Summary Offenses in Pennsylvania

Generally speaking, there are three levels of criminal offenses in Pennsylvania – felonies, misdemeanors, and summaries.  Many Penn State students receive summary citations for offenses like Underage Drinking, Public Drunkenness, Possession of a Fake ID, and Disorderly Conduct.

Sentence for Summary Offense

The punishment for a summary offense in normally payment of a fine and court costs, but the fines can be quite high.  The maximum fine for most summary offenses is $300.00.  Underage Drinking and Public Drunkenness are the exceptions, with a first offense carrying a maximum fine of $500.00, but subsequent offenses carry a maximum fine of $1,000.00. Many of the State College judges do impose substantial fines in summary cases.

Judges rarely impose a sentence of jail in a summary case, but the law does allow for a maximum period of incarceration of 90 days. Jail time is more likely to be imposed if the person has been in trouble quite a few times in the past and does not appear to be learning a lesson; or jail time is more likely if the underlying conduct was over-the-top egregious.

Summary Convictions Can Appear on Background Searches

Many cops tell students that summary citations do not appear on background searches. That is NOT true. With a summary charge, a person is not normally “processed,” meaning not fingerprinted, so the case information is not forwarded to the Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI. Therefore, if a background search is run an only searches those databases, a summary offense would not appear. But the case information does appear on the Administrative Office of PA Courts (AOPC) database, often called the UJS Portal, and many background search companies search the AOPC databse. For a more thorough discussion about this issue, click here.

The best way to avoid this issue is to try to get a summary charge dismissed and then expunged.  Hiring an experienced defense lawyer increases the probability of getting a favorable decision, either through fighting the case or through negotiating a resolution with the officer and judge.  The attorneys at JD Law, P.C., have a lot of experience and have won not guilty verdicts in summary cases.

For a free case review, contact JD Law by email or leave a message at (814) 689-9139. Email is the preferred method of communication, as phone calls are directed to voicemail due to the high volume of spam and unsolicited calls.