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DUI restitution costs: the fine to the fund, and the loss paid to the victim
Restitution is the component readers most often confuse with the fine, and the confusion is expensive: they are two different payments, set two different ways, going to two different places. Our property-damage guide noted that restitution follows proven loss and priced the underlying tier; this page prices the restitution layer itself, using California's statute because it publishes both halves — a restitution fine with a stated range, and victim restitution with no range at all.
Two payments under one statute
California Penal Code section 1202.4 requires a sentencing court to order both payments. The first is the restitution fine: a separate and additional fine, imposed in every case where a person is convicted of a crime unless the court finds compelling and extraordinary reasons not to impose it and states them on the record. The fine is set at the court's discretion, commensurate with the seriousness of the offence, inside a statutory range — not less than $150 and not more than $1,000 for a misdemeanor conviction, and not less than $300 and not more than $10,000 for a felony. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's published restitution guidance states the same two ranges for adult convictions, and explains where the money goes: the state Restitution Fund, which supports the California Victim Compensation Board.
For a felony, the statute even publishes a suggested arithmetic: the court may set the fine as the product of the $300 minimum, multiplied by the number of years of imprisonment imposed, multiplied by the number of felony counts of conviction. That formula is the statute's own, offered as a way to reach a figure inside the range — it is not a total, and this page does not run it against any reader's case. A first-offence misdemeanor DUI in California therefore carries a restitution fine somewhere inside $150 to $1,000 on top of the DUI fine itself, and a felony DUI carries one inside $300 to $10,000; the DUI fines are priced separately in our California breakdown.
The second payment is restitution to the victim. Where a victim has suffered economic loss because of the defendant's conduct, section 1202.4(f) requires the court to order payment of the full amount of that loss. The CDCR guidance states the contrast directly: there is no maximum amount for this type of restitution. It is enforceable as if it were a civil judgment, it is not discharged by finishing probation, and its size is set by evidence of loss — vehicle damage, medical bills, lost wages — rather than by any schedule a page like this one could reproduce.
The restitution components that are published
One related component deserves its own row because it doubles the first payment in a common situation. Under Penal Code section 1202.45, a defendant granted probation or placed on parole or supervision also receives a revocation restitution fine in the same amount as the restitution fine; the CDCR guidance confirms it is equal to the original fine and becomes payable if probation or parole is revoked. It is stayed unless revocation happens, which is why it is tabled as a contingent component rather than added to the first row.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| Restitution fine, misdemeanor conviction (Cal. Penal Code § 1202.4(b)) | $150–$1,000, set by the court commensurate with the seriousness of the offence; paid to the state Restitution Fund |
| Restitution fine, felony conviction (§ 1202.4(b)) | $300–$10,000; the statute permits the court to compute it as $300 × years of imprisonment imposed × felony counts |
| Revocation restitution fine (§ 1202.45; CDCR restitution guidance) | Equal to the restitution fine; imposed with probation, parole or supervision and payable if that status is revoked |
| Victim restitution (§ 1202.4(f)) | The full amount of the victim's proven economic loss — no statutory maximum, per the CDCR guidance; enforceable as a civil judgment |
| Collection administration (§ 1202.4(l)) | A county board of supervisors may add a fee for the actual cost of collecting the restitution fine, capped at 10 percent of the amount ordered, where the county has adopted it |
Sources: California Penal Code §§ 1202.4 and 1202.45; California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services, restitution guidance. 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 restitution does not publish
Victim restitution is the largest honest blank on this site, and it should stay blank. Because it is set on proven loss, the same DUI can produce a restitution order for a replaced fence or for a year of medical care; no statute publishes the figure in advance and no average would mean anything to the reader whose case is being priced. What a page can do — and what this one does — is separate the three things readers merge: the DUI fine, priced by the DUI statute; the restitution fine, priced by the range above; and victim restitution, priced by evidence at a restitution hearing.
Two practical consequences follow from the statute rather than from commentary. First, the restitution fine is not optional in the ordinary case: the court must impose it unless it states compelling and extraordinary reasons on the record, so a budget built only from the DUI fine range understates a California sentence by at least the $150 or $300 floor. Second, victim restitution survives the criminal case — enforceable as a civil judgment and, per the CDCR guidance, not wiped out by the end of probation — so it behaves less like a fee and more like a debt, and it is the one DUI component that can still be growing, through enforcement costs, after every other layer on this site has been paid.
Other states build the same two ideas with different labels: a victims' fund assessment with a published amount in some, restitution purely on proven loss in others. This page prices California's version because its statute publishes both the range and the no-cap rule in one place, and it does not export California's numbers to states whose statutes were not the ones read for this page.
Common questions
- Is the restitution fine the same as victim restitution?
- No. The restitution fine under § 1202.4(b) is a set-range payment to the state Restitution Fund — $150 to $1,000 for a misdemeanor, $300 to $10,000 for a felony. Victim restitution under § 1202.4(f) pays the victim's proven economic loss in full and has no maximum.
- Can the restitution fine be waived?
- The statute requires the court to impose it unless it finds compelling and extraordinary reasons for not doing so and states those reasons on the record.
- Does restitution end when probation ends?
- No. The CDCR's restitution guidance states that a restitution order is not wiped out by the end of probation; victim restitution is enforceable as if it were a civil judgment.
Related cost guides: DUI with property damage costs, DUI causing injury costs, California DUI penalties breakdown, DUI probation violation costs.
Sources: California Penal Code §§ 1202.4, 1202.45; CDCR Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services restitution guidance. 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.