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DUI appeal costs: filing fees are the small, published tip of the appeal
An appeal is the first DUI proceeding most drivers pay for after sentencing, and it is the one whose opening price is actually printed in fee schedules. Our attorney guide prices trial-level representation; this page prices the appeal's filing layer — the Florida appellate filing fee in the statute, the federal fee in the courts' own schedules, a California table that charges nothing for the criminal filing itself — and names the larger components no schedule publishes.
Florida puts its appellate filing fee in a statute
Florida Statutes section 35.22 prices the district courts of appeal directly. Upon the filing of a certified copy of a notice of appeal or petition, the clerk shall charge and collect a filing fee of $300 for each case docketed, together with the service charges provided in section 28.24 for copying, certifying and furnishing records and papers. A notice of cross-appeal, joinder or motion to intervene as an appellant carries a filing fee of $295 under the same section. Of each $300 fee, $50 is deposited into the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund. The state and its agencies are exempt when they appear as appellants, an exemption that does not extend to a defendant appealing a DUI conviction — including the felony DUI tiers, which are the DUI cases that reach a district court of appeal rather than the circuit court acting in its appellate capacity over county-court misdemeanors.
The federal schedule is set by the Judicial Conference and published by the courts of appeals themselves. The fee schedules of the Fourth, Fifth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits, effective December 1, 2023, state the same figure in the same words: docketing and filing fee for an appeal from a district court, $605, paid to the district court clerk — composed of a $600 docketing fee and a $5 filing fee for the notice of appeal. An original proceeding or petition for review filed directly in the court of appeals carries a $600 fee. Those are the fees that attach to the federal end of this site's DUI map: an appeal from a federal-land or military-adjacent federal conviction, of the kind priced in our federal-land guide, starts with the $605 payment unless Criminal Justice Act status or in forma pauperis relief removes it.
California is the instructive contrast. The Fifth District Court of Appeal's published fee table lists the notice of appeal in a criminal or juvenile case at no fee — the $775 figure in the same table belongs to civil notices of appeal under Government Code sections 68926 and 68926.1, and a misdemeanor DUI appeal in California is in any event routed to the appellate division of the superior court rather than the Court of Appeal. A page that quoted $775 as the cost of appealing a California DUI would be quoting the wrong system's price; the honest California row in the table below is the one the court's own schedule prints.
Deadlines are the other published cost
An appeal not filed in time is not a cheaper appeal; it is no appeal. The Fourth Circuit's published pro se procedures state the federal criminal rule: in criminal cases the notice of appeal must be filed in the district court within 14 days after entry of judgment, and the district court may extend the period for excusable neglect or good cause on a filing made within 30 days after the period ends. Florida appellate summaries state the state window as 30 days from rendition of the final order. Neither deadline carries a fee, and both carry the entire value of the filing fees in the table — which buy nothing if the window has closed.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| Florida district court of appeal filing fee (Fla. Stat. § 35.22(2)(a)) | $300 for each case docketed on a notice of appeal or petition, plus § 28.24 service charges for copying and certifying records |
| Florida cross-appeal (§ 35.22(2)(b)) | $295 on a notice of cross-appeal, joinder or motion to intervene as an appellant |
| Federal court of appeals, appeal from a district court (Circuit fee schedules, eff. Dec. 1, 2023) | $605 paid to the district court clerk — $600 docketing fee plus $5 filing fee; an original proceeding in the court of appeals is $600 |
| California Court of Appeal, notice of appeal in a criminal case (Fifth District fee table) | No fee — the table's $775 figure is for civil notices of appeal and petitions, not criminal ones |
| Transcripts and the record on appeal | Charged by court reporters and clerks at rates set outside the fee schedules named here — no figure is published in § 35.22 beyond its § 28.24 service charges; described, not priced |
Sources: Florida Statutes § 35.22(2); U.S. Courts of Appeals fee schedules (Fourth, Fifth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits), effective December 1, 2023; California Court of Appeal, Fifth District, published fees table; Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure rule 4 as stated in the Fourth Circuit's pro se procedures. 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 an appeal really costs beyond the filing fee
The filing fee is the only appeal component a legislature or the Judicial Conference prices in advance, and for most appellants it is the smallest. The record — transcripts of the trial or plea and sentencing hearings — is billed by reporters at rates that vary by court and by the length of the proceedings. Appellate representation is a private fee where counsel is retained, or the appointed-counsel layer priced on this run's public defender page where the appellant is found indigent, with its own application fee in the states that charge one. An appeal bond or a stay of the sentence's money components, where a court requires or grants one, follows the trial court's orders rather than any appellate schedule. Each of those is a real appeal cost; none is published in the sources named on this page, so none is given a number.
Two expectations are worth correcting with the schedules in hand. First, appealing does not pause every part of a DUI sentence by itself: licence consequences run on the administrative tracks priced on our DMV hearing page unless a court or agency stays them, and interlock, programme and supervision obligations continue on their own terms while the appeal is pending unless the sentencing court orders otherwise. Second, the filing fees are generally not refunded for an unsuccessful appeal — they purchase the docketing of the case, not its outcome — and the schedules named here state no success-based exception.
Priced honestly, then, an appeal opens at a published figure a driver can verify in minutes — $300 in a Florida district court of appeal, $605 in a federal court of appeals, no filing fee for a California criminal notice in the court's own table — and then moves immediately into components that only the record of the individual case can price. That shape, a small certain fee in front of a large uncertain one, is the opposite of the trial-level stack, and it is why this page exists separately from it.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to file a DUI appeal in Florida?
- A case docketed in a Florida district court of appeal carries a $300 filing fee under § 35.22(2)(a), plus the clerk's § 28.24 service charges for records. A cross-appeal is $295. Misdemeanor DUI appeals are heard in circuit court, whose local filing charges are not the § 35.22 figure.
- What is the federal appeal filing fee?
- $605, paid to the district court clerk: a $600 docketing fee plus a $5 filing fee, per the courts of appeals' fee schedules effective December 1, 2023. A criminal appellant must file the notice within 14 days of judgment under the federal appellate rules.
- Does California charge $775 to appeal a DUI?
- No. The $775 in the California appellate fee tables is the civil notice-of-appeal fee. The Fifth District's published table lists a notice of appeal in a criminal or juvenile case at no fee, and misdemeanor DUI appeals go to the superior court's appellate division.
Related cost guides: DUI public defender costs, DUI on federal land costs, DUI attorney costs, felony DUI costs.
Sources: Florida Statutes § 35.22; U.S. Courts of Appeals fee schedules effective December 1, 2023; California Court of Appeal, Fifth District, fees table. 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.