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 Colorado, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Colorado costs on average $8,900, typically $5,900-$11,800 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $225 to $420 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 | $2,350 | $4,150 | $5,900 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,900 | $8,900 | $11,800 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $12,150 | $20,700 | $30,400 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$225 – $420/ hour
Median: $305/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 Colorado. The recorded median total is $8,900, with reported quotes clustering between $5,900 and $11,800. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $5,400–$7,700 of the Colorado 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 $8,900, the median dui / dwi cost in Colorado runs 20% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Colorado carries 3 rows — simple, $2,350–$5,900 at $170–$335/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,900–$11,800 at $225–$420/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $12,150–$30,400 at $280–$505/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$8,900 is a median, not the middle of the band — $3,000 above the $5,900 floor, $2,900 under the $11,800 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Colorado ranks 6th of 51 tracked states for a dui / dwi, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $7,450 midpoint is $1,450 — 19% — and only 5 states record a higher median.
Virginia ($8,950) and Delaware ($8,850) bracket Colorado inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 6th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Virginia, Delaware, Alaska, New York among them — record a median within three percent of Colorado's $8,900. 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.
The total is doing something the rate does not explain. Colorado sits 16th of 51 on rate at $305 an hour but 6th on total dui / dwi cost, 10 places higher — a signal that recorded matters here run long rather than dear.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Colorado |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | $9,800 | +$900 |
| 2 | Hawaii | $9,700 | +$800 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | $9,400 | +$500 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $9,200 | +$300 |
| 5 | Virginia | $8,950 | +$50 |
| 6 | Colorado | $8,900 | — |
| 7 | Delaware | $8,850 | −$50 |
| 8 | Alaska | $8,800 | −$100 |
| 9 | New York | $8,800 | −$100 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | $8,650 | −$250 |
| 11 | New Hampshire | $8,600 | −$300 |
| 12 | Connecticut | $8,500 | −$400 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below Colorado against 4 above. $50 up or $50 down moves Colorado a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 6th position is propped up by a thin dui / dwi field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Washington, Hawaii, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia and adding $900 to the $8,900 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Delaware, Alaska, New York, District of Columbia, New Hampshire: $300.
$900 short of Washington ($9,800), $3,350 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $8,900 median divided by the $305 median rate implies roughly 29 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 2 more hours of work sit behind the Colorado figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5x a simple one in Colorado, but the implied workload only rises 3.1x — 17 hours at $250 becomes 53 hours at $390 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.56x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the Colorado moderate band is wide: $5,900 to $11,800, a $5,900 range, $900 wider than the peer-median band of $5,000. End to end that is 19 hours at $305.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $8,900 median works out to roughly $1,978 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,300 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours Colorado falls to 9th of 51 at 29 hours, 3 places below its 6th on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
26% up the $5,900–$11,800 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 24 hours at $305 against the 29 the local dui / dwi median implies — 5 hours apart.
| Measure | Colorado | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $8,900 | 6th |
| Hourly median | $305 | 16th |
| Implied hours | 29 | 9th |
| Simple median | $4,150 | 8th |
| Complex median | $20,700 | 5th |
$305 an hour puts Colorado between Delaware ($310) and Illinois ($295) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $305 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Colorado on its own within this dataset.
$8,900 buys 36 hours at $250, 29 at $305, 23 at $390.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Alaska | $310 |
| 15 | Delaware | $310 |
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 8th at the simple tier, 6th at moderate, 5th at complex of 51 — so Colorado keeps roughly the same relative position whether the dui / dwi is straightforward or contested.
$4,150 is 8th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under New Hampshire ($4,200) and over Massachusetts ($4,150), $750 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$20,700 is 5th of 51 once contested, between Delaware ($20,750) and New York ($20,600), $4,350 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $5,900 against a moderate floor of $5,900 — but there is a clear gap of $350 between the moderate ceiling of $11,800 and the complex floor of $12,150. In Colorado the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Colorado | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $4,150 | 8th | $3,400 | 17 |
| moderate | $8,900 | 6th | $7,450 | 29 |
| complex | $20,700 | 5th | $16,350 | 53 |
$4,150 drops Colorado to 8th of 51 on straightforward matters, 2 below its moderate position and $750 (22%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $250: 59% of the moderate tier's 29, over 1-3 months.
New Hampshire ($4,200) and Massachusetts ($4,150) bracket it — a $50 window.
6 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $4,150, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
$20,700 puts Colorado 5th of 51 on contested matters, 1 up on its moderate position, and $4,350 (27%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
53 implied hours at $390: 183% of the moderate tier's 29, over 6-12 months.
Delaware ($20,750) and New York ($20,600) bracket it — a $150 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $20,700 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | New York | $4,250 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $4,200 |
| 8 | Colorado | $4,150 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | $4,150 |
| 10 | Alaska | $4,100 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | California | $20,900 |
| 4 | Delaware | $20,750 |
| 5 | Colorado | $20,700 |
| 6 | New York | $20,600 |
| 7 | Minnesota | $20,000 |
$8,900 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Colorado, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 83% of Criminal Defense ($10,750).
The state does not rank uniformly. Colorado is 6th of 51 for DUI / DWI but 21st for Bankruptcy, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 6th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 24% above its own midpoint, while Bankruptcy runs 3% above its own midpoint — 21 percentage points apart. A single "Colorado is expensive" or "Colorado is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Colorado is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
6 of 8 matter types rank Colorado in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 2 between; dui / dwi is 6th.
That places the dui / dwi figure in the 90th percentile of the 51 states tracked here.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,050 | $10,750 | $31,900 | 32 | 19th | +5% | Massachusetts |
| Divorce | $3,550 | $10,450 | $24,750 | 31 | 9th | +22% | Maryland |
| DUI / DWI | $4,150 | $8,900 | $20,700 | 29 | 6th | +19% | Virginia |
| Immigration | $2,250 | $5,900 | $13,200 | 19 | 9th | +24% | New Jersey |
| Personal Injury | $1,750 | $5,450 | $17,950 | — | 12th | +5% | Wisconsin |
| Bankruptcy | $1,650 | $3,700 | $5,650 | 13 | 21st | +3% | Alaska |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,000 | $2,400 | $4,650 | 9 | 15th | +8% | Wisconsin |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,150 | $6,700 | 7 | 16th | +4% | California |
Simple tier. $4,150 ÷ $250 = about 17 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $2,075 a month. The $4,750 step to the moderate tier is 12 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $8,900 to $20,700 is a $11,800 step, mostly work: 24 more hours at $305 is $7,320, while moving to $390 across 53 hours adds $4,505. Work carries 62%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Delaware ($8,850) is $50 light, Virginia ($8,950) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,450, 29x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,900 is 19 hours at $305; $11,800 is 39. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate dui / dwi, that is 4 to 9 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At Colorado's own recorded figures, $20,700 buys 5 matters at the $4,150 simple median — or, counted in time, 53 implied hours against 17, a factor of 3.1 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Coloradocourt'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.