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 Illinois, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Illinois costs on average $7,850, typically $5,250-$10,500 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $215 to $405 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 | $2,100 | $3,650 | $5,200 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,250 | $7,850 | $10,500 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $11,400 | $19,400 | $28,500 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$215 – $405/ hour
Median: $295/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 Illinois. The recorded median total is $7,850, with reported quotes clustering between $5,250 and $10,500. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $4,350–$6,650 of the Illinois 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 $7,850, the median dui / dwi cost in Illinois runs 6% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Illinois carries 3 rows — simple, $2,100–$5,200 at $160–$325/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,250–$10,500 at $215–$405/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $11,400–$28,500 at $270–$485/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$7,850 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,600 above the $5,250 floor, $2,650 under the $10,500 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
At 21st of 51, Illinois sits above the midpoint of the dui / dwi table: $400 more than the $7,450 median state, or 5%, with 20 states recording a higher median.
Oregon ($7,950) and Texas ($7,800) bracket Illinois inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 21st is close to arbitrary.
7 tracked states — Massachusetts, California, Michigan, Oregon among them — record a median within three percent of Illinois's $7,850. 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.
Illinois ranks 17th of 51 on hourly rate at $295 an hour and 21st on total cost — 4 places apart, enough that the rate is a slightly optimistic guide to the total.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Illinois |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Maryland | $8,250 | +$400 |
| 16 | Vermont | $8,150 | +$300 |
| 17 | Massachusetts | $8,050 | +$200 |
| 18 | California | $8,000 | +$150 |
| 19 | Michigan | $7,950 | +$100 |
| 20 | Oregon | $7,950 | +$100 |
| 21 | Illinois | $7,850 | — |
| 22 | Texas | $7,800 | −$50 |
| 23 | Utah | $7,750 | −$100 |
| 24 | Georgia | $7,700 | −$150 |
| 25 | Nevada | $7,450 | −$400 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | $7,450 | −$400 |
| 27 | Wyoming | $7,450 | −$400 |
The 21st position is not a stable fact about Illinois: $100 up or $50 down moves Illinois a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 19 rows, 10 above and 9 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Vermont, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, Oregon and adding $300 to the $7,850 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Texas, Utah, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin: $400.
$1,950 short of Washington ($9,800), $2,300 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $7,850 median divided by the $295 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload Illinois is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.3x a simple one in Illinois, but the implied workload only rises 3.4x — 15 hours at $245 becomes 51 hours at $380 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $5,250 to $10,500 the moderate band is $5,250 wide, close to the $5,000 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $295.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $7,850 median works out to roughly $1,744 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,156 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours Illinois falls to 37th of 51 at 27 hours, 16 places below its 21st on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
42% up the $5,250–$10,500 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 25 hours at $295 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | Illinois | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $7,850 | 21st |
| Hourly median | $295 | 17th |
| Implied hours | 27 | 37th |
| Simple median | $3,650 | 21st |
| Complex median | $19,400 | 11th |
$295 an hour puts Illinois between Colorado ($305) and Minnesota ($295) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
Minnesota, Oregon record the same $295: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$7,850 buys 32 hours at $245, 27 at $295, 21 at $380.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Delaware | $310 |
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Illinois runs 21st at the simple tier, 21st at moderate, 11th at complex of 51 — it climbs 10 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward dui / dwi work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$3,650 is 21st of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Florida ($3,650) and over Maine ($3,650), $250 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$19,400 is 11th of 51 once contested, between Virginia ($19,500) and Washington ($19,100), $3,050 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
Neither pair of adjacent bands touches: $50 of clear space between the simple and moderate tiers, and $900 between the moderate and complex tiers. Every recorded dui / dwi figure in Illinois maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Illinois | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,650 | 21st | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $7,850 | 21st | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $19,400 | 11th | $16,350 | 51 |
$3,650 keeps Illinois at 21st on straightforward matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $250 (7%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $245: 56% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
Florida ($3,650) and Maine ($3,650) bracket it — a $0 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $3,650 here, against 7 at the moderate row.
$19,400 puts Illinois 11th of 51 on contested matters, 10 up on its moderate position, and $3,050 (19%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
51 implied hours at $380: 189% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
Virginia ($19,500) and Washington ($19,100) bracket it — a $400 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $19,400 here, against 7 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Pennsylvania | $3,700 |
| 20 | Florida | $3,650 |
| 21 | Illinois | $3,650 |
| 22 | Maine | $3,650 |
| 23 | Vermont | $3,600 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | New Hampshire | $19,550 |
| 10 | Virginia | $19,500 |
| 11 | Illinois | $19,400 |
| 12 | Washington | $19,100 |
| 13 | Vermont | $18,850 |
$7,850 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Illinois, under Divorce, over Personal Injury. At 75% of Criminal Defense ($10,450).
The state does not rank uniformly. Illinois is 3rd of 51 for Personal Injury but 23rd for Real Estate Closing, a 20-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 21st on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Real Estate Closing runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "Illinois is expensive" or "Illinois is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Illinois is 4.8x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
5 of 8 matter types rank Illinois in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; dui / dwi is 21st.
In percentile terms it sits at the 60th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,450 | $10,450 | $33,400 | 32 | 22nd | +2% | Maryland |
| Divorce | $3,150 | $9,650 | $22,050 | 30 | 17th | +13% | District of Columbia |
| DUI / DWI | $3,650 | $7,850 | $19,400 | 27 | 21st | +5% | Oregon |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,950 | $16,900 | — | 3rd | +14% | California |
| Immigration | $2,150 | $5,850 | $11,800 | 20 | 12th | +23% | District of Columbia |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,900 | $5,500 | 14 | 14th | +8% | Texas |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,000 | $2,250 | $4,900 | 8 | 23rd | +1% | Virginia |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $5,950 | 7 | 11th | +6% | New York |
Simple tier. $3,650 ÷ $245 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,825 a month. The $4,200 step to the moderate tier is 12 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $7,850 to $19,400 is a $11,550 step, mostly work: 24 more hours at $295 is $7,080, while moving to $380 across 51 hours adds $4,335. Work carries 62%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Texas ($7,800) lands $50 under Illinois; from Oregon ($7,950), $100 over; from the $7,450 table midpoint, $400 out.
Both ends, in time. $5,250 is 18 hours at $295; $10,500 is 36. 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 Illinois's own recorded figures, $19,400 buys 5.3 matters at the $3,650 simple median — or, counted in time, 51 implied hours against 15, a factor of 3.4 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Illinoiscourt'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.