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Posted on October 31, 2025 in assault & violent crimes
If you drive or are in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in the state of Arizona, and a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, then under Arizona law, you are subject to the state’s implied consent law.
The implied consent law means that if you fail to expressly agree to submit to a breath test sample and/or a blood and/or urine test to assess how much alcohol or drugs are in your body, you will be subject to automatic 12-month suspension of your Arizona driving privileges.
The license suspension is one year for a first refusal. A second refusal within 84 months (7 years) results in a two-year suspension.
Rosenstein Law Group represents drivers in all types of driving under the influence (DUI) charges, including implied consent cases.
If you have had your license suspended because you refused to give consent to alcohol or drug testing, call us immediately at (480) 248-7666 to speak with an experienced Arizona DUI defense attorney.
In this article, we discuss how Arizona’s implied consent law works, the effects of refusing to consent to alcohol and drug testing, and what you can do if your license is suspended.
Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) 28-1321 is Arizona’s implied consent law. It is a lengthy and complex statute, so we do not reproduce it here.
Subsections A and B of ARS 28-1321 are the most important parts for motorists. These subsections establish the following key elements.
Ordinarily, breath and chemical tests to detect alcohol or drugs are searches that require a warrant under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution if you do not expressly consent to the test(s). You have the legal right to refuse to submit to such testing in the absence of a search warrant.
If the officer does not have a search warrant, they may ask for your express consent. Express consent is a valid exception to the need for a valid search warrant.
The effect of Arizona’s implied consent law is that if you drive a motor vehicle in Arizona or are in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, you implicitly consent to the testing of your blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substance.
This includes adults and minors.
A law enforcement officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that such a person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or that a minor has any amount of spirituous liquor in his or her body, is authorized to administer drug or alcohol tests to that person in order to determine the level of alcohol concentration or drug content.
Anyone who is arrested for DUI, or for being a minor who has alcohol in his or her body, and fails to expressly agree to submit to breath and/or blood testing, must be informed that his or her driver’s license will be suspended for one year. They could also have their license for two years if they had previously refused to submit to post-DUI arrest drug or alcohol testing within the last 84 months.
You have a limited legal right to speak to an attorney before deciding whether to provide a test sample, as long as it does not interfere with the officer’s investigation. You should request to call an attorney before submitting to a chemical test.
If you consented to the DUI breathalyzer, blood, and/or urine test, but feel you were coerced or misled into doing so, it is possible that your consent was not voluntary. If your consent was involuntary, and police did not have a warrant, your rights may have been violated. If you were charged with DUI under these circumstances, you should consult an experienced DUI defense attorney regarding your defense options.
If you initially refused testing, you may avoid license suspension if you then expressly agree to submit to the testing.
Once an officer has recorded a refusal, that officer may, but is not required to, allow you to rescind that refusal.
If you refuse to give a drug or alcohol test sample, the only way the police officer at the scene can require you to submit to testing is by obtaining a search warrant to administer the test.
The officer must have probable cause to believe you are impaired in order for that officer to request the test based on a search warrant. If the search warrant is granted, the police officer is authorized to conduct drug and alcohol testing despite your refusal.
The police officer may only compel you to submit to a blood test if the arresting officer has reasonable grounds to believe you were driving under the influence, and the officer first obtains a search warrant.
If a person submits to drug and alcohol testing, and a procedure such as a breathalyzer test reveals a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 or more (or 0.04 for a commercial driver or someone driving a vehicle for hire), that person’s driver’s license or permit shall be suspended or denied for at least 90 days. This also applies if the test reveals the presence of any prescribed drug or drug metabolite under Arizona law that the person does not have a prescription for.
The suspension begins 30 days after the date of the arrest and refusal, and the arresting officer will confiscate the driver’s license (if it’s an Arizona license), issuing a temporary permit valid for 30 days. The suspension remains effective even if you are ultimately found not guilty of DUI.
During this initial 30-day period, you must request an administrative hearing with the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) of the Arizona Department of Transportation within the 30-day window if the driver wants to challenge the suspension.
A person whose license has been suspended or denied based on BAC test results must complete alcohol or other drug screening before his or her license or permit (or right to apply for a license or permit) can be reinstated.
If the police officer at the scene believes that probable cause exists for impaired driving due to alcohol or drugs, the officer is not required to have you provide a test sample for the presence of drugs or alcohol to arrest you for DUI.
Refusing to submit to alcohol or drug testing is not a criminal offense in Arizona. However, this refusal can be used as evidence against the driver in a DUI trial.
If you refuse to submit to a chemical test, the police officer may ask you to perform field sobriety tests. There are three primary tests:
You have the right to refuse these tests. Such refusal does not lead to the MVD driving suspension penalties as does the refusal of a DUI breath, blood, or urine test, but it can result in the officer obtaining a search warrant to conduct a breathalyzer or blood test.
Much of ARS 28-1321 describes the procedures that police must follow after a chemical test refusal.
You will be required to immediately surrender your license or permit issued by Arizona in your possession, and a temporary permit will be issued. The temporary license will be valid for the next 30 days.
The officer will file a certified document with the MVD of the DUI test refusal. This document orders that your driver’s license be automatically suspended effective 30 days after it is served (I.e., the arrest date) unless you request a hearing with the MVD within the 30 day period.
If you request an Arizona MVD hearing, it will be scheduled and you will receive a hearing date that has been scheduled. The department may issue you a temporary driving permit that will be effective until the MVD reaches a final decision.
This hearing is an administrative hearing. You and the state will have the opportunity to provide evidence. The MVD hearing will be limited to considering the following issues:
You can represent yourself at the MVD hearing, or an attorney can represent you.
The state must prove your refusal to expressly agree to chemical testing by a preponderance of the evidence at the MVD hearing. This is a lower burden of proof than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal cases.
If you have had your license suspended in Arizona because you refused to expressly agree to take a chemical test, or if you have been charged with DUI based on roadside test results, you should consult an experienced DUI defense attorney as soon as possible to discuss your legal options.
The DUI defense lawyers at Rosenstein Law Group have hundreds of years of combined experience defending Arizona residents against all forms of DUI matters, including license suspensions based on chemical test refusals.
We will represent you in an MVD license suspension hearing. And we defend people charged with DUI, extreme DUI, super extreme DUI, and aggravated DUI cases.
If you have been arrested for suspicion of driving while impaired in Arizona, contact a Rosenstein Law Group DUI lawyer at (480) 248-7666 or use our contact form.