Testing and evidence
Implied consent and refusal in Louisiana
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 Louisiana 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 Louisiana
- 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
- Refusal is separately chargeable under R.S. 14:98.7 when the arrested person has refused chemical testing on two previous, separate occasions.
- The statute provides a $300–$1,000 fine and 10 days–6 months imprisonment, with conditional probation alternatives in subsection B(2). This provision does not make every first refusal the same offense.
- 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 an administrative hearing under R.S. 32:667–668 after a DWI arrest, the written request to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections must be made within 30 days from the date of arrest.
- The period runs from arrest, not from a later court appearance or the arrival of delayed chemical-test results.
- A person unable to request a hearing within 30 days because of incarceration, hospitalization or another cause acceptable to the department may submit documentation establishing that inability. A request under that exception must be submitted no later than 90 days from arrest; this is not an automatic 90-day extension.
- 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
- 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.