Legal Question in DUI Law in Pennsylvania
underage dui in PA
My son is 20 and his legal residence is NJ. During his last week in school at a PA college he was stopped by town pollice on his campus and cited with dui. His college is one of the few where the town police patrol campus. My son had other underage passengers in the car. What will his penalties be? Will this be reported to NJ and be subject to their rules or will he be just subject to PA laws and penalties? Would hiring an attorney or public defender change the ultimate outcome?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: underage dui in PA
Your question involves both NJ and PA law.
The way NJ treats it is going to be greatly affected by the way PA treats it. NJ and PA are part of an interstate deal that says if a person receives a DUI out of his home state, then the state where it happens will send the info to his home state. Then, the person is subject to legal penalties in the state where it happened (PA) and administrative penalties in his home state (NJ).
PA does have a program for first offenders called ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition) that MAY prevent your son from getting a DUI conviction on his record. If he is able to do that, there would not be a conviction for NJ to punish him for.
This would be very good for you, because aside from the fines and license suspension involved in a DUI conviction, there would be huge increases in your insurance bill. In addition, a DUI conviction would follow your son around for a very long time and cause him increased trouble if he ever had another one.
So, it is really important to fight this charge. You should definitely speak with a PA attorney about this. Feel free to call me at 877\688\3879 if you have any additional questions.
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Re: underage dui in PA
He needs to contact a lawyer to hash this out...a lot of bad things can happen, and yes, it all is reciprocal (meaning it transfers from PA to NJ)
I handle these cases in PA and NJ if he wants to talk it out.
Mike