What Happens If You Refuse a Breathalyzer in Maryland?

If you refuse a breathalyzer in Maryland, the Motor Vehicle Administration automatically suspends your driver’s license for 270 days on a first refusal and two years on a second or subsequent refusal, the arresting officer takes your physical license on the spot, and the fact that you refused can be used against you at your DUI trial. You then have only 10 days to request a hearing that keeps you driving while you fight the suspension. Miss that window and your driving privileges end on day 46.

What the Officer Does the Moment You Refuse

The officer confiscates your Maryland license and hands you an Order of Suspension. That order doubles as a temporary paper license good for 45 days, so you can keep driving while you decide what to do.¹

The paperwork spells out the suspension length, your hearing rights, and the deadlines. Read it the night you get it. The suspension doesn’t require a conviction or even a formal charge — once the MVA receives the officer’s sworn statement that you refused, the clock starts running.

How Long the Suspension Lasts

The suspension lengths are fixed by statute and administered by the MVA independent of anything that happens in criminal court. You can be acquitted of DUI and still lose your license for refusing the test.

The 10-Day Deadline to Request a Hearing

You can challenge the suspension at an MVA administrative hearing, but the timing rules reward speed and punish delay. There are effectively two tiers.

If you request a hearing within 10 days of the Order of Suspension date, your 45-day temporary license remains valid until the hearing happens. This is the deadline that matters. It keeps you on the road continuously until you get your chance to contest the suspension.¹

Request a hearing between day 11 and day 30 and the MVA will still schedule one, but your temporary license does not get extended. Your suspension kicks in on day 46 regardless, so you may be suspended while you wait for the hearing date. A request postmarked after day 30 is denied outright.²

At the hearing itself, the issues you can raise typically include whether the officer had reasonable grounds to stop you, whether you were properly advised of the consequences before being asked to test, and whether your refusal was actually clear and unambiguous. Hesitation or confusion that the officer treated as a no is a real argument.

You also have the right to a reasonable opportunity to call a lawyer before deciding whether to take the test, provided it doesn’t substantially delay the testing. The officer isn’t required to tell you about this right — you have to ask. Asking for a lawyer is not itself a refusal, and if an officer treated it as one, raise that at the hearing.

The Ignition Interlock Alternative

Rather than serving the full suspension without driving, you can elect to participate in Maryland’s Ignition Interlock System Program. The device wires into your vehicle’s ignition and requires a clean breath sample before the engine will start. Participation generally runs one year when tied to a DUI conviction.¹

You must elect to enter the program within 30 days of the Order of Suspension. Miss that window and the option disappears.²

It isn’t free. Industry estimates put the total cost at roughly $70 to $105 per month once you combine installation, monthly lease, calibration visits, and removal. Over 12 months, expect somewhere between $850 and $1,300. For most people that beats nine months without a car.

How Refusal Affects Your Criminal DUI Case

Refusing the test is not itself a crime in Maryland. You won’t face a separate charge for saying no. But the refusal doesn’t vanish from the criminal case. Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article § 10-309, the fact that you refused is admissible as evidence at trial.³

Prosecutors use refusal to argue consciousness of guilt: you refused because you knew the number would be bad. Without a BAC reading, the state loses its strongest piece of direct evidence but picks up a powerful piece of circumstantial evidence. Whether that tradeoff helps or hurts depends entirely on the rest of the state’s case. Dashcam footage of weaving across lanes and a failed field sobriety performance plus a refusal is a heavy stack. A thin case built mostly on an officer’s subjective observations may leave room for reasonable doubt even with the refusal in evidence.

Commercial Driver’s License Consequences

If you hold a Maryland CDL, refusing a chemical test can end your career. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration treats a refusal as equivalent to a positive test result.⁴

You must be immediately removed from all safety-sensitive functions, which means no commercial driving until you complete the return-to-duty process with a DOT-qualified substance abuse professional. A first CDL disqualification for a chemical test refusal lasts at least one year. A second results in lifetime disqualification. These federal penalties stack on top of whatever Maryland does to your regular driving privileges.

Roadside Handheld vs. Station Breathalyzer

Maryland officers carry two different breath-testing devices, and the consequences for refusing each are not the same. The distinction matters because the one you’re asked to blow into at the roadside is not the one that triggers the suspension described above.

The Preliminary Breath Test is the small handheld unit used at the traffic stop to help the officer decide whether to arrest. Maryland law treats the PBT as a field sobriety test. Refusing it cannot be used against you in court and carries no license suspension.⁵

The evidentiary breathalyzer is the larger, more precise machine at the police station, administered after a lawful arrest. This is the test implied consent covers. Every penalty, hearing right, and interlock option on this page applies to refusing that station test.¹

The Financial Costs Beyond the Suspension

The suspension is the headline, but the bill doesn’t stop there. To reinstate your license after the suspension ends, the MVA charges a $150 reinstatement fee for alcohol-related offenses.⁶

Maryland may also require you to file an SR-22 certificate of financial responsibility with your insurer, proving you carry at least the state’s minimum liability coverage. SR-22 filings typically stay in effect for three years, with a filing fee on top of your premiums.

The premiums are where the real damage lives. A DUI-related suspension tends to raise car insurance rates by roughly 80 to 100 percent nationally, and in Maryland the increase often more than doubles the premium. Elevated rates typically last three to five years. Over that stretch, the extra insurance alone can easily run $5,000 to $10,000, more than every other out-of-pocket cost combined.

Add interlock device costs if you participate in that program, and attorney fees if you hire a lawyer for the criminal case, which generally run several thousand dollars. A breathalyzer refusal in Maryland can carry a total financial cost well into five figures before the criminal penalties even enter the picture.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Transportation 16-205.1 – Suspension or Disqualification for Refusal to Submit to Chemical Tests for Intoxication
2
Maryland MVA. Alcohol Test Failure or Refusal
3
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 10-309 – Chemical Test for Alcohol, Drug or Controlled Dangerous Substance Content – Refusal to Submit to Test
4
FMCSA. What if I Fail or Refuse a Test?
5
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Transportation 16-205.2 – Preliminary Breath Test
6
Maryland MVA. MVA Fee Listing