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DUI attorney costs: what lawyers charge, and how the fee is built
Attorney fees are usually the largest single check a DUI defendant writes — and the only major layer of the DUI stack with no official price anywhere. No statute, court schedule or agency sets what a private defense lawyer charges. What exists is survey data and published fee guides, and that is what this page reports, named as such.
The published ranges
Nolo's legal guides put hiring a private DUI lawyer at generally $1,000 to $5,000, with trial pushing the figure higher. An open legal textbook published by the City University of New York (Pressbooks) breaks the market down further:
| Case type | Typical attorney fee (published range) |
|---|---|
| First-time DUI, misdemeanor, no aggravating factors | $1,500 – $3,500 |
| Second or third DUI (repeat offense) | $3,000 – $8,000 |
| DUI with aggravating circumstances (high BAC, accident, minor in vehicle, refusal) | $5,000 – $10,000+ |
| Felony DUI | $6,000 – $15,000+ |
| Taking the case to trial (additional) | $5,000 – $20,000+ |
| Hourly billing, where used instead of a flat fee | $200 – $500 / hour |
Sources: Nolo, "Do I Need a DUI Lawyer? Public Defender vs. Private Attorney"; "How Much Will an Attorney Cost for a DUI?", CUNY Pressbooks open textbook. Attorney fees are private market prices, not official figures — your quote depends on your market, your record and your lawyer. Checked October 2026.
Flat fee vs. hourly — and what the flat fee leaves out
Most DUI defense is sold as a flat fee, which buys a defined scope of work, not the whole case whatever happens. Published fee guides consistently warn that the quoted flat fee commonly covers the case up to a plea, with separate charges possible for a jury trial, for the DMV administrative hearing on your license, and for expert witnesses. The DMV hearing matters financially: it is the proceeding that decides whether the administrative suspension stands, and it runs on a much shorter deadline than the court case (see the reinstatement guide).
For scale: a 2015 Martindale-Nolo study put the average total cost of a first-time DUI at $6,500 including the hidden layers — the figure against which the attorney's share should be judged. Our own layer-by-layer build-up of that total, from official sources only, is the total cost of a first DUI.
Before you compare attorney quotes, price the layers the lawyer cannot change — fines, court costs, program fees, interlock and reinstatement — in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorThe public defender is not always $0
A defendant who cannot afford counsel is entitled to a public defender, but "appointed" does not always mean free: some jurisdictions charge an application fee or a contribution toward the cost of appointed counsel, set by local rule. If money is the constraint, ask the court clerk at arraignment what the application fee is in your county — it is a published local figure, unlike everything else on this page.
What this site will not do: recommend, rank or refer attorneys, or estimate what any individual lawyer will charge you. The ranges above are published survey and guide data, named at the source — treat any individual quote outside them as a prompt to get a second quote, not as an error.