Traveling With a DUI

Traveling With a DUI

Many people wonder “What are the travel restrictions for someone with a pending DUI case?” The unfortunate answer is “It depends.” If you have paid a cash bond, or you didn’t need to go through a bondsman, you are allowed to travel out of state. As long as the conditions of your bond are set, and you don’t miss a required court day, you’re fine to travel without restriction. If you hire a lawyer, he can have you excused from your initial court day, the arraignment, and typically a pre-trial conference as well.

The Orlando DUI lawyers at The Umansky Law Firm are seasoned criminal defense attorneys with over 100 years of combined experience. We can negotiate with the State to help limit your court appearances to allow you to go about your normal life as we await the final ruling on your case. Upon being arrested for a DUI, reach out to The Umansky Law Firm to ensure that your case is in good hands.

Pre-Trial Release for DUI Charges in Florida

In Florida, there is often the opportunity for pre-trial release, which requires you to regularly report to a supervising officer. If you post a cash bond and there aren’t any additional conditions on your release, all you have to do is attend the relevant court dates. With the help of a lawyer from an established firm, you may even be excused from your arraignment hearing, which is your first court date after you get out of jail.

You also won’t have to attend your pre-trial conference, which is typically your second court date. By not having to attend these court hearings, you’ll have a couple months where you can travel as long as you’re not missing court dates.

Bondsman’s Control Over Your Travel

The only exception to being able to travel freely is if you have a bondsman as they are the ones financially responsible for making sure you appear at all the relevant court days. Since their money is on the line, you’ll have to get their OK to travel before you can leave the state or the country.

If you’re unfamiliar with how bondsmen typically work, here’s a rough overview:

1. There’s a bond set for your release
2. You’ll pay them 10 percent of whatever the bond is. You don’t get that money back; that’s how they make their money.
3. They put up the rest of the bond as a loan

If you take off, or go to Japan and never come back, they’re on the hook for that money. Since they are so highly involved, they’ll assess each client to determine how much of a risk they may be. You might have heard that many people get approval from certain bondsman to travel out of state, or even out of the country. However, if they decide, for whatever reason, that you’re too much of a risk to allow that to happen, your freedom to travel can be extremely limited. If that’s the case, you have no choice but to respect the bondsman’s instructions.

The reason being is that they have the right to come off your bond if they feel like you’re not going to listen to them or show up for your court date. Doing so will justify a new arrest and you’ll have to re-bond out.