Consequences For Refusing a Breathalyzer in Philadelphia

If pulled over and asked to submit to a breath test, the following is information you should take into account before making your decision. To learn more, call and schedule a free consultation with a DUI lawyer in Philadelphia today.

The main consequence for refusing a breath test in Philadelphia is the loss of your driving license for one full year. However, another arguably more important consequence is that the evidence that a person refused a breathalyzer will be used against them at trial.

In PA, a judge is allowed by law to take in to account the reason why a person refused the breathalyzer, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania says that the trial judge or jury can determine that a person was unable to operate a motor vehicle safely on the streets of Philadelphia merely because they refused to give a breathalyzer. So, those are the two main consequences of failing to give a breathalyzer test.

What Happens After the Breathalyzer Test?

If the result of your breathalyzer test is below .08 and there are no other charges involved in the case, a person will be released. In most cases, if you’re below .08, you won’t even be charged unless you are a juvenile.

However, if a person is above .08, a bail will be set by a magistrate and/or a bail judge. That bail will be determined by the past record of an individual, whether they showed up to court or not and any other danger to society that can be brought up by the Commonwealth when determining bail issues.

In most cases, when individuals are charged with DUI in Philadelphia and it’s a first and/or second offense, a person is allowed to sign their own bail especially if they have an experienced Philadelphia DUI attorney to talk to the judge on their behalf and maybe save them thousands of dollars in bail which can otherwise be used to defend their case and win an acquittal.

When To Contact An Attorney in a Philadelphia DUI Case

An individual should contact an attorney for a DUI case in Philadelphia as soon as humanly possibly. If the person is arrested and there’s another individual there at the car present with them, it’s always to their benefit to ask the other individual to contact their specific attorney or specific lawyer.

When a DUI attorney gets involved with a case from the outset, the chances of an acquittal or a positive result in a case even if a guilty verdict is later taken, are doubled which basically means that as soon as you can get a lawyer involved, the better the person charged with the DUI is.

In some cases, if a lawyer is involved and the DUI stop and/or breathalyzer is challenged right from the beginning, a person may not even be arrested for the crime especially if the reading is below .08. So, making the police aware that you have an attorney and that the attorney will be more than happy to cooperate with them and with you is more than enough in some cases to keep the government from even charging an individual.