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Nebraska DUI penalties breakdown: every component, line by line
Our Nebraska DUI costs page gives the state overview. This page does the narrower job: it prices each component of Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 60-6,197.03 and 28-106 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
Nebraska prices DUI in Class W misdemeanours — a class that exists essentially for this offence — and the University of Nebraska's published DUI chart, which tracks §§ 60-6,197.03 and 28-106, sets out the standard-BAC ladder this page tables. For a first offence at an alcohol concentration of .08 to .149, the maximum is 60 days in jail, a six-month license revocation and a $500 fine, and the mandatory minimum is seven days in jail, the same six-month revocation and the same $500 fine — the fine does not move between the minimum and maximum sentence at this tier, which makes Nebraska's first-offence money component a fixed $500 rather than a band. The court requires the person to apply for an ignition interlock permit, which is the mechanism that lets a revoked first offender keep driving on an interlock during the revocation. If probation is granted instead, the revocation drops to 60 days, the fine stays at $500, and the interlock application is still required.
The probation column is not a discount version of the same sentence in Nebraska — it is a differently priced sentence, and the differences are worth tabling because they recur at every tier. At the second tier, probation replaces thirty mandatory jail days with ten days or not less than 240 hours of community service; at the third tier it replaces ninety mandatory days with thirty, and cuts a fixed fifteen-year revocation to a range of two to fifteen years. A driver comparing outcomes therefore has to price both columns: the non-probation sentence, with its longer mandatory jail minimum and fixed revocation, and the probation sentence, with its community-service alternative and shorter minimum revocation, each carrying the same statutory fine. Alcohol assessment and any treatment are further conditions of either route, delivered and billed by providers rather than priced in § 60-6,197.03.
Second and third offences, and what escalates
A second offence at .08 to .149 is a Class W misdemeanour with a maximum of six months in jail, an eighteen-month revocation and a $500 fine, and mandatory minimums of thirty days, the same eighteen months and $500, with the interlock application required after 45 days of no driving. A third offence at the same concentration is still a Class W misdemeanour, but the revocation jumps to fifteen years: a maximum of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, with mandatory minimums of ninety days, the full fifteen-year revocation and $1,000. The aggravated ladder — a concentration of .15 or more — prices the same offence numbers far higher: a third aggravated offence is a Class IIIA felony carrying 180 days to three years and a fine of up to $10,000 in the published charts, a fourth ordinary offence is also a Class IIIA felony, and the felony tiers continue upward from there. Those aggravated figures are tabled as their own row so the standard-BAC ladder is never read as the whole of Nebraska law.
Refusal, the restricted license, and reinstatement charges
Nebraska revocations are served through the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the interlock permit is the only ordinary route to driving during one: after a minimum 45-day no-driving period where the statute requires it, the driver applies for an ignition interlock permit and drives only an equipped vehicle for at least a year or the revocation period, whichever is longer, on the published summaries. Refusal of a chemical test is criminalised in Nebraska and prices the case into the higher tiers of § 60-6,197.03 rather than into a separate civil suspension, which is why this page has no separate refusal fee to table. Reinstatement at the end of a revocation requires the period to be served, the interlock condition to be satisfied and the assessment and treatment conditions to be completed; Nebraska publishes the fines and revocation periods in the table and the $500-to-$1,000 Class W fine structure, but no single DUI reinstatement tariff and no state price for the device, which is leased from an approved provider — so those components are described here rather than totalled.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| First offence, .08–.149 (§§ 60-6,197.03(1), 28-106) | Class W misdemeanour; mandatory minimum 7 days in jail, maximum 60 days; fine $500; license revocation 6 months; court requires an application for an ignition interlock permit. On probation: 60-day revocation, $500 fine, interlock application |
| Second offence, .08–.149 (§ 60-6,197.03(3)) | Class W misdemeanour; mandatory minimum 30 days, maximum 6 months; fine $500; revocation 18 months; interlock application after 45 days. On probation: 10 days or at least 240 hours of community service, 18-month revocation, $500 fine |
| Third offence, .08–.149 (§ 60-6,197.03(4)) | Class W misdemeanour; mandatory minimum 90 days, maximum 1 year; fine $1,000; revocation 15 years; interlock application after 45 days. On probation: 30 days, revocation of 2 to 15 years, $1,000 fine |
| Aggravated tiers, .15+ (published charts) | Higher classes at every offence number — a third aggravated offence is a Class IIIA felony (180 days to 3 years, fine up to $10,000, 15-year revocation), as is a fourth ordinary offence; refusal prices a case into the higher tiers |
| Lookback (published charts) | Prior convictions within the previous 15 years count for enhancement in the published Nebraska DUI charts — one of the longest lookbacks in the country |
| Interlock permit (§ 60-6,197.01 summaries) | Driving during a revocation only on an ignition interlock permit after the minimum no-driving period (45 days where required), with the device installed for at least 1 year or the revocation period, whichever is longer — device billed by the approved provider |
Sources: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,197.03 (Class W and aggravated tiers) and § 28-106 (Class W maximums), as charted in the University of Nebraska DUI/ALR penalty charts; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,197.01 (interlock permit) summaries; Nebraska DMV revocation 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 this state does not publish as a single figure
Nebraska court costs and assessments are set by the court and the county or municipality where the case is heard, not by Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 60-6,197.03 and 28-106, 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 Nebraska 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 Nebraska 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 Nebraska DUI?
- $500 — a fixed figure, not a band: at the .08–.149 first tier the $500 fine is the same in the mandatory-minimum and maximum columns of the published § 60-6,197.03 chart, alongside seven to sixty days and a six-month revocation.
- How long is the revocation for a third Nebraska DUI?
- Fifteen years at the standard .08–.149 tier, with ninety days to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine — although a probation sentence can bring the revocation down to a range of two to fifteen years.
- How far back does Nebraska count prior DUIs?
- Fifteen years in the published DUI charts — one of the longest lookback periods in the United States, and the reason older priors still move a Nebraska case up a priced tier.
Related cost guides: Nebraska DUI costs overview, second-offense DUI costs, high-BAC DUI costs, ignition interlock costs, license reinstatement fees.
Sources: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 60-6,197.03 and 28-106 (first, second and third Class W tiers, probation columns and aggravated classes), as set out in the University of Nebraska Student Legal Services DUI/ALR penalty charts citing those sections; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,197.01 ignition interlock permit summaries; Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles revocation and reinstatement 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.