Home › Actual physical control DUI costs
Actual physical control DUI costs: charged without driving at all
Most DUI pages on this site price driving. This one prices the cases where the vehicle never moved: the actual-physical-control and physical-control offences that let Florida, Ohio and Minnesota charge an impaired person found in a parked vehicle — and the very different prices those offences carry compared with a full DUI in the same state.
Control is a separate legal idea from driving
Florida writes control into the DUI offence itself: § 316.193(1) makes a person guilty of DUI if the person is driving or in actual physical control of a vehicle while impaired or at 0.08 or more. There is no lesser Florida price for the parked case inside that subsection — the same fine ladder applies, which is why Florida's row in the table below matches its standard DUI rows rather than a discounted tier. Ohio took the opposite drafting route. Its physical-control offence in Revised Code § 4511.194 is a separate crime from OVI under § 4511.19, defined in the statute as being in the driver's position of the front seat and having possession of the vehicle's ignition key or other ignition device, while under the influence or over a prohibited concentration. Movement is not an element: a conviction is possible where the engine was never started.
Minnesota's DUI statute, § 169A.20, likewise reaches a person who drives, operates or is in physical control of a motor vehicle while impaired — language this site has cited since its earliest Minnesota pages. The three states therefore agree that a parked, impaired driver can be charged, and disagree about almost everything else: whether the charge is the DUI itself or a lesser stand-alone offence, whether jail is mandatory, whether licence points attach, and whether the conviction counts as a prior if the driver is charged again. Those differences are the real content of this page, because they decide what a control case actually costs over time.
What a control case costs, state by state
Ohio is the one state in the table with a genuinely cheaper control offence, and its savings are specific. Physical control is a first-degree misdemeanour with a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 180 days, but with no mandatory minimum jail term, only a discretionary class seven licence suspension the court may impose for up to one year, no points on the licence, and — most valuable of all — no status as an equivalent offence that counts as a prior OVI later, under the published Ohio summaries of §§ 4511.181 and 4511.194. A first OVI in the same state, by contrast, carries a mandatory three consecutive days (or a three-day driver intervention programme), a fine band reaching $1,075 in current published summaries, and a mandatory suspension. Readers should not import Ohio's discount into Florida or Minnesota: in those states the control language sits inside the DUI offence, and the DUI price is the price.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| Ohio — physical control (§ 4511.194) | First-degree misdemeanour; fine up to $1,000; up to 180 days; no mandatory minimum jail; discretionary class seven suspension up to 1 year; no licence points and not an equivalent prior offence, in published Ohio summaries |
| Ohio — first OVI, for comparison (§ 4511.19) | Mandatory 3 consecutive days or a 3-day driver intervention programme; fine up to $1,075 in current published summaries; mandatory suspension — the frame the control offence undercuts |
| Florida — DUI while in actual physical control (§ 316.193(1)–(2)) | Charged as DUI itself: first-conviction fine $500–$1,000 and up to 6 months; no separate lesser control tier in the statute |
| Minnesota — driving, operating or physical control while impaired (§ 169A.20) | Charged under the DWI statute itself, graded by the § 169A.20 framework priced in the Minnesota breakdown; no separate lesser control offence in the statute |
Sources: Ohio Revised Code §§ 4511.194, 4511.19 and 2929.24, as reproduced in published Ohio code references; Florida Statutes § 316.193(1)–(2); Minnesota Statutes § 169A.20. Last verified: October 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorWhat no authority publishes for a control case
No state priced here publishes a separate fee schedule for control cases beyond the offence frames above: court costs are set by the sentencing court, any evaluation or programme is billed by its provider, and impound or towing charges after a roadside arrest follow the sources priced in our towing and impound guide. There is no published figure for the effect of a physical-control or DUI conviction arising from a parked vehicle on car insurance prices, and none is estimated here.
The honest summary is asymmetrical. In Ohio, the control offence is a deliberately lesser charge whose published frame is cheaper in fine exposure, custody exposure and future-prior consequences. In Florida and Minnesota, control is simply one of the ways the DUI offence itself is committed, and a driver found asleep in the driver's seat faces the DUI ladder of the state — which is why the state-by-state rows, not any national rule of thumb, are the figures to rely on. Compare the full ladders in our Ohio breakdown, Florida breakdown and Minnesota breakdown.
Common questions
- Can you be charged with DUI in a parked car?
- Yes, in the states priced here. Florida and Minnesota write actual or physical control into the DUI offence itself; Ohio charges a separate physical-control offence under § 4511.194.
- How much cheaper is Ohio physical control than a first OVI?
- The published frames differ in kind, not just degree: up to $1,000 and no mandatory jail for physical control, versus a mandatory 3 days and a fine reaching $1,075 for a first OVI — plus no points and no prior-offence effect for the control conviction.
- Does an Ohio physical control conviction count as a prior DUI?
- No. In published Ohio summaries it is not an equivalent offence under § 4511.181, so it does not count as a prior OVI if the driver is charged again.
Related cost guides: Ohio DUI penalties breakdown, Florida DUI penalties breakdown, Minnesota DUI penalties breakdown, DUI test refusal costs.
Sources: Ohio Revised Code §§ 4511.194, 4511.19 and 2929.24; Florida Statutes § 316.193(1)–(2); Minnesota Statutes § 169A.20. Last verified: October 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.