ARD / Diversion: Eligibility & Step-By-Step Guide

What is ARD?

Benefits of ARD

Typical ARD Requirements

Once accepted into ARD, you'll need to complete various requirements. These may include:

Who the law shuts out of DUI ARD

The District Attorney decides who gets ARD, but 75 Pa.C.S. § 3807 sets three hard limits. A DUI charge can't be sent to ARD if:

• You were convicted of a DUI, or accepted ARD for one, within 10 years of the new offense. The one exception is a prior first-offense general impairment conviction under § 3802(a)(2).
• Someone other than you was killed or seriously injured in a crash connected to the arrest.
• A passenger under 14 was in the car.

Counties add their own rules on top. Chester County's District Attorney, for example, publishes a longer list of reasons for denial, including more than one prior DUI in your lifetime, driving 30 mph or more over the limit and any prior felony conviction. Whether a chemical test refusal affects ARD depends on the county's policy.

What every DUI ARD includes

• A Court Reporting Network (CRN) evaluation before you are admitted (§ 3816(a)), and a full drug and alcohol assessment if the evaluation calls for one or your BAC was 0.16% or higher.
• Any treatment the assessment recommends, at a licensed program.
• Alcohol Highway Safety School.
• Court supervision for at least 6 and no more than 12 months.
• Restitution for any financial loss, plus costs and fees, including a $50 Emergency Medical Services cost.
• A license suspension set by BAC: none below 0.10%, 30 days at 0.10% to 0.159%, and 60 days at 0.16% or higher, with an unknown BAC, a drug DUI or a crash with injury or property damage. A driver under 21 faces 90 days (§ 3807(d)).
• Questions from the judge, on the record, to make sure you understand the rights you are giving up.

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How ARD works in Chester and Montgomery County

Chester County

You apply for DUI-ARD at the preliminary hearing and waive the hearing, formal arraignment and the filing of a Criminal Information. The ARD hearing is usually 8 to 16 weeks later. The District Attorney's office estimates total costs of about $2,000.75 for a 6-month program and $2,310.75 for 12 months, and everyone is assigned at least 40 hours of community service, some or all of which may be waived. Chester County DUI guide.

Montgomery County

You send the application to the District Attorney's ARD Unit as soon as possible after the preliminary hearing, and you generally waive the preliminary hearing and formal arraignment. The county DUI Unit's CRN evaluation costs $100 and Alcohol Highway Safety School costs $250. Community service must be finished before your ARD date, and supervision runs through Monitor Connect at $6 a month. Montgomery County DUI guide.

Expungement after ARD: what goes away and what stays

When you finish ARD, the court issues an order showing completion, the charges are dismissed, and you can ask the court to expunge the record. Chester County says that request can be made 30 days after completion.

Two non-public records stay behind for 12 years. The clerk of courts keeps a certified copy of the completion order, which can be used only in a later DUI prosecution, and PennDOT keeps its record of the ARD (§ 3807(f), § 1534). After 12 years both are erased automatically, with narrow exceptions for PennDOT's record, such as for a commercial driver. If you are charged with another DUI within 10 years of finishing ARD, prosecutors can use those records to charge a separate offense under § 3802(h), which is sentenced like a second offense. More on repeat DUI charges.