Testing and evidence
Implied consent and refusal in Hawaii
The test requested, legal grounds and applicable statute matter.
Implied-consent laws connect driving and chemical testing under specified legal conditions. The test requested and the officer’s legal grounds matter. The source-checked rules available for Hawaii appear below. A missing suspension figure is not a statement that refusal has no consequences. Check the applicable notice and official provision.
What a refusal does in Hawaii
- Suspension length after a refusal
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Other consequences of refusing
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.Whether a refusal is separately chargeable, and whether it can be used as evidence, varies by state.
- 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
- For the initial hearing schedule, the director must receive the hearing request within 6 days of the date the administrative review decision is mailed.
- This follows an administrative review affirming the revocation. The six-day period runs from mailing of that review decision, not from the arrest or the original revocation notice.
- A separate late-hearing route allows a request within 60 days of issuance of the original notice of administrative revocation. That is a different trigger, not an extension of the six-day period from the review decision.
- 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
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Criminal charge
The criminal case
- Forum
- A criminal court
- Clock
- Check court notices and orders; no case duration is predicted here
- Alcohol-concentration threshold
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- First-offense penalty rule
- Base first offense: 14-hour-minimum substance-abuse program; 12–18 months license revocation and interlock; plus one or more of 72 hours community service, 48 hours–5 days jail, or a $250–$1,000 fine.
- Surcharges and assessment/treatment requirements are additional. Highly intoxicated drivers and adult drivers with a passenger younger than 15 face added penalties.
- Interlock permits have eligibility restrictions. The statute provides conditional early termination and a separate rule for a person unable to install an interlock or drive.