If you’re charged with DUI / OVWI in Indiana, the State doesn’t wait until you’ve been convicted to suspend your driving privileges. Assuming that you consented to a certified chemical test, and those results showed you with an alcohol concentration equivalent of 0.08* or greater, the BMV is going to suspend your license for 180 days.
No Certified Chemical Test Results
If the police took blood (and not breath) for purposes of a certified chemical test, the lab analysis usually takes several weeks to complete. This means at the start of your case, the State won’t yet have the evidence it will be using to try and convict you.
Some courts will suspend you immediately, even if they don’t have blood results back. The majority of judges, however, wait on the test results to impose the suspension. Regardless of what form the chemical test took, the administrative suspension will be for 180 days.
Refusal of a Certified Chemical Test
If the police offered you a certified chemical test and you refused, that’s a different story. If you’ve never been in trouble before, a chemical test refusal will earn you a one-year license suspension. If you have any prior DUI / OVWIs on your record—even from decades ago—a chemical test refusal will result in a two-year license suspension.
A refusal suspension is bad news. Not only is it excessive in length, but the only way to get rid of it is to get the State to agree to terminate it. A refusal suspension makes you ineligible for Specialized Driving Privileges, and any criminal suspension cannot begin until the refusal suspension is complete.
Click here to read on about other license suspension scenarios.
* grams of ethanol per 100 milliliters of blood or 210 liters of breath
