This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.
2026 cost estimates for dui / dwi in Arkansas, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Arkansas costs on average $5,600, typically $3,750-$7,500 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $145 to $275 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 3-6 months to resolve. Common related costs include court filing fee ($100-$300) and dmv hearing fee ($100-$200).
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $1,450 | $2,500 | $3,600 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $3,750 | $5,600 | $7,500 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $6,850 | $11,600 | $17,100 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$145 – $275/ hour
Median: $200/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>DUI/DWI legal cost has two layers that are easy to underestimate: the attorney fee itself, and the non-attorney costs that follow a conviction or plea. The attorney fee is driven mainly by whether the case goes to trial (far more hours billed) or resolves through a plea agreement, plus complicating factors like BAC level, prior offenses, or an accident with injuries. Many DUI attorneys charge a flat fee for a straightforward first offense and switch to hourly billing once the case becomes contested.
Beyond the attorney, a DUI case typically layers on court fines, a state-mandated alcohol education or treatment program, license reinstatement fees, and — for many drivers — an ignition interlock device with ongoing monthly costs. Insurance premium increases are not a one-time legal cost but often the largest total expense over a 3-5 year period following conviction, which is why the figures on this page reflect legal defense costs specifically, not the lifetime cost of a conviction.
Take a moderate-complexity dui / dwi matter in Arkansas. The recorded median total is $5,600, with reported quotes clustering between $3,750 and $7,500. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $2,100–$4,400 of the Arkansas median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes. 2 further recorded fees are not itemised above and are not in that total.
At $5,600, the median dui / dwi cost in Arkansas runs 24% below the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Arkansas carries 3 rows — simple, $1,450–$3,600 at $110–$220/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $3,750–$7,500 at $145–$275/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $6,850–$17,100 at $185–$330/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$5,600 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,850 above the $3,750 floor, $1,900 under the $7,500 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Sorted by median cost, Arkansas is 48th of 51 for a dui / dwi, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $1,850 and 25% below the $7,450 midpoint, with 3 states recording a lower median still.
Louisiana ($5,700) and Kentucky ($5,600) bracket Arkansas inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 48th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma among them — record a median within three percent of Arkansas's $5,600. 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.
Rate and total sit 2 places apart — 50th of 51 at $200 an hour against 48th on the dui / dwi total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Arkansas |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | West Virginia | $6,200 | +$600 |
| 43 | South Dakota | $6,000 | +$400 |
| 44 | Alabama | $5,950 | +$350 |
| 45 | North Dakota | $5,800 | +$200 |
| 46 | Kansas | $5,750 | +$150 |
| 47 | Louisiana | $5,700 | +$100 |
| 48 | Arkansas | $5,600 | — |
| 49 | Kentucky | $5,600 | −$0 |
| 50 | Oklahoma | $5,550 | −$50 |
| 51 | South Carolina | $5,550 | −$50 |
Within ten percent of the Arkansas figure there are 5 states above and only 2 below. $100 up or $0 down moves Arkansas a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the dui / dwi field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing South Dakota, Alabama, North Dakota, Kansas, Louisiana and adding $400 to the $5,600 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina: $50.
$4,200 short of Washington ($9,800), $50 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $5,600 median divided by the $200 median rate implies roughly 28 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Arkansas figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 4.6x a simple one in Arkansas, but the implied workload only rises 3x — 15 hours at $165 becomes 45 hours at $255 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
The Arkansas moderate band spans $3,750 to $7,500 — $3,750 — which is $1,250 narrower than the peer-median band of $5,000, so quoted dui / dwi figures cluster more tightly here than in most tracked states. End to end that is 19 hours at $200.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $1,244 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $1,289 a month across the 6-12 months recorded for a complex one.
A third ordering: by implied hours Arkansas is 16th of 51 at 28 hours, 32 places above its cost rank of 48th on cost — more work behind the same dui / dwi money.
99% up the $3,750–$7,500 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 37 hours at $200 against the 28 the local dui / dwi median implies — 9 hours apart.
| Measure | Arkansas | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $5,600 | 48th |
| Hourly median | $200 | 50th |
| Implied hours | 28 | 16th |
| Simple median | $2,500 | 51st |
| Complex median | $11,600 | 50th |
$200 an hour puts Arkansas between Alabama ($200) and Kentucky ($200) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
Alabama, Kentucky record the same $200: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$5,600 buys 34 hours at $165, 28 at $200, 22 at $255.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 48 | Oklahoma | $205 |
| 49 | Alabama | $200 |
| 50 | Arkansas | $200 |
| 51 | Kentucky | $200 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 51st at the simple tier, 48th at moderate, 50th at complex of 51 — so Arkansas keeps roughly the same relative position whether the dui / dwi is straightforward or contested.
At the simple tier Arkansas records $2,500 and ranks 51st of 51, against a tier midpoint of $3,400.
$11,600 is 50th of 51 once contested, between Mississippi ($12,800) and Alabama ($11,350), $4,750 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
$150 separates the simple ceiling of $3,600 from the moderate floor of $3,750, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $6,850 upward. The expensive end of a routine dui / dwi and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Arkansas.
| Tier | Arkansas | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,500 | 51st | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $5,600 | 48th | $7,450 | 28 |
| complex | $11,600 | 50th | $16,350 | 45 |
$2,500 drops Arkansas to 51st of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 below its moderate position and $900 (26%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $165: 54% of the moderate tier's 28, over 1-3 months.
1 states sit within three percent of the $2,500 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$11,600 drops Arkansas to 50th of 51 on contested matters, 2 below its moderate position and $4,750 (29%) under the $16,350 tier midpoint.
45 implied hours at $255: 161% of the moderate tier's 28, over 6-12 months.
Mississippi ($12,800) and Alabama ($11,350) bracket it — a $1,450 window.
1 states sit within three percent of the $11,600 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | Oklahoma | $2,600 |
| 50 | South Carolina | $2,550 |
| 51 | Arkansas | $2,500 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 48 | South Dakota | $13,050 |
| 49 | Mississippi | $12,800 |
| 50 | Arkansas | $11,600 |
| 51 | Alabama | $11,350 |
$5,600 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Arkansas, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 77% of Criminal Defense ($7,250).
The state does not rank uniformly. Arkansas is 28th of 51 for Personal Injury but 49th for Divorce, a 21-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 48th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
Arkansas is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 16% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 33% below its own midpoint — a 17-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Arkansas is 5.2x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
0 of 8 matter types rank Arkansas in the upper third, 7 in the lower, 1 between; dui / dwi is 48th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 6th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $2,650 | $7,250 | $21,300 | 33 | 48th | −29% | South Dakota |
| Divorce | $2,150 | $6,450 | $17,550 | 29 | 49th | −25% | Kansas |
| DUI / DWI | $2,500 | $5,600 | $11,600 | 28 | 48th | −25% | Louisiana |
| Immigration | $1,350 | $4,000 | $8,600 | 20 | 40th | −16% | Nebraska |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $3,500 | $10,050 | — | 28th | −33% | Alabama |
| Bankruptcy | $1,150 | $2,400 | $3,450 | 13 | 46th | −33% | Alabama |
| Real Estate Closing | $700 | $1,500 | $3,050 | 8 | 44th | −33% | Oklahoma |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $450 | $1,400 | $4,350 | 7 | 45th | −33% | South Carolina |
Simple tier. $2,500 ÷ $165 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,250 a month. The $3,100 step to the moderate tier is 13 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $5,600 to $11,600 is a $6,000 step weighted toward price: 17 more hours at $200 is $3,400, but $255 across 45 hours adds $2,475 — 42% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Kentucky ($5,600) is $0 light, Louisiana ($5,700) is $100 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,850, 19x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $3,750 is 19 hours at $200; $7,500 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 Arkansas's own recorded figures, $11,600 buys 4.6 matters at the $2,500 simple median — or, counted in time, 45 implied hours against 15, a factor of 3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Arkansascourt's own schedule; billing models are covered in the legal fees guide.
This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.