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Montana DUI penalties breakdown: every component, line by line

Our Montana DUI costs page gives the state overview. This page does the narrower job: it prices each component of Mont. Code Ann. § 61-8-714 (penalties, as summarised in current state references) 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

A first Montana DUI is a misdemeanour with a mandatory jail floor from the first conviction: on the current published summaries of Montana's DUI penalty statute, imprisonment of not less than 24 hours and not more than six months, and a fine of not less than $600 nor more than $1,000. The license suspension for a first conviction is six months in the published Motor Vehicle Division summaries, and the court orders a chemical dependency evaluation and education — the programme Montana calls ACT (Assessment, Course and Treatment) — with any treatment the evaluation recommends. The evaluation, course and treatment are delivered by approved providers at the offender's expense, and Montana also applies a 24/7 Sobriety Program monitoring component in many cases; both are real recurring costs of a Montana sentence that the state requires but bills through providers and programmes, so they are described on this page rather than tabled as a state fee schedule.

Montana's distinctive priced feature is the passenger enhancement: where a passenger under sixteen was in the vehicle, the fine band doubles at every misdemeanour tier. A first offence that would be fined $600 to $1,000 is fined $1,200 to $2,000 with a minor passenger, and the same doubling applies to the jail exposure in the published summaries. That makes the passenger fact worth more, in fine terms, than the step from a first to a second offence — a second offence without a minor is fined in exactly the band a first offence with a minor reaches. Drivers pricing a Montana case therefore need the passenger row of the table, not just the offence-number row, and this page tables the doubled bands as their own line rather than burying the enhancement in a footnote.

Second and third offences, and what escalates

A second offence is a misdemeanour carrying a mandatory minimum of seven days and up to one year in jail, a fine of $1,200 to $2,000, and a one-year license suspension in the published summaries, with a probationary license possible after a hard period only on an ignition interlock. A third offence remains a misdemeanour but carries a mandatory minimum of thirty days and up to one year, a fine of $2,500 to $5,000, and a one-year suspension, with intensive treatment and monitoring as standard conditions and vehicle seizure exposure on a third or subsequent conviction. Montana's felony line is the fourth offence: on the published summaries it carries a commitment to the Department of Corrections of at least thirteen months — a term that cannot be deferred or suspended in the ordinary way and is commonly served in part through a residential treatment programme — plus a suspended term of up to five years and a fine of $5,000 to $10,000. An aggravated DUI, charged at 0.16 or above or on an interlock or suspended-license violation, is an enhanced misdemeanour tier of its own and is identified here by that classification rather than by a merged fine band.

Refusal, the restricted license, and reinstatement charges

License action in Montana runs from both the court and the Motor Vehicle Division, and refusal has its own consequence: refusing a test brings its own suspension under Montana's implied-consent provisions, separate from the conviction suspension, and repeat refusals lengthen it. Reinstatement requires the suspension period to be completed or the interlock-restricted probationary route to be served, the chemical dependency evaluation and the ACT course and any recommended treatment to be finished, and the Division's ordinary reinstatement requirements to be met. Montana publishes the fine bands, jail minimums and suspension periods used in the table, but it does not publish a single DUI reinstatement tariff, a state price for the evaluation or course, or a state interlock price — the device is leased from an approved provider — so those components are described as requirements here, and no Montana total is constructed from them.

Sources: Montana DUI penalty statute (Mont. Code Ann. § 61-8-714) as summarised in current Montana DUI references (fine bands, jail minimums, passenger doubling and the felony fourth); Montana Motor Vehicle Division suspension summaries; Montana 24/7 Sobriety and ACT programme guidance. Last verified: October 2026.

What this state does not publish as a single figure

Montana court costs and assessments are set by the court and the county or municipality where the case is heard, not by Mont. Code Ann. § 61-8-714 (penalties, as summarised in current state references), 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 Montana 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 Montana 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 fine for a first Montana DUI?

$600 to $1,000 on the current published penalty summaries, with 24 hours to six months in jail and a six-month suspension — and the fine band doubles to $1,200–$2,000 if a passenger under sixteen was in the vehicle.

When does a Montana DUI become a felony?

At the fourth offence: a Department of Corrections commitment of at least thirteen months, a further suspended term of up to five years and a fine of $5,000 to $10,000 on the published summaries.

What is the ACT programme in a Montana DUI?

Assessment, Course and Treatment — the chemical dependency evaluation and education the court orders at sentencing, plus any treatment the evaluation recommends; it is provider-delivered and billed to the offender, not priced as a state fee.

Sources: Montana Code Annotated DUI penalty provisions ( § 61-8-714 and the per se penalty section) as summarised in current Montana DUI penalty references — fine bands, mandatory jail minimums, the under-16 passenger doubling and the felony fourth-offence commitment; Montana Department of Justice Motor Vehicle Division suspension and reinstatement summaries; Montana chemical dependency evaluation / ACT and 24/7 Sobriety Program 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.