If you were arrested for drunk driving in Michigan and refused to submit to a breath or blood test, you are facing a separate and serious set of consequences that have nothing to do with whether you are ultimately convicted of the underlying offense. Michigan’s implied consent law operates independently of the criminal case. You can be completely sober — not a trace of alcohol in your system — and still lose your license for a year and have six points added to your driving record, as long as the officer had probable cause to believe you were intoxicated when he made the arrest.
That is a critical point that most people do not understand until it is too late. The implied consent law is not a punishment for drunk driving. It is a punishment for refusing to cooperate with chemical testing after a lawful arrest. The two issues run on parallel tracks, and each one requires its own legal strategy.
You Have 14 Days — and That Clock Is Already Running
If you refused a chemical test, you have only 14 days from the date of your arrest to request a hearing before the Driver’s License Appeal Division of the Secretary of State. Miss that deadline, and your license is automatically suspended for one year, with six points added to your record. There is no grace period and no second chance to request a hearing once the window closes.
I handle these hearings regularly, and the issues that can be raised in your defense are real and meaningful. But none of them are available to you if you do not act immediately. If you refused a chemical test, call my office now.
How to Tell Whether You Are Facing an Implied Consent Suspension
The easiest way to determine your situation is to look at the paperwork the officer gave you at the scene. There are two forms to know about, and knowing the difference between them is the first step toward understanding what you are facing.
Form DI-177 — officially titled the Breath, Blood, Urine Test Report — is issued in the vast majority of drunk driving cases. It is given to motorists who submitted to chemical testing. If you received a DI-177, you are not facing an implied consent suspension, though the results of the test may still be used against you in the criminal case.
Form DI-93 — the Officer’s Report of Refusal to Submit to Chemical Test — is the implied consent refusal notice. If you received this form, the officer is alleging that you refused to submit to a chemical test after your arrest. Notice that where a DI-177 records breath alcohol concentration results, the DI-93 shows “REFUSED” in the instrument field and “N/A” across all BAC fields. This is the form that triggers the 14-day deadline. You can find the form number in the upper left-hand corner of whichever document you received. If you are not sure which form you have, check there first.
What Counts as a Chemical Test — and What Does Not
After a drunk driving arrest, a police officer will request that you submit to a breath, blood, or urine test. The officer chooses which type of test to administer. Michigan law gives officers that discretion. An unreasonable refusal to submit to whichever test the officer selects is what triggers implied consent consequences.
It is important to understand that not every breath test you encounter during a traffic stop is a chemical test for implied consent purposes. The small handheld device an officer asks you to blow into at the roadside — before you are arrested — is called a preliminary breath test, or PBT. The two PBT devices currently used in Michigan are shown in the photograph below.
The PBT is a screening tool, not an evidentiary instrument. It is generally not admissible as evidence in court, though a result of 0.08 or higher can give the officer probable cause to place you under arrest. Once the officer has that probable cause, he can make the arrest regardless of whether your field sobriety tests went well or whether you appear obviously impaired.
Refusing the PBT is an entirely different matter from refusing the post-arrest chemical test. For most drivers — everyone except commercial drivers and minors — a PBT refusal is only a civil infraction. There are no points, no license suspension, and no hearing required. The fine ranges from $100 to $200. You will not lose your license for refusing the PBT, and a PBT refusal does not trigger the 14-day implied consent clock.
The implied consent law is triggered only by a refusal of the post-arrest chemical test — the breath or blood test administered after you have been placed under arrest, typically at the police station.
What the Hearing Can Accomplish
A hearing before the Driver’s License Appeal Division is not a formality. There are legitimate legal challenges that can result in your implied consent suspension being set aside entirely. The officer must have had proper probable cause for the arrest. The implied consent advisory must have been properly given. The refusal itself must have been unreasonable under the circumstances. Each of these elements can be contested, and I have successfully challenged implied consent suspensions on all of these grounds.
The stakes — a one-year license suspension and six points — are significant enough that no one facing an implied consent issue should navigate it alone or assume the outcome is predetermined. If you received a DI-93, or if you are not certain whether you refused, call my office today. The 14-day window does not wait.
