If you refuse to take to a blood test or a breath test, PennDOT can punish you through civil law by suspending your driver’s license for a minimum of 12 months. If you have a prior refusal, or a prior DUI conviction, or a prior ARD for DUI your suspension will be for 18 months. PennDOT does this by suspending your privilege to drive in Pennsylvania. If you have a Pennsylvania driver’s license, you will be required to send your physical driver’s license into PennDOT. The clock on the license suspension will not start until PennDOT receives your license.
If you refuse a BAC test, the officer will have to fill out the refusal paperwork and mail this paperwork into PennDOT. There is sometimes a delay between the refusal and the filing so there is sometimes an opportunity to intervene before the filing with PennDOT occurs. If not, then PennDOT will send you suspension paperwork and tell you when and where to turn in your license. This suspension can be appealed; however, there is a strict deadline of 30 days to appeal this suspension. This is determined by the ‘mail by’ date on the letter of suspension from PennDOT. These suspensions are in addition to any other suspensions you may receive for the criminal DUI case.
If you have a driver’s license from another State, you will have to send in a form acknowledging your suspension of driving privileges in Pennsylvania. If the state which issued your license finds out about the suspension, they can suspend your license, but this depends completely on each state and their laws handling such matters.