{"id":547,"date":"2020-02-19T13:14:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=547"},"modified":"2026-01-07T12:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:08:22","slug":"dui-charges-what-happens-if-you-refuse-a-breath-test-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/dui-charges-what-happens-if-you-refuse-a-breath-test-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"DUI Charges: What Happens If You Refuse a Breath Test in Florida?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/dwi-and-dui.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Florida, drivers suspected of intoxicated driving<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have a legal duty to submit to a breath test. Should you violate this obligation, you could lose your license. Indeed, a DUI refusal can lead to immediate penalties\u2014even if you are not actually intoxicated. In this article<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/dwi-and-dui.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, our <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tampa DUI defense attorney<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> explains the most important things you need to know about Florida law and breathalyzer refusals.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Implied Consent in Florida: Breathalyzer Tests<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a starting point, all drivers should know that Florida has an implied consent law on its books (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/statutes\/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0300-0399\/0316\/Sections\/0316.1939.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Florida Statutes \u00a7 316.1939<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Any person who operates a motor vehicle in the state has, by law, already consented to submit to a breathalyzer test if they are arrested for drunk driving. If you refuse to submit to the test, you will be subject to an immediate license suspension.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/dui-charges-what-happens-if-you-refuse-a-breath-test-in-florida\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading DUI Charges: What Happens If You Refuse a Breath Test in Florida?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Florida, drivers suspected of intoxicated driving have a legal duty to submit to a breath test. Should you violate this obligation, you could lose your license. Indeed, a DUI refusal can lead to immediate penalties\u2014even if you are not actually intoxicated. In this article, our Tampa DUI defense attorney explains the most important things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dui"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Refusing a Breath Test in Florida DUI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand what happens when you refuse a breath test in Florida, what license penalties kick in, and how a DUI lawyer can help.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/dui-charges-what-happens-if-you-refuse-a-breath-test-in-florida\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/dui-charges-what-happens-if-you-refuse-a-breath-test-in-florida\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"DUI Charges: What Happens If You Refuse a Breath Test in 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