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New Hampshire DUI penalties breakdown: every component, line by line

Our New Hampshire DUI costs page gives the state overview. This page does the narrower job: it prices each component of N.H. Rev. Stat. § 265-A:18 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

New Hampshire prices a first DWI through its impaired driver care management programme — the IDCMP — as much as through its fine. Under RSA 265-A:18, I, a first conviction is a class B misdemeanour, the person shall be fined not less than $500, referred by the court to an IDCMP, and, as a first-time offender, required to submit to an alcohol and drug abuse screening within fourteen days of conviction and, where the screening shows the likelihood of a substance use disorder, to a full substance use disorder evaluation within thirty days, following the service plan that follows. The person must complete an approved impaired driver education programme before the license is restored, must complete a qualified online victim impact panel programme unless the court finds exceptional circumstances, and — in the statute's own words — is required to pay all fees arising from services provided by the IDCMP and its referrals for the service plan. Those IDCMP, evaluation, education and service-plan fees are therefore statutory cost components of every New Hampshire sentence, but they are charged by the programme and its providers, not set as figures in RSA 265-A:18, so this page describes them rather than tabling invented amounts.

The first-offence license component is a revocation of not less than nine months and not more than two years, and § 265-A:18 builds a priced incentive into it: the court may suspend up to six months of that revocation where the person has been screened within fourteen days, completed any required evaluation within thirty days, is in compliance with the service plan, and has completed the approved impaired driver education programme, and the court may require an interlock during the reduction period under RSA 265-A:36. Time, in other words, is the currency of the New Hampshire first offence — prompt screening and evaluation are worth up to six months of driving privileges — while the fine floor of $500 and the IDCMP fees are the money components. A driver under twenty-one at the time of the offence faces a revocation of not less than one year on the same structure, and a person transporting a passenger under sixteen receives the maximum revocation period for the offence charged, with restoration gated on the same IDCMP screening, evaluation, service plan and education programme.

Second and third offences, and what escalates

For a second offence within ten years, § 265-A:18, IV(a) makes the case a class A misdemeanour with a fine of not less than $750 and a revocation of not less than three years, restoration being unavailable until the IDCMP service plan is completed and all relevant fees are paid. The jail component is split by timing: where the prior conviction occurred within two years, the mandatory sentence is sixty consecutive days, of which thirty are suspended on condition of evaluation and service-plan compliance; where the prior occurred more than two but not more than ten years earlier, the mandatory sentence is seventeen consecutive days, of which twelve are suspended on the same conditions — so the amount of jail actually served at the second tier is five days in the ordinary case and thirty in the close-prior case. A third offence under IV(b) takes all of the second-offence penalties except that the license is revoked indefinitely and may not be restored for at least five years, after which the driver must petition the court for eligibility to reapply, and the mandatory sentence is 180 consecutive days, of which 150 are suspended on the evaluation and service-plan conditions, leaving thirty days to serve. A fourth or subsequent offence is a felony, with indefinite revocation and no petition for eligibility for at least seven years.

Refusal, the restricted license, and reinstatement charges

An aggravated DWI under RSA 265-A:3 is priced separately from the ordinary tiers: a class A misdemeanour with a fine of not less than $750, a mandatory seventeen consecutive days of which twelve are suspended on the IDCMP conditions, an interlock order, and a revocation of not less than eighteen months and not more than two years, while the serious aggravated categories in § 265-A:3, I(b) and II(b) are class B felonies with a fine of not less than $1,000 and thirty-five mandatory days, twenty-one of them suspended on the same conditions. Refusal and test failure bring administrative license action from the Department of Safety that is separate from the court's revocation, and the statute provides that revocations under the section run as the court imposes them alongside that administrative track. Reinstatement in New Hampshire is a completion event, not a fee schedule: the revocation must run, the IDCMP service plan must be completed, the education programme finished and all relevant fees paid, and for a third offender a court petition must first restore eligibility to apply. The only money figures RSA 265-A:18 itself fixes are the fine floors in the table — $500, $750 and $1,000 — plus the open-ended IDCMP fee obligation, which this page reports as an obligation rather than an amount.

Sources: N.H. Rev. Stat. § 265-A:18, I, III, IV and VIII (first, second, third, fourth, aggravated, under-21 and passenger provisions, New Hampshire General Court); N.H. Rev. Stat. §§ 265-A:3 and 265-A:36 (aggravated DWI and interlock). Last verified: October 2026.

What this state does not publish as a single figure

New Hampshire court costs and assessments are set by the court and the county or municipality where the case is heard, not by N.H. Rev. Stat. § 265-A:18, 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire DWI?

Not less than $500 under RSA 265-A:18, I — plus the IDCMP screening, evaluation, education and service-plan fees, which the same paragraph requires the offender to pay in full, on top of a revocation of nine months to two years.

How much jail does a second New Hampshire DWI actually require?

It depends on the gap: sixty mandatory days with thirty suspended where the prior was within two years, or seventeen mandatory days with twelve suspended where the prior was two to ten years earlier — so five days to serve in the ordinary case, on IDCMP compliance conditions either way.

When can a third offender get a New Hampshire license back?

Not for at least five years: the revocation is indefinite, and after five years the driver must petition the court for eligibility to reapply, complete the IDCMP service plan and pay all relevant fees before the department restores the license.

Sources: N.H. Rev. Stat. § 265-A:18 (paragraph I first-offence and aggravated tiers, paragraph III under-21 revocation, paragraph IV second, third and fourth offences, and paragraph VIII passenger-under-16 revocation — New Hampshire General Court, current RSA text including the January 1, 2026 amendments); N.H. Rev. Stat. §§ 265-A:3 and 265-A:36 (aggravated DWI categories and interlock orders). 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.