Consequences under FL DUI laws for 4th DUI conviction

Florida Law provides that a Fourth Conviction for DUI requires a mandatory permanent revocation of your driver license. This mandatory permanent revocation of your driver license is required regardless of when the three prior DUI convictions occurred. Unfortunately, no hardship reinstatement is allowed under Florida law.

You mention that two of the convictions were not moving violations. I assume you mean that the police did not see you driving the vehicle before your arrest and alleged that you were in actual physical control. Which can occur, for example, when someone pulls over to the side of the road to "sleep it off." However, a "moving violation" is not required to impose the permanent life time revocation.

The only way around the permanent revocation of your Florida driver license would be to move to set aside one of the prior convictions with a post-conviction motion which must be filed within two years of the date the prior conviction become final. Even if you are still within the two year time period to contest one of the prior DUI, winning a post-conviction motion to set aside one of the prior DUI's is extremely difficult. If you entered a plea, you must show that your plea was coerced or that your trial counsel was ineffective.

You would need to gather all of the documents in your possession related to each offense and then contact an attorney that handles post-conviction motions to review your case to determine if there is any viable basis to move to set aside one of the prior DUI convictions. Your attorney would need to determine whether you are still within the two year time period and then order all of the records for each case in order to complete a review.

These motions are extremely difficult to win even if you have a viable claim.

Although permanently revoked in Florida with 4 DUI convictions, I have been able to get D/Ls in a few circumstances. There are a couple of ways I have been able to do it. The most frequently used method is to move for post-conviction relief to basically undo a prior DUI. Although the time limit is two years I have been able to get the State to agree with one over 15 years old under the right circumstances. The second way is more obscure. Was any one of the priors committed as a juvenile? If so, I have been successful because tescnically a juvenile conviction is not a conviction but an adjudication of delinquency.