be talking to a felony DUI lawyer in West Palm Beach, not reading general penalty tables.
Does Palm Beach County have a DUI diversion program?
Yes. Palm Beach County offers a diversion path for qualifying first offenders, and each state attorney's office sets its own terms. Robert's caution for this county concerns the arraignment. Demanding discovery and setting the case for trial there is treated as forfeiting eligibility, so the fight-or-diversion read happens before that date. Accident cases and second offenses do not qualify, and a high breath result can disqualify.
Someone was arrested for DUI in West Palm Beach overnight. What should the family do?
Start with the paperwork that came home from the jail. The traffic citation is the license-suspension notice and the 10-day driving permit, so the arrest date sets the deadline. Find the arraignment date too, because in Palm Beach County what happens at that hearing can decide diversion eligibility. Get both dates in front of an attorney early enough for the hearing-or-waiver decision to be made on purpose. The West Palm Beach office answers 24 hours at (954) 861-0384.
Talk to a West Palm Beach 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.