This page volition help you lot understand Florida alcohol laws and avoid expensive fines or even jail. Not to mention time and embarrassment.

Florida alcohol laws tin impact visitors from elsewhere. Visitors may falsely remember that its alcohol laws are the same equally those where they live. This can easily crusade serious problems.

    OVERVIEW
  1. Minimum Age Laws
  2. More than Alcohol Laws
  3. Resources
  4. Legal Advice

Alcohol laws are not even the aforementioned within Florida. They can also differ within a large metropolitan area. So information technology'due south easy to intermission the law without knowing it.

I. Minimum Age Laws

Young people often want to work part-time. Hospitality has many jobs. And then youths demand to know the age for working with booze. How old must one be to serve alcohol in a venue for drinking on site? To tend bar? To sell alcohol for consumption elsewhere?

Adults aged eighteen or older may be bartenders. They may also exist servers in venues that sell alcohol for consumption on-site.

There is no historic period restriction for selling beer or wine for off-site use. The exception is for selling spirits in such an establishment.

It is criminal to use a borrowed, forged, counterfeit, or stolen Florida driver's license to buy alcohol. Of course, the same applies to a Florida ID carte. Understandably, it's besides illegal to provide anyone with such false ID.

It's legal for any adult 18 or older to drink alcohol as part of a required class. It must be at an establishment with accreditation. Moreover, the teacher must be at to the lowest degree 21 and command the alcohol at all times.

It's illegal for those under 21 to drive or boat with a BAC of 0.02 or higher.

II. More Florida Alcohol Laws

Alcohol Sales

It's illegal to sell alcohol to anyone, including adults, under age 21. The penalty for doing then, fifty-fifty accidentally, is a fine of up to $500. It may too include imprisonment for upward to 60 days.

Standard drinks take equal booze.

Florida alcohol laws permit beer and wine sales in alcohol-licensed retail stores. This includes grocery stores and convenience gas stations. However, only a package store may sell spirits. (Spirits are rum, whiskey, tequila, gin, vodka, etc.)

This distinction is based on an former myth. It's that spirits are more than alcoholic than beer or wine. But standard drinks of each has the aforementioned amount of alcohol. That is six-tenths ounce of pure alcohol.

florida alcohol lawsIt's illegal to sell whatsoever of the celebratory Champagne bottle sizes. That is, Methuselahs, Salamanazars, Balthazars or Nebuchadnezzars.

Sales Hours

Retailers may generally not sell alcohol anywhere between iii a.m. and 7 a.g. whatsoever day of the calendar week. Just Florida counties and cities have much authority over the days and times of alcohol sales.

Miami-Dade and a few other counties allow 24-hr sales on seven days of the week. Some counties permit sales start at apex on Sundays. On the other mitt, the counties of Baker and Polk are dry out on Sundays. Prohibiting alcohol sales on Sundays or until noon on Sundays is a vestige of Blue Laws.

However, some Florida counties follow a different path. For example, the panhandle counties of Lafayette, Liberty, Madison, and Washington counties are dry. (Discover more than at Dry Counties.) The sale of alcohol there is illegal 24/7. This is a vestige of the Temperance Movement.

Florida drinking laws prohibit drinking on public property. This more often than not includes streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and beaches. Just this prohibition extends to private property if the owner hasn't given permission.

Note that "ABC" stores in Florida are non regime monopolies. They are contained, competitive, taxation-paying businesses with "ABC" every bit their proper name.

Buying Alcohol

People must exist 21 or older to purchase booze. Even a first criminal offense is a crime. It'south jail for 60 days and a fine of $500. A 2nd criminal offence is jail for upwardly to one twelvemonth and a $1,000 fine.

Using a fake ID to buy, or attempt to buy, alcohol is a crime. Information technology's punishable with prison for up to v years and a fine up to $v,000.

Lending an ID to someone is punishable by sixty days in jail and a $500.00 fine. Using someone else'due south ID carries the aforementioned penalties. And the state may suspend the licenses of both people for 1 yr.

Information technology's a violation of Florida alcohol laws to drive with a claret alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher.

For those under 21, including adults, information technology'southward 0.02% or greater. The penalty for driving with a BAC of .02% upward to .05% is license intermission for six months. For a BAC of .05% or higher, courts suspend the license until completion of a substance class. If the offender is not an developed (is under eighteen), police notify the parents.

Florida alcohol laws prohibit open alcohol containers in motor vehicles. Drivers receive a fine of at to the lowest degree $73.00. Just it could exist up to $90.00. Passengers receive a fine of at least $43.00. However, it could be upwards to $sixty.00.

Florida law requires drivers to submit to a BAC test if constabulary request it. The state punishes drivers who utilize their Ramble right to turn down. The penalisation is pause of the driver's license for 1 twelvemonth. A second refusal on another fourth dimension results in suspension for 18 months..

Boating Under the Influence

florida alcohol lawsFlorida alcohol laws prohibit operating a boat under the influence (OBU). The terms gunkhole and vessel are very, very full general. For example, they even include riding h2o skis.

People are "under the influence" if they take a BAC of 0.08% or college. Alternatively, if alcohol and/or drugs is impacting them to a caste which impairs their normal abilities. Or with a BAC of 0.05% or higher if there is any show of beingness "under the influence." Of course, that's in the opinion of the arresting officer. Clearly, that is very subjective.

Penalties for a first crime are jail for up to six months and a fine of upward to $500. For a 2d, it'southward jail for up to 9 months and a fine of up to $1,000. And for a tertiary, it's prison for up to a twelvemonth and a fine up to $2,500.

If the criminal offense causes property damage, injury, or expiry, the court imposes much more than severe punishments.

For those under 21, it's illegal to operate a vessel with whatever measurable BAC. That is, with a BAC of 0.02%. That number is not zero because breathalyzers are not accurate.

Note that Florida offers a $250 reward for data leading to a BUI abort.

A confidence requires fifty hours of public service and completing a boater education class. Also an online course. They may not operate any vessel until they satisfy all those requirements.

A person operating a vessel must past law submit to a BAC test if police asking it. The state punishes those who use their Constitutional correct to decline. It does and so with 50 hours of public service. In addition, they may not operate a vessel until they satisfy that requirement.

Three. Resources on Florida Booze Laws

  • Florida alcohol lawsState Code
  • Court Opinions
  • Attorney General Opinions
  • Florida Bar
  • Division of Booze and Tobacco
  • Florida Drivers Guide for Parents and Teens.
  • Criminal and Traffic Law Transmission.

Four. Seek Skilful Advice nearly Drinking Laws in Florida

Laws almost booze change. Interpretations of these laws as well modify. Police force is ever in flux.  Florida alcohol laws, as those of all states, tin be disruptive. So do not rely on this site. Nor on whatever other site.

Florida alcohol lawsGo information or advice about Florida booze laws from an skillful. That is a lawyer holding a license in the state.

Florida is a big country. Booze laws vary from dry out counties to those permitting sales 24/seven. So it's a expert idea to select a lawyer in your city.

And so now y'all know more near Florida alcohol laws than do most residents of the Sunshine State!