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Underage Drinking - ARD

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ms1440

Junior Member
Pennsylvania

I was cited for underage drinking last Friday night (September 4th) in Upper Allen Township, Cumberland County PA. I've been experiencing a great deal of anxiety in these past few days and I was wondering if you could possibly answer some of my questions.

I spoke with campus security at Messiah College, where the incident took place, and the officer told me that I'll have to wait until I receive the citation in the mail. Upon receiving the citation, the officer suggested that I request entrance into an ARD program as a means of eventually expunging the charge from my record. Since I am very inexperienced in these sorts of matters, I was hoping you might be able to give me some advice.

First of all, does the possibility of ARD even exist for me? If so, do you recommend I pursue it? Will I need to hire an attorney, or will I be able to navigate the process myself? I've been told that in pleading guilty and accepting the conviction of the summary offense, I'll only receive a $400 fine. But as future student of law, I'm wondering if a guilty plea is really my best option. What would be the consequences, fiscal and legal, of entering an ARD program?

Once again, I realize that I'm probably burdening you with this information but hopefully you can give me some advice. Any at all would be greatly appreciated. I hope all is well with you and your family and I look forward to hearing from you.
 


Taper420

Member
If this is your first offense, you should be eligible for ARD provided the DA agrees to offer it. ARD will put you on probation for a certain period of time, set you up with a probation officer that you'll have to talk to every so often and you'll attend some alcohol awareness classes. After you complete all the terms of probation and pay all fines, you can apply to have your record expunged of that charge. For DUI's in PA it's a "non-conviction" meaning the charge is dropped after ARD is completed. I'm not sure if it's the same for underages.

ARD is definitely something you want to pursue if you want to have this expunged from your criminal record. Hiring an attorney is advisable if you want to make sure you have all the bases covered. If not, be prepared to wade through a lot of people telling you lots of things that you'll probably end up forgetting anyhow. It all depends on how you want your record to look when you come out on the other side of this. Good luck!
 

ms1440

Junior Member
Public Defender?

I'm a college student who doesn't want to involve his parents financially in this process. Is it cost-effective to hire an attorney? If so, what would be an approximate amount that I can expect to pay? Should I request a public defender at my court date? Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

Yertle8

Member
I would suggest ARD for you. If you have no priors it's almost definite you'll be accepted, and you don't want anything on your record when you're going into law.

If you have a pile of money, hire a lawyer. If you're tight on cash, don't. I did ARD for DUI without a lawyer, you'll be fine as long as you stay on top of everything - do your research on the program and read everything you get in the mail at least three times.

Lastly, keep in mind that you only get one chance at ARD every ten years, and in some counties (like mine - Montgomery) won't grant a second one EVER. So if you go the ARD route now, you'll be nailed if you get a DUI later.
 

ms1440

Junior Member
@Yertle8

Thanks a lot for the advice. I was wondering though, did you use a public defender, or did you just show up to court? Also, how, and to whom, should I request entrance into ARD to get the ball moving?
 

Yertle8

Member
I knew I wouldn't qualify for a public defender, so I didn't apply for one. If you're in school and don't have much income at the moment, you may. It doesn't hurt to apply.

Your first court appearance is your preliminary hearing. For me it was just the arresting officer, the local magistrate, and me. The judge asked me what I was going to plead, I requested ARD, and she gave me a bunch of papers to sign and I left. One of the things they will give you at the prelim is your ARD application. You have to fill it out and send it in, about six weeks later you'll get a response and another court date for your ARD hearing. You'll probably go through your ARD hearing with a lot of other people. There were about 150 people with me and the only thing I said to a judge all day was 'yes, your honor'. Court was painless. The fine, classes, community service, etc. weren't.

A while back someone posted that they got a montgomery county dui and wanted to know what to expect, so I posted my story in detail. If you want to check it out it's in the link below.

https://forum.freeadvice.com/drunk-driving-dui-dwi-27/am-i-charged-472274.html
 

ms1440

Junior Member
@Yertle8

Wow, thank you so much. You have been unbelievably helpful to me. One more question: how much money can I expect to spent between classes, fines, fees?

Thanks again Yertle8, you have no idea how much relief your help has caused me. God bless you!!!
 

Yertle8

Member
Altogether, it cost me $2,000. I'd imagine you would pay less, but I'm not sure about that. How much less, also not sure. If you go in expecting to be out $2,000 you probably won't be surprised.

Glad my posts could be of help.
 

ms1440

Junior Member
Oh wow, 2000? What caused it to cost that much? I thought fees were only a couple hundred dollars.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
You'll pay for the alcohol assessment (some goofy acronym that escapes me right now), the cost of your supervision, and then you'll also pay for all the costs of the prosecution/arrest, plus a bunch of little tack on fees that Pennsylvania loves.

On the good side, you can make payments (although they'll also charge you to set that up). Don't forget PennDot.
 

Yertle8

Member
Fines and court costs - $1580 ($500 up front, then $120 a month for 9 months)

AHSS (class) cost - $200

CRN evaluation - $50

Calltrak service (probation monitoring) - $48

License reinstatement - $25

Total: $1903
 

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