Boating Under the Influence Attorneys

A Florida BUI is not a DUI on a boat — it is its own statute, with its own field-sobriety realities, its own evidentiary problems, and, since October 1, 2025, its own criminal exposure for refusing a chemical test. The threshold is the same (a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 under Fla. Stat. § 327.35), but the analogy to driving stops there. Standing on the swim platform of a boat that has been rocking in chop for two hours is not the same as standing roadside, and the State's evidence has to be evaluated with that physical reality in mind. Call us at (386) 255-1400 24 hours a day for a free consultation.

BUI is its own statute. The defenses are different.

The Florida BUI statute mirrors the DUI threshold (0.08), but several pieces that drive DUI defense do not translate cleanly to the water:

• The standardized field sobriety tests are not designed for a boat. The walk-and-turn and one-leg-stand were developed and validated on solid ground. Officers sometimes attempt them on a dock, on a deck, or on a recently-stopped boat where the operator's vestibular system is still adjusting to standing on a stable surface after hours of pitch and roll. That physiological reality is real, documented, and often contestable.
• Marine officers are not always trained DUI investigators. FWC officers and Coast Guard boarding teams operate under different policies and training pipelines than the road patrol units that handle DUI. The investigative quality varies, and a defense built on that variance can move a case.
• A BUI counts as a prior DUI, and vice versa. Under § 327.35, a BUI conviction can be used to enhance a later DUI, and a prior DUI can be used to enhance a later BUI. The interplay matters for clients with any drinking-and-driving history.

How Florida BUI charges escalate

What Trenton's Law (HB 687) changed for Florida boaters

Trenton's Law, effective October 1, 2025, reshaped how Florida handles vessel-based impairment cases. Two changes matter most for current BUI cases:

• Refusal of a chemical test is now a separate crime on the water. Pre-Trenton's, refusing a breath, urine, or blood test on a boat had evidentiary consequences but was not independently criminal. As of October 1, 2025, a first refusal under Florida's vessel implied-consent provisions is now its own second-degree misdemeanor (up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine), running concurrently with the underlying BUI prosecution. A subsequent refusal is upgraded to a first-degree misdemeanor. Unlike DUI, there is no driver's-license administrative track for BUI refusals — the entire exposure is criminal.
• A second BUI manslaughter is now a first-degree felony. A first BUI manslaughter remains a second-degree felony (up to 15 years), but a subsequent BUI manslaughter is now a first-degree felony with up to 30 years of state-prison exposure. The change runs parallel to the DUI manslaughter enhancement under the same bill.

The practical effect on day-to-day BUI cases is that the decision to refuse the test now has criminal consequences attached, even on first-offense matters. That is a new variable in every defense strategy.

What gets contested in a BUI defense

Florida BUI law moved with Trenton's Law. The defense should keep up.

Trenton's Law (HB 687) reshaped Florida's vessel-impairment statutes starting October 1, 2025, including the new criminal exposure for refusing a chemical test on a boat. The pre-Trenton's playbook (refuse the test, deal only with admissibility consequences) no longer maps to the current law. Cases need to be evaluated under the current statute, the current case law, and the way Volusia and Flagler are charging boater refusals this season — not on the rules that applied a year ago.