For years, refusing a breath test was treated as a calculated risk worth taking. No test result, the thinking went, meant less for prosecutors to work with. That assumption was reasonable under the old law. It stopped being reasonable on October 1, 2025, when Trenton’s Law took effect and made a first-time breath test refusal a standalone criminal offense in Florida. It was not just an administrative inconvenience.

Anyone arrested after that date who declined to blow into a breathalyzer is now looking at two separate legal problems running simultaneously: a criminal misdemeanor charge and an administrative license suspension. Understanding how those two tracks work and how the new warning requirement creates a specific defense opportunity matters more than any general advice about what to do at a traffic stop.

Attorney Flem Whited of Whited Law Firm has followed this area of Florida law for decades. He’s one of only three Board Certified DUI Defense lawyers in the state and a past president of the National College for DUI Defense, which means his read on how Trenton’s Law changes a refusal case carries weight that general legal commentary doesn’t.

What Trenton’s Law Actually Changed

House Bill 687, codified as Chapter 2025-121 and effective October 1, 2025, amended Florida Statute 316.1939 in a way that fundamentally altered the calculus around test refusal. Before this amendment, only a second or subsequent refusal could be prosecuted as a crime. A driver refusing for the first time faced a one-year administrative license suspension. Nothing more from a criminal standpoint. Trenton’s Law eliminated that distinction.

Now, a first-time refusal of a breath or urine test is a second-degree misdemeanor on its own, independent of whether the underlying DUI case ever results in a conviction. Blood draws are governed by separate statutory provisions, typically invoked in cases involving serious bodily injury or death. The criminal refusal statute under 316.1939 applies specifically to breath and urine tests.

Criminal & Administrative Penalties Now Run Together

The most consequential change isn’t just that a criminal charge exists. It layers on top of administrative penalties that were already significant. These two categories of consequences operate on separate tracks and don’t offset each other.

First Refusal
A first refusal is now a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, in addition to a one-year administrative suspension of driving privileges through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV).

Second or Subsequent Refusal
A second or subsequent refusal escalates to a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, combined with an 18-month administrative suspension.

Because the criminal prosecution happens in county court and the administrative suspension is handled through the DHSMV, resolving one doesn’t resolve the other. A driver who clears the criminal charge in court can still lose their license through the administrative process, and vice versa. That parallel structure shapes what a defense attorney needs to address from day one.

The Warning Requirement Creates a Defense Opportunity

One of the most legally significant details in the amended statute is rarely discussed plainly in general coverage of Trenton’s Law. Amended Section 316.1939 now requires that a driver be specifically informed that the refusal itself is a crime before that refusal can be charged criminally. That warning isn’t a courtesy. It’s a required element of the offense that the state must prove.

Law enforcement agencies update their printed implied consent warning cards on different schedules. An officer who reads a card printed before October 1, 2025, one that mentions only the license suspension consequence, may not have given the legally required warning. When that happens, the criminal refusal charge rests on an incomplete foundation, and the specific language the officer used becomes directly relevant to the defense.

Separately, a refusal can still be introduced at trial as evidence of consciousness of guilt, meaning the jury can draw a reasonable inference that the driver refused because they feared what the test would show. That concept existed before Trenton’s Law and hasn’t changed. What has changed is that the refusal now also triggers its own criminal charge. A driver who refuses is simultaneously creating potential evidence against themselves in the DUI case and generating a second offense to defend against.

Why Refusing Doesn’t Avoid the DUI Case

Declining a breath or urine test doesn’t stop a DUI investigation. Officers can and do proceed without a chemical test result, relying on their direct observations, dashcam and body camera footage, and the results of standardized field sobriety exercises to build the underlying case. A refusal removes one type of evidence but doesn’t remove the arrest or the charge.

Florida’s implied consent law, found in Florida Statute 316.1932, establishes that by holding a Florida driver’s license, a driver has given advance consent to chemical testing as a condition of operating a vehicle on state roads. That framework authorizes the administrative suspension on the DHSMV side; the criminal refusal statute under 316.1939 authorizes the misdemeanor charge. Both are in play after a refusal, and Florida law doesn’t give a driver the right to consult an attorney before deciding whether to submit to a breath or urine test. That window is short, and the consequences of the choice are now substantially heavier than they were before October 2025.

What Happens Next in Volusia County

Volusia County sits within Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit, which also covers Flagler, Putnam, and St. Johns counties. DUI arrests originating in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, and Port Orange are typically processed at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach. Arrests from DeLand, Deltona, and Orange City move through the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand. Both facilities operate within the same circuit but have separate court divisions, clerks, and local procedures that affect how a case is managed.

The administrative deadline doesn’t wait for criminal proceedings to begin. A driver has 10 days from the date of arrest to request a formal review hearing with the DHSMV to contest the administrative license suspension. Trenton’s Law didn’t change that deadline. Missing it means the suspension goes into effect automatically, though a hardship license (which allows driving for essential purposes like work or medical appointments during the suspension period) may still be available depending on the circumstances.

That 10-day window and the criminal refusal charge represent two deadlines running simultaneously from the moment of arrest. Addressing the administrative track requires a formal hearing request; addressing the criminal track requires building a defense around exactly what warning was given and whether the state can meet its burden under the amended statute. These aren’t the same task, and they don’t resolve on the same timeline.

Under Trenton’s Law, the two details that matter most are the exact language the officer used when warning a driver about the refusal, and the 10-day deadline to request a DHSMV formal review hearing. Whited Law Firm handles only DUI cases, and Attorney Flem Whited’s standing as one of only three Board Certified DUI Defense lawyers in Florida means both tracks of a refusal case can be evaluated quickly. Reach out at (386) 339-0702 to schedule a free initial consultation, available 24/7 in person or virtually.