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 Delaware, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Delaware costs on average $8,850, 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 $425 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 | $2,150 | $3,800 | $5,400 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,900 | $8,850 | $11,800 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $12,200 | $20,750 | $30,500 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$225 – $425/ hour
Median: $310/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 Delaware. The recorded median total is $8,850, 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 $5,350–$7,650 of the Delaware 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 $8,850, the median dui / dwi cost in Delaware runs 20% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Delaware carries 3 rows — simple, $2,150–$5,400 at $170–$340/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,900–$11,800 at $225–$425/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $12,200–$30,500 at $285–$510/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$8,850 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,950 above the $5,900 floor, $2,950 under the $11,800 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Delaware ranks 7th of 51 tracked states for a dui / dwi, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $7,450 midpoint is $1,400 — 19% — and only 6 states record a higher median.
Colorado ($8,900) and Alaska ($8,800) bracket Delaware inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 7th is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — Virginia, Colorado, Alaska, New York among them — record a median within three percent of Delaware's $8,850. 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 Delaware is only 15th of 51 on rate, yet 7th on total dui / dwi cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Delaware |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | $9,800 | +$950 |
| 2 | Hawaii | $9,700 | +$850 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | $9,400 | +$550 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $9,200 | +$350 |
| 5 | Virginia | $8,950 | +$100 |
| 6 | Colorado | $8,900 | +$50 |
| 7 | Delaware | $8,850 | — |
| 8 | Alaska | $8,800 | −$50 |
| 9 | New York | $8,800 | −$50 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | $8,650 | −$200 |
| 11 | New Hampshire | $8,600 | −$250 |
| 12 | Connecticut | $8,500 | −$350 |
| 13 | Minnesota | $8,300 | −$550 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below Delaware against 5 above. $50 up or $50 down moves Delaware a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 7th position is propped up by a thin dui / dwi field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Hawaii, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado and adding $850 to the $8,850 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Alaska, New York, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Connecticut: $350.
$950 short of Washington ($9,800), $3,300 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $8,850 median divided by the $310 median rate implies roughly 29 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 2 more hours of work sit behind the Delaware figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.5x a simple one in Delaware, but the implied workload only rises 3.5x — 15 hours at $255 becomes 53 hours at $395 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the Delaware 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 $310.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $8,850 median works out to roughly $1,967 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,306 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours Delaware falls to 11th of 51 at 29 hours, 4 places below its 7th 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 $310 against the 29 the local dui / dwi median implies — 5 hours apart.
| Measure | Delaware | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $8,850 | 7th |
| Hourly median | $310 | 15th |
| Implied hours | 29 | 11th |
| Simple median | $3,800 | 16th |
| Complex median | $20,750 | 4th |
$310 an hour puts Delaware between Alaska ($310) and Colorado ($305) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
Alaska records the same $310: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$8,850 buys 35 hours at $255, 29 at $310, 22 at $395.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Virginia | $315 |
| 14 | Alaska | $310 |
| 15 | Delaware | $310 |
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Delaware runs 16th at the simple tier, 7th at moderate, 4th at complex of 51 — it climbs 12 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward dui / dwi work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$3,800 is 16th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under New Jersey ($3,900) and over Oregon ($3,800), $400 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$20,750 is 4th of 51 once contested, between California ($20,900) and Colorado ($20,700), $4,400 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
Neither pair of adjacent bands touches: $500 of clear space between the simple and moderate tiers, and $400 between the moderate and complex tiers. Every recorded dui / dwi figure in Delaware maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Delaware | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,800 | 16th | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $8,850 | 7th | $7,450 | 29 |
| complex | $20,750 | 4th | $16,350 | 53 |
$3,800 drops Delaware to 16th of 51 on straightforward matters, 9 below its moderate position and $400 (12%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $255: 52% of the moderate tier's 29, over 1-3 months.
New Jersey ($3,900) and Oregon ($3,800) bracket it — a $100 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $3,800 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
$20,750 puts Delaware 4th of 51 on contested matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $4,400 (27%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
53 implied hours at $395: 183% of the moderate tier's 29, over 6-12 months.
California ($20,900) and Colorado ($20,700) bracket it — a $200 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $20,750 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Minnesota | $3,900 |
| 15 | New Jersey | $3,900 |
| 16 | Delaware | $3,800 |
| 17 | Oregon | $3,800 |
| 18 | Michigan | $3,750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | District of Columbia | $21,100 |
| 3 | California | $20,900 |
| 4 | Delaware | $20,750 |
| 5 | Colorado | $20,700 |
| 6 | New York | $20,600 |
$8,850 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Delaware, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 79% of Criminal Defense ($11,150).
The state does not rank uniformly. Delaware is 7th of 51 for DUI / DWI but 22nd for Bankruptcy, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 7th 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 Bankruptcy runs 1% above its own midpoint — 26 percentage points apart. A single "Delaware is expensive" or "Delaware is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Delaware 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.
6 of 7 matter types rank Delaware in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 1 between; dui / dwi is 7th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 88th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,000 | $11,150 | $31,150 | 33 | 14th | +9% | New Jersey |
| Divorce | $3,300 | $10,200 | $24,000 | 30 | 11th | +19% | New Hampshire |
| DUI / DWI | $3,800 | $8,850 | $20,750 | 29 | 7th | +19% | Colorado |
| Immigration | $2,250 | $6,050 | $13,650 | 20 | — | +27% | — |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,600 | $15,900 | — | 9th | +8% | New York |
| Bankruptcy | $1,750 | $3,650 | $5,900 | 13 | 22nd | +1% | Colorado |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,400 | $4,600 | 8 | 16th | +8% | Colorado |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,150 | $7,100 | 7 | 17th | +4% | Colorado |
Simple tier. $3,800 ÷ $255 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,900 a month. The $5,050 step to the moderate tier is 14 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $8,850 to $20,750 is a $11,900 step, mostly work: 24 more hours at $310 is $7,440, while moving to $395 across 53 hours adds $4,505. Work carries 62%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Alaska ($8,800) is $50 light, Colorado ($8,900) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,400, 28x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,900 is 19 hours at $310; $11,800 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 Delaware's own recorded figures, $20,750 buys 5.5 matters at the $3,800 simple median — or, counted in time, 53 implied hours against 15, a factor of 3.5 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Delawarecourt'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.