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Maine DUI penalties breakdown: every component, line by line

Our Maine DUI costs page gives the state overview. This page does the narrower job: it prices each component of Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 29-A, § 2411 for a first, second and third conviction, the mandatory minimums, the restricted-license and interlock route, and the reinstatement charges the state actually publishes — with no added-up total.

The first offence, component by component

Maine calls the offence OUI and § 2411 is written almost entirely in mandatory minimums that may not be suspended, which makes it one of the most precisely priceable statutes in this run. For a person with no previous OUI offence within ten years, the minimum fine is $500 — $600 where the person failed to submit to a test at an officer's request — and the court-ordered license suspension in the current published summaries is 150 days. There is no general mandatory jail term at the first tier, but four aggravating facts each trigger a mandatory 48 hours: a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 or more, exceeding the speed limit by 30 miles per hour or more, eluding or attempting to elude an officer, or operating with a passenger under 21. A refusal at the first tier raises the mandatory jail minimum to 96 hours alongside the $600 fine floor. The maximums come from the crime classes in Title 17-A — a first OUI is a Class D crime, with fines up to $2,000 in the published summaries — so the honest first-offence entry is a $500 floor inside a $2,000 ceiling, with the suspension and the conditional jail minimums tabled separately.

The passenger rule deserves its own paragraph because it prices two components at once. Under § 2411, a driver sentenced at any tier who was operating with a passenger under 21 receives an additional 275 days of license suspension, tacked onto the suspension for the offence itself — so a first offender's 150 days becomes 425 days, and the same 48-hour mandatory jail trigger applies at the first tier. Maine also suspends the right to register a motor vehicle alongside the license from the second tier upward, a component most states do not impose at all: the driver loses not only the right to drive but the right to keep a vehicle registered in their name for the suspension period, which is a real economic consequence of a Maine repeat conviction even though no dollar figure attaches to it.

Second and third offences, and what escalates

For a person with one previous OUI offence within ten years, § 2411 sets a minimum fine of $700 — $900 on a refusal — a mandatory minimum of seven days of incarceration, twelve days on a refusal, a court-ordered license suspension of three years, and suspension of the right to register a motor vehicle; a second OUI remains a Class D crime, with fines up to $2,000 in the published summaries, and the court shall order participation in the alcohol and other drug programme of the Department of Health and Human Services. Two previous offences inside ten years make the case a Class C felony: a minimum fine of $1,100 — $1,400 on a refusal — a mandatory minimum of thirty days, forty on a refusal, a six-year license suspension and the registration suspension, with fines up to $5,000. A driver with three or more previous offences faces minimums of $2,100 — $2,500 on a refusal — and six months, identified here by those published minimums and its eight-year suspension in the current statute text.

Refusal, the restricted license, and reinstatement charges

Maine's restricted route back to driving runs through the ignition interlock programme in § 2508, and its waiting periods are themselves priced in time. On the published summaries, a first offender may petition for early reinstatement with an interlock after serving 30 days of the suspension, a second offender after nine months, and a third offender after three years, in each case keeping the device installed for the remainder of the original suspension period — three years of interlock for a third offender who takes the early route. The device is installed and leased through an approved vendor at the driver's expense, and programme participation ordered under § 2411 is a further provider-delivered component. Maine publishes the minimum fines, the suspension periods and the interlock waiting periods, but no single OUI reinstatement tariff and no state price for the device or the programme, so this page tables the statutory figures and describes the rest rather than converting time and provider charges into a dollar total.

Sources: Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 29-A, § 2411 (minimum fines, jail minimums, suspensions and the 275-day passenger add-on, Maine Legislature); tit. 17-A, §§ 1604 and 1704 (crime-class maximums); § 2508 interlock reinstatement summaries. Last verified: October 2026.

What this state does not publish as a single figure

Maine court costs and assessments are set by the court and the county or municipality where the case is heard, not by Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 29-A, § 2411, and no single published DUI amount covers them. The evaluation, education or treatment components described above, any probation or programme supervision, and an interlock provider's installation, monthly lease, calibration and removal charges are all billed outside the statute's fine and revocation figures. Those components are described as requirements on this page rather than priced as state charges. There is no published Maine figure for the effect of a DUI on car insurance prices, and none is estimated here — insurance is mentioned only where a filing requirement such as SR-22 proof of financial responsibility is itself a reinstatement component.

There is no added-up statewide total on this page for the same reason: the published components above are the figures the statute, the licensing agency or the court schedule actually sets, and the remaining components are billed case by case. Adding them together would produce a number no Maine authority has published. Use the table to price the components that apply to a specific case, and use our first-offense cost guide, second-offense guide and third-offense guide for the national pattern each component follows.

Common questions

What is the minimum fine for a first Maine OUI?

$500 under § 2411, rising to a $600 minimum where the driver failed to submit to a test — with a 150-day license suspension and a mandatory 48 hours of jail where any aggravating circumstance in the statute is present.

What does carrying a passenger under 21 add in Maine?

An additional 275 days of license suspension at every offence tier, on top of the suspension for the offence itself, under § 2411 — plus the 48-hour mandatory jail trigger for a first offender.

When does a Maine OUI become a felony?

At the third offence within ten years, a Class C crime with a $1,100 minimum fine, a thirty-day mandatory minimum and a six-year license suspension.

Sources: Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 29-A, § 2411 (penalty minimums, refusal increases, passenger-under-21 additional 275-day suspension and DHHS programme order, Maine Legislature); Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 17-A, §§ 1604 and 1704 (Class D and Class C maximums, as summarised in current 2025 OUI references); Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 29-A, § 2508 (interlock early-reinstatement waiting periods). 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.