What are the ARD requirements for a DUI offense?

The basic idea behind the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program is that person pleads “not guilty” to the DUI charges, but the person agrees to comply with certain rules and complete requirements in order to complete the ARD program.  Upon completion, the person can go through the expungement process to have the DUI charges removed from the criminal record, but a notation WILL remain on the person’s driving record to track the ARD resolution as being a “prior offense” of DUI in Pennsylvania.  In order to get the charges the dismissed, the person must successfully complete ARD.

ARD Requirements for DUI

The “punishment” or conditions and requirements of ARD are often relatively severe and onerous.  ARD requirements and conditions vary from county to county and even vary from case to case.  Many ARD programs include the following requirements:

If you hired an experienced DUI defense attorney, you should contact your attorney if you have questions about your ARD requirements.  If you didn’t hire a good lawyer, you can contact the probation officer assigned to handle ARD-DUI cases and seek clarification of any outstanding ARD requirements.  Too often people assume that they have done all that was required only to find out on the expected ARD completion date that some requirements were not completed.  At that point, the person is scrambling to get an extension of ARD supervision to complete the ARD requirements or facing a removal from ARD.  If the probation officer won’t allow for an extension, it is possible that you could appear before the judge at an ARD revocation hearing, explain the situation to the judge, and request that the judge extend ARD.    An experienced attorney can help to avoid removal from ARD.  It is better to hire an attorney sooner rather than later.