How Much Does a DUI / DWI Cost in Alaska?

Alaska carries 3 rows — simple, $2,350–$5,800 at $170–$340/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,850–$11,700 at $225–$425/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $10,350–$25,900 at $285–$510/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.

$8,800 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,950 above the $5,850 floor, $2,900 under the $11,700 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.

Alaska ranks 8th of 51 tracked states for a dui / dwi, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $7,450 midpoint is $1,350 — 18% — and only 7 states record a higher median.

Delaware ($8,850) and New York ($8,800) bracket Alaska inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 8th is close to arbitrary.

6 tracked states — Virginia, Colorado, Delaware, New York among them — record a median within three percent of Alaska's $8,800. The figure sits in the densest part of the dui / dwi distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.

Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $310 an hour Alaska is only 14th of 51 on rate, yet 8th on total dui / dwi cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.

The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below Alaska against 5 above. $50 up or $0 down moves Alaska a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 8th position is propped up by a thin dui / dwi field above it and a crowded one beneath.

Climbing five places would mean passing Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Delaware and adding $600 to the $8,800 recorded here.

Five places down means passing under New York, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Minnesota: $500.

$1,000 short of Washington ($9,800), $3,250 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).

The $8,800 median divided by the $310 median rate implies roughly 28 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Alaska figure than behind the typical state's.

The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 4.3x a simple one in Alaska, but the implied workload only rises 2.8x — 16 hours at $255 becomes 45 hours at $395 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.

In dollars the Alaska moderate band is wide: $5,850 to $11,700, a $5,850 range, $850 wider than the peer-median band of $5,000. End to end that is 19 hours at $310.

Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $1,956 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $1,956 a month across the 6-12 months recorded for a complex one.

By implied hours Alaska falls to 13th of 51 at 28 hours, 5 places below its 8th on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.

27% up the $5,850–$11,700 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 24 hours at $310 against the 28 the local dui / dwi median implies — 4 hours apart.

$310 an hour puts Alaska between Virginia ($315) and Delaware ($310) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.

Delaware records the same $310: rate cannot separate them, totals do.

$8,800 buys 35 hours at $255, 28 at $310, 22 at $395.

The tiers rank Alaska very differently. It is 10th at the simple tier, 8th at moderate, 20th at complex of 51 — a fall of 10 places as the matter becomes harder. The state is expensive to start a dui / dwi in and comparatively ordinary to finish one in.

$4,100 is 10th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Massachusetts ($4,150) and over California ($4,050), $700 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.

$17,600 is 20th of 51 once contested, between Rhode Island ($18,100) and Nevada ($17,450), $1,250 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.

$50 separates the simple ceiling of $5,800 from the moderate floor of $5,850, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $10,350 upward. The expensive end of a routine dui / dwi and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Alaska.

$4,100 drops Alaska to 10th of 51 on straightforward matters, 2 below its moderate position and $700 (21%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.

16 implied hours at $255: 57% of the moderate tier's 28, over 1-3 months.

Massachusetts ($4,150) and California ($4,050) bracket it — a $100 window.

6 states sit within three percent of the $4,100 here, against 6 at the moderate row.

$17,600 drops Alaska to 20th of 51 on contested matters, 12 below its moderate position and $1,250 (8%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.

45 implied hours at $395: 161% of the moderate tier's 28, over 6-12 months.

Rhode Island ($18,100) and Nevada ($17,450) bracket it — a $650 window.

3 states sit within three percent of the $17,600 here, against 6 at the moderate row.

$8,800 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Alaska, under Criminal Defense, over Immigration. At 83% of Divorce ($10,650).

The state does not rank uniformly. Alaska is 3rd of 51 for Estate Planning / Probate but 26th for Criminal Defense, a 23-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 8th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.

The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 27% above its own midpoint, while Criminal Defense sits on its own midpoint — 27 percentage points apart. A single "Alaska is expensive" or "Alaska is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.

The practice areas sit unusually close together in Alaska — the largest tracked median is 4.3x the smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state — so one figure travels further across matter types here than it would elsewhere.

5 of 7 matter types rank Alaska in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 2 between; dui / dwi is 8th.

In percentile terms it sits at the 86th percentile of the 51 tracked states.

Simple tier. $4,100 ÷ $255 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $2,050 a month. The $4,700 step to the moderate tier is 12 more hours at that rate.

Work against price. $8,800 to $17,600 is a $8,800 step weighted toward price: 17 more hours at $310 is $5,270, but $395 across 45 hours adds $3,825 — 42% of it.

Borrowing the wrong row. New York ($8,800) is $0 light, Delaware ($8,850) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,350, 27x the neighbour error.

Both ends, in time. $5,850 is 19 hours at $310; $11,700 is 38. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate dui / dwi, that is 4 to 8 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.

Contested against simple. At Alaska's own recorded figures, $17,600 buys 4.3 matters at the $4,100 simple median — or, counted in time, 45 implied hours against 16, a factor of 2.8 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.