Case Name: Robert MITCHELL, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1998-02-04
Citations: 704 So. 2d 1155
Docket Number: No. 97-3077
Parties: Robert MITCHELL, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
Judges: POLEN, SHAHOOD and GROSS, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 704
Pages: 1155–1156

Head Matter:
Robert MITCHELL, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
No. 97-3077.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Feb. 4, 1998.
Kayo Morgan, Fort Lauderdale, for petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Aubin Wade Robinson, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for respondent.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
We grant the petition for writ of certiorari. The trial court failed to instruct the jury on the essential and material element of notice on the charge of driving while license suspended (DWLS) under section 322.34, Florida Statutes (1995). See Chicone v. State, 684 So.2d 736, 745 (Fla.1996); McNeal v. State, 662 So.2d 373, 374 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995), rev. denied, 670 So.2d 940 (Fla.1996). We are unpersuaded that notice is not an essential element of DWLS where the suspension was imposed under section 322.2615, Florida Statutes (1995) (providing for license suspension based on driving with an unlawful blood-alcohol level or breath-alcohol level, or on refusing to submit to a breath, urine, or blood test). See § 322.251, 322.2651, Fla. Stat. (1995) (both requiring that notice of the suspension be given to the driver). We re verse the circuit court s affirmance of the judgment of conviction and sentence, and remand with direction to the circuit court to reverse the DWLS conviction and sentence, and remand to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
POLEN, SHAHOOD and GROSS, JJ., concur.