Testing and evidence
Implied consent and refusal in Arkansas
The test requested, legal grounds and applicable statute matter.
Under the cited refusal rule in Arkansas: Refusing the breath, saliva or urine test: 180 days for a first offense; 2 years for a second, 3 years for a third, or lifetime revocation for a fourth within the statute's five-year period.. The conditions below identify its scope. A roadside screening request, an evidential test and a warrant are not interchangeable legal grounds.
What a refusal does in Arkansas
- Suspension length after a refusal
- Refusing the breath, saliva or urine test: 180 days for a first offense; 2 years for a second, 3 years for a third, or lifetime revocation for a fourth within the statute's five-year period.
- A qualifying first-offense alcohol case may be eligible for an ignition-interlock restricted license. Prior qualifying refusals and administrative actions are counted under subsection (c).
- Other consequences of refusing
- Under § 5-65-205, an arrested person's refusal of a breath, saliva or urine test requested under the implied-consent law is a separate strict-liability violation.
- The statute also imposes licensing consequences. This statement concerns the specified implied-consent tests, not every request for a biological sample.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Roadside tests and chemical tests are different things
Identify what was requested: a field sobriety exercise, a roadside screening test, or a chemical test of breath, blood or urine. Do not assume the same refusal rule applies to all of them. The relevant statute, any warrant, and the circumstances of the request determine the legal question for a lawyer to review.
The two legal questions
The criminal charge and driving privileges can involve different proceedings. The notice, order and cited rule identify the applicable process.
Driving privileges
The licence case
- Forum
- The agency or court identified by the applicable licence proceeding
- Clock
- Check the applicable notice or order for the deadline and its starting event
- Deadline to request a hearing
- The Office of Driver Services must receive the hearing request within 7 calendar days after the suspension, revocation, disqualification or denial notice is given.
- This is the administrative challenge under § 5-65-402, not the date of the criminal court hearing.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- After a refusal
- Refusing the breath, saliva or urine test: 180 days for a first offense; 2 years for a second, 3 years for a third, or lifetime revocation for a fourth within the statute's five-year period.
- A qualifying first-offense alcohol case may be eligible for an ignition-interlock restricted license. Prior qualifying refusals and administrative actions are counted under subsection (c).
Criminal charge
The criminal case
- Forum
- A criminal court
- Clock
- Check court notices and orders; no case duration is predicted here
- Alcohol-concentration threshold
- 0.08% or more while operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle.
- First-offense penalty rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.The cited rule may describe a range or a minimum with conditions, not a predicted sentence.