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 Louisiana, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Louisiana costs on average $5,700, typically $3,800-$7,600 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $155 to $295 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 | $1,600 | $2,800 | $4,000 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $3,800 | $5,700 | $7,600 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $7,750 | $13,150 | $19,300 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$155 – $295/ hour
Median: $215/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 Louisiana. The recorded median total is $5,700, with reported quotes clustering between $3,800 and $7,600. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $2,200–$4,500 of the Louisiana 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 $5,700, the median dui / dwi cost in Louisiana runs 23% below the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Louisiana carries 3 rows — simple, $1,600–$4,000 at $120–$235/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $3,800–$7,600 at $155–$295/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $7,750–$19,300 at $195–$355/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$5,700 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,900 above the $3,800 floor, $1,900 under the $7,600 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Sorted by median cost, Louisiana is 47th of 51 for a dui / dwi, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $1,750 and 23% below the $7,450 midpoint, with 4 states recording a lower median still.
Kansas ($5,750) and Arkansas ($5,600) bracket Louisiana inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 47th is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — North Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky among them — record a median within three percent of Louisiana's $5,700. 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.
Ranked by hourly rate instead of by total, Louisiana does not move: 47th on both measures, at $215 an hour. Rate and total are telling the same story here.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Louisiana |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Mississippi | $6,200 | +$500 |
| 42 | West Virginia | $6,200 | +$500 |
| 43 | South Dakota | $6,000 | +$300 |
| 44 | Alabama | $5,950 | +$250 |
| 45 | North Dakota | $5,800 | +$100 |
| 46 | Kansas | $5,750 | +$50 |
| 47 | Louisiana | $5,700 | — |
| 48 | Arkansas | $5,600 | −$100 |
| 49 | Kentucky | $5,600 | −$100 |
| 50 | Oklahoma | $5,550 | −$150 |
| 51 | South Carolina | $5,550 | −$150 |
Within ten percent of the Louisiana figure there are 7 states above and only 4 below. $50 up or $100 down moves Louisiana 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 West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama, North Dakota, Kansas and adding $500 to the $5,700 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina: $150.
$4,100 short of Washington ($9,800), $150 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $5,700 median divided by the $215 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload Louisiana is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 4.7x a simple one in Louisiana, but the implied workload only rises 3x — 16 hours at $175 becomes 48 hours at $275 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.57x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
The Louisiana moderate band spans $3,800 to $7,600 — $3,800 — which is $1,200 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 18 hours at $215.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $5,700 median works out to roughly $1,267 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $1,461 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
A third ordering: by implied hours Louisiana is 40th of 51 at 27 hours, 7 places above its cost rank of 47th on cost — more work behind the same dui / dwi money.
96% up the $3,800–$7,600 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 35 hours at $215 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 8 hours apart.
| Measure | Louisiana | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $5,700 | 47th |
| Hourly median | $215 | 47th |
| Implied hours | 27 | 40th |
| Simple median | $2,800 | 44th |
| Complex median | $13,150 | 46th |
$215 an hour puts Louisiana between South Dakota ($220) and Oklahoma ($205) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $215 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Louisiana on its own within this dataset.
$5,700 buys 33 hours at $175, 27 at $215, 21 at $275.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | South Carolina | $220 |
| 46 | South Dakota | $220 |
| 47 | Louisiana | $215 |
| 48 | Oklahoma | $205 |
| 49 | Alabama | $200 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 44th at the simple tier, 47th at moderate, 46th at complex of 51 — so Louisiana keeps roughly the same relative position whether the dui / dwi is straightforward or contested.
$2,800 is 44th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Kansas ($2,800) and over Mississippi ($2,800), $600 under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$13,150 is 46th of 51 once contested, between Oklahoma ($13,300) and South Carolina ($13,050), $3,200 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $4,000 against a moderate floor of $3,800 — but there is a clear gap of $150 between the moderate ceiling of $7,600 and the complex floor of $7,750. In Louisiana the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Louisiana | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,800 | 44th | $3,400 | 16 |
| moderate | $5,700 | 47th | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $13,150 | 46th | $16,350 | 48 |
$2,800 puts Louisiana 44th of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $600 (18%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $175: 59% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
Kansas ($2,800) and Mississippi ($2,800) bracket it — a $0 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $2,800 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
$13,150 puts Louisiana 46th of 51 on contested matters, 1 up on its moderate position, and $3,200 (20%) under the $16,350 tier midpoint.
48 implied hours at $275: 178% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
Oklahoma ($13,300) and South Carolina ($13,050) bracket it — a $250 window.
7 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $13,150, denser than the 6 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | Alabama | $2,800 |
| 43 | Kansas | $2,800 |
| 44 | Louisiana | $2,800 |
| 45 | Mississippi | $2,800 |
| 46 | Montana | $2,800 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | New Mexico | $13,300 |
| 45 | Oklahoma | $13,300 |
| 46 | Louisiana | $13,150 |
| 47 | South Carolina | $13,050 |
| 48 | South Dakota | $13,050 |
$5,700 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Louisiana, under Divorce, over Personal Injury. At 69% of Criminal Defense ($8,250).
Across practice areas Louisiana ranges from 39th of 51 for Divorce to 47th for DUI / DWI — a 8-place spread, with its 47th on dui / dwi inside it.
Louisiana is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Divorce runs 12% below its own midpoint while Personal Injury runs 30% below its own midpoint — a 18-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Louisiana 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.
All 7 tracked matter types place Louisiana in the lower third of their tables, the dui / dwi figure included.
In percentile terms it sits at the 8th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $2,650 | $8,250 | $23,700 | 35 | 41st | −19% | Tennessee |
| Divorce | $2,500 | $7,500 | $17,650 | 32 | 39th | −12% | Idaho |
| DUI / DWI | $2,800 | $5,700 | $13,150 | 27 | 47th | −23% | Kansas |
| Personal Injury | $1,150 | $3,650 | $11,650 | — | — | −30% | — |
| Immigration | $1,500 | $3,600 | $9,150 | 17 | 46th | −24% | New Mexico |
| Bankruptcy | $1,300 | $2,650 | $3,950 | 14 | 43rd | −26% | New Mexico |
| Real Estate Closing | $750 | $1,600 | $3,350 | 8 | 41st | −28% | South Dakota |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $450 | $1,600 | $4,700 | 7 | 39th | −23% | Kentucky |
Simple tier. $2,800 ÷ $175 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,400 a month. The $2,900 step to the moderate tier is 11 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $5,700 to $13,150 is a $7,450 step, mostly work: 21 more hours at $215 is $4,515, while moving to $275 across 48 hours adds $2,880. Work carries 61%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Arkansas ($5,600) is $100 light, Kansas ($5,750) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,750, 18x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $3,800 is 18 hours at $215; $7,600 is 35. 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 Louisiana's own recorded figures, $13,150 buys 4.7 matters at the $2,800 simple median — or, counted in time, 48 implied hours against 16, a factor of 3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Louisianacourt'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.