Cocoa Beach DUI Lawyer

Bars, the pier and A1A: how Cocoa Beach stops happen

Much of Cocoa Beach's nightlife sits along A1A, near the Cocoa Beach Pier and the restaurants and bars that line the road. DUI stops are commonly made by the Cocoa Beach Police Department on A1A, State Road 520 and the Minutemen Causeway, often late in the evening as people head back to hotels or homes.

Officers usually look for driving cues such as weaving or speeding, then move to questions and field sobriety exercises. Each step should appear in the reports and, often, on video.

Arrested in Cocoa Beach while on vacation

A DUI case is prosecuted in the county where the arrest happened, not where the driver lives. A visitor arrested in Cocoa Beach faces a Brevard County case even after going home, and a Florida suspension can be reported to the driver's home state.

Distance does not always mean repeated trips back. In many misdemeanor DUI cases, a lawyer can file a written plea of not guilty at arraignment and appear for the client at pretrial hearings. Whether a person must attend a particular hearing depends on the case.

A DUI arrest can also affect international travel, immigration status or a professional license back home. Those questions turn on rules outside Florida criminal law, so advice from the right professional, such as an immigration attorney, is important.

Brevard County Court and the state license case

The criminal case is filed in Brevard County Court, part of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. Brevard has a main courthouse, the Moore Justice Center in Viera, plus courthouses in Titusville and Melbourne, and the court chooses where each hearing is held.

The license case is separate. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles handles an administrative suspension, and there are 10 days from the arrest to request a formal review hearing. Without a request, the suspension takes effect, even for a driver who has already left Florida.

A short drive from the firm's office

The firm's nearest office is in Satellite Beach, a short drive south on A1A. For visitors who are already back home, calls are answered 24 hours a day and the case review is free.

Cocoa Beach at a glance

County: Brevard County
Court: Brevard County Court, which sits at the Moore Justice Center in Viera and at courthouses in Titusville and Melbourne
Circuit: Florida's Eighteenth Judicial Circuit
The firm's nearest office is in Satellite Beach, a short drive south on A1A. See Satellite Beach office.

Other Brevard County cities

General information only, not legal advice. Every case depends on its own facts, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Cocoa Beach DUI questions

Not necessarily. In many misdemeanor DUI cases, a lawyer can enter a written plea of not guilty and appear at pretrial hearings in Brevard County Court for the client, under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.180. Whether you must attend a specific hearing depends on the case and the court.

It can. A Florida administrative suspension can be reported to your home state, and the 10 day deadline to request a formal review hearing with DHSMV applies even if you have already gone home. How your home state responds depends on its own rules.

Within city limits, including the pier area and the bars along A1A, DUI stops are commonly made by the Cocoa Beach Police Department. That department writes the arrest report and keeps the video, and those records show the reason for the stop and how testing was done.

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