{"id":309,"date":"2026-03-31T10:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baronedefensefirm.lawblogger.net\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:06:33","slug":"should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Refuse the Field Sobriety Tests in Michigan?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You have the right to refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan, and the refusal carries no license sanctions and no criminal penalties. But the decision involves tradeoffs that most people facing this choice do not fully understand. A 2016 Michigan statute changed the admissibility framework for these tests, Michigan case law has established that refusal can be used to support probable cause for your arrest, and prosecutors may argue your refusal as evidence of consciousness of guilt at trial. The right question to ask is not simply whether you can refuse. The question is whether you should, given the specific facts of your stop and the legal landscape that now surrounds that choice.<\/p>\n<h2>What Are Field Sobriety Tests and Why Do They Matter in a Michigan OWI Case?<\/h2>\n<p>Field sobriety tests are roadside assessments an officer uses to observe your physical and cognitive performance before making an arrest decision. In an alcohol-impaired driving investigation, Michigan recognizes three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/field-sobriety-tests.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">standardized field sobriety tests<\/a> endorsed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk and turn, and the one leg stand. These are the tests an officer will administer during a typical roadside alcohol investigation and the ones at issue in the vast majority of OWI arrests.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Should I Refuse the Field Sobriety Tests in Michigan?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have the right to refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan. There are no license sanctions and no criminal penalties for refusing. But the analysis does not end there. A 2016 Michigan statute, two lines of Michigan case law, and a risk that prosecutors will argue your refusal as consciousness of guilt mean the decision is more complicated than most people realize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,27],"tags":[144,160,137,155,159,161],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dui-mistakes","category-owi","tag-drunk-driving-michigan","tag-field-sobriety-tests-michigan","tag-michigan-dui-lawyer","tag-michigan-owi-defense","tag-refuse-field-sobriety-tests-michigan","tag-sfst-michigan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Refuse Field Sobriety Tests Michigan &#8212; Know This First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should you refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan? The law changed in 2016 and the decision is more complex than most people realize.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Refuse Field Sobriety Tests Michigan &#8212; Know This First\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Should you refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan? The law changed in 2016 and the decision is more complex than most people realize.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/instructor-certification-e1664385121803.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Barone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Refuse Field Sobriety Tests Michigan &#8212; Know This First","description":"Should you refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan? The law changed in 2016 and the decision is more complex than most people realize.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Refuse Field Sobriety Tests Michigan &#8212; Know This First","twitter_description":"Should you refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan? The law changed in 2016 and the decision is more complex than most people realize.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/instructor-certification-e1664385121803.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick Barone","Est. reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/","url":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/","name":"Refuse Field Sobriety Tests Michigan &#8212; Know This First","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/instructor-certification-e1664385121803-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-31T14:42:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-31T17:06:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/da00f897e195cfccca02fe556b53136f"},"description":"Should you refuse field sobriety tests in Michigan? The law changed in 2016 and the decision is more complex than most people realize.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/instructor-certification-e1664385121803.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/instructor-certification-e1664385121803.jpg","width":1280,"height":960,"caption":"Patrick Barone IACP NHTSA certified SFST instructor certificate Michigan."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/should-i-refuse-the-field-sobriety-tests\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should I Refuse the Field Sobriety Tests in Michigan?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/","name":"Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Michigan Criminal Defense Attorney \u2014 Barone Defense Firm","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/da00f897e195cfccca02fe556b53136f","name":"Patrick Barone","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72accf40078879330cdb7caae27be7ad00db64cb0555444fefa6e1a762116037?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72accf40078879330cdb7caae27be7ad00db64cb0555444fefa6e1a762116037?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Patrick Barone"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4075,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/4075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}