Lookback period

In Arkansas, A.C.A. § 5-65-205 directs the Office of Driver Services to treat certain events that occurred within a window immediately before the current offense as a previous offense for the purpose of enhancing the administrative penalty for refusing a chemical test.

Arkansas's A.C.A. § 5-65-205 lists two such events: a conviction for an offense of refusing to submit to a chemical test, and a suspension or revocation of driving privileges for an arrest for refusing a chemical test when the person was not subsequently acquitted of the criminal charge. The graduated suspensions and revocations in that statute apply to a person who refuses a chemical test of breath, saliva or urine.

In Michigan, MCL 257.625f directs the secretary of state to suspend or deny a license, permit or nonresident operating privilege after a chemical-test refusal when the person does not request a hearing within the stated period after notice or does not prevail at the hearing, and the sanction is longer for a repeat refusal within a stated window.

For a person operating a commercial motor vehicle, Michigan's MCL 257.625f ties revocation of all vehicle group designations to a repeat refusal that occurred in a separate incident from, and within a separate stated window of, a prior refusal, lasting at least a stated period and until the person is approved for a vehicle group designation.

In Nebraska, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-498.02 directs the director, at the end of a stated period after arrest or after a hearing in which the director finds the license should be revoked, to revoke the operator's license of a person whose chemical test discloses a concentration of alcohol specified in a separate section of the statutes.

Nebraska's Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-498.02 makes that test-result revocation longer when the person's driving record abstract in the department's computerized records shows a prior administrative license revocation with a final order issued during a stated period immediately preceding the time the order of revocation is issued.

In Louisiana, RS 14:98.7 provides that a person under arrest for an impaired-driving violation, including any law or ordinance that prohibits operating a vehicle while impaired, may not refuse a chemical test requested by a law enforcement officer if the person has refused such a test on a stated number of "previous and separate occasions" of any such violation. Louisiana's provision applies only when that condition about earlier separate refusals is met.

Deadlines, limits and penalty ranges are set by each state’s statutes, so this page does not state them. Each state page shows them with the official source and the date they were verified — or says plainly that a figure has not been confirmed yet.