Community Service

With court dockets and jails overflowing with those convicted of crimes (of both the serious of violent nature, and of the more petty or nonviolent nature), Florida judges are increasingly turning to alternative sentencing options to deal with DUI offenders.  Although you may be less likely to serve significant jail time, you may find yourself stuck with one of these alternative penalties.  One of the most common of these is community service.

Community service assessments are especially common in the case of first or second convictions, or otherwise less serious DUI’s.  Typically, a judge will mandate a certain number of hours be performed in community service by a specified date for the penalty to be considered fulfilled.  Work must be performed by the convicted for this specified number of hours, in service of some project or organization in benefit of the community and general public.  Common tasks include litter pickup, public works improvement and assisting in a public office.  Work is performed without pay or other types of compensation.

Florida law requires that those convicted of their first DUI must complete 50 hours of community service.  Second convictions warrant 100 hours of community service, and so on.  Aggravating factors such as a BAC of .15 or higher also compel higher community service requirements.

Florida law also allows those convicted of DUI to “buyout” of all or portions of their community service requirement.  These provisions provide a rate of $10 for each hour of required community service.  So, an individual with 50 hours of community service could pay a rate of $500 to get out of all community service requirements.  They could pay $250 to get out of half of their requirement, and have only to perform 25 hours of community service.

Community service must be completed in order for the DUI to be considered fully resolved, and we highly discourage those with community service penalties from blowing off their duties.  If the court discovers you have not completed the requirements of your community service, they may order additional penalties.  If you have questions about community service or about DUI’s in Florida, call  Finebloom & Haenel to speak with a DUI attorney specialist: 1-800-FIGHT-IT.