Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Refusel to test

In regard to any criminal conviction, if you were convicted, you would know about it. If you claim is that you don't know about the conviction, there are only two possibilities: 1. that you were tried in absentia; 2. that you have an open bench warrant and you were never actually convicted.

You did not state in your question what kind of case you are referring to, but usually, the term refusal is used in connection with DUI/DWI cases, so I will guess for this answer that you are talking about a DUI arrest.

In regard to DUIs in PA, there about 15 different categories of DUI prosecutions. Three of which are refusals. This has always been the case for as long as I can remember. The actual refusal is not the crime, its the driving under the influence that is the crime and this has always been the case.

Please email with more specifics and I will give you an exact answer. By the way, I have never seen a DUI in absentia. Usually, the courts don't spend their time doing dui trials without defendants, so you probably do not have a conviction unless your memory of the case is bad. Email me and I will tell you an exact answer. [email protected]