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 Minnesota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Minnesota costs on average $8,300, typically $5,550-$11,100 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $215 to $400 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 | $2,250 | $3,900 | $5,600 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,550 | $8,300 | $11,100 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $11,750 | $20,000 | $29,400 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$215 – $400/ hour
Median: $295/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
New to how attorney fees work? Read the legal fees guide — hourly, flat, and contingency billing explained.
Researching costs in another area? These free tools from our network may help.
Add this calculator to your own site with a copy-paste snippet — includes an attribution link back to this page.
<iframe
id="legalcostcalc-embed"
src="https://legalcostcalc.co/embed/minnesota/dui-cost"
title="Minnesota DUI / DWI Cost Calculator"
width="100%"
height="720"
style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;max-width:768px;"
loading="lazy"
></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px;text-align:center;">
<a href="https://legalcostcalc.co/minnesota/dui-cost?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=embed_snippet" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">
Powered by LegalCostCalc
</a>
</p>
<script>
window.addEventListener("message", function (event) {
if (!event.data || event.data.type !== "legalcostcalc:embed-resize") return;
var frame = document.getElementById("legalcostcalc-embed");
if (frame && typeof event.data.height === "number") {
frame.style.height = event.data.height + "px";
}
});
</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 Minnesota. The recorded median total is $8,300, with reported quotes clustering between $5,550 and $11,100. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $4,800–$7,100 of the Minnesota 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 $8,300, the median dui / dwi cost in Minnesota runs 12% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Minnesota carries 3 rows — simple, $2,250–$5,600 at $160–$320/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,550–$11,100 at $215–$400/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $11,750–$29,400 at $270–$480/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$8,300 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,750 above the $5,550 floor, $2,800 under the $11,100 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
At 13th of 51, Minnesota sits above the midpoint of the dui / dwi table: $850 more than the $7,450 median state, or 11%, with 12 states recording a higher median.
Connecticut ($8,500) and Arizona ($8,250) bracket Minnesota inside a $250 window — narrow enough that 13th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland, Vermont among them — record a median within three percent of Minnesota's $8,300. 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.
On hourly rate alone Minnesota is 18th of 51 at $295 an hour, 5 places behind its 13th position on total cost.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Minnesota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Delaware | $8,850 | +$550 |
| 8 | Alaska | $8,800 | +$500 |
| 9 | New York | $8,800 | +$500 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | $8,650 | +$350 |
| 11 | New Hampshire | $8,600 | +$300 |
| 12 | Connecticut | $8,500 | +$200 |
| 13 | Minnesota | $8,300 | — |
| 14 | Arizona | $8,250 | −$50 |
| 15 | Maryland | $8,250 | −$50 |
| 16 | Vermont | $8,150 | −$150 |
| 17 | Massachusetts | $8,050 | −$250 |
| 18 | California | $8,000 | −$300 |
| 19 | Michigan | $7,950 | −$350 |
The 13th position is not a stable fact about Minnesota: $200 up or $50 down moves Minnesota a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 19 rows, 8 above and 11 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Alaska, New York, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Connecticut and adding $500 to the $8,300 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts, California: $300.
$1,500 short of Washington ($9,800), $2,750 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $8,300 median divided by the $295 median rate implies roughly 28 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Minnesota figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.1x a simple one in Minnesota, but the implied workload only rises 3.3x — 16 hours at $240 becomes 53 hours at $375 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.56x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $5,550 to $11,100 the moderate band is $5,550 wide, close to the $5,000 peer median. End to end that is 19 hours at $295.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $8,300 median works out to roughly $1,844 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,222 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours Minnesota falls to 15th of 51 at 28 hours, 2 places below its 13th on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
34% up the $5,550–$11,100 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 25 hours at $295 against the 28 the local dui / dwi median implies — 3 hours apart.
| Measure | Minnesota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $8,300 | 13th |
| Hourly median | $295 | 18th |
| Implied hours | 28 | 15th |
| Simple median | $3,900 | 14th |
| Complex median | $20,000 | 7th |
$295 an hour puts Minnesota between Illinois ($295) and Oregon ($295) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
Illinois, Oregon record the same $295: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$8,300 buys 35 hours at $240, 28 at $295, 22 at $375.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
| 20 | Texas | $290 |
Minnesota moves up the table as complexity rises: 14th at the simple tier, 13th at moderate, 7th at complex, a 7-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$3,900 is 14th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Maryland ($4,000) and over New Jersey ($3,900), $500 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$20,000 is 7th of 51 once contested, between New York ($20,600) and New Jersey ($19,850), $3,650 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $5,600 against a moderate floor of $5,550 — but there is a clear gap of $650 between the moderate ceiling of $11,100 and the complex floor of $11,750. In Minnesota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Minnesota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,900 | 14th | $3,400 | 16 |
| moderate | $8,300 | 13th | $7,450 | 28 |
| complex | $20,000 | 7th | $16,350 | 53 |
$3,900 drops Minnesota to 14th of 51 on straightforward matters, 1 below its moderate position and $500 (15%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $240: 57% of the moderate tier's 28, over 1-3 months.
Maryland ($4,000) and New Jersey ($3,900) bracket it — a $100 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $3,900 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
$20,000 puts Minnesota 7th of 51 on contested matters, 6 up on its moderate position, and $3,650 (22%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
53 implied hours at $375: 189% of the moderate tier's 28, over 6-12 months.
New York ($20,600) and New Jersey ($19,850) bracket it — a $750 window.
5 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $20,000, denser than the 4 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Virginia | $4,050 |
| 13 | Maryland | $4,000 |
| 14 | Minnesota | $3,900 |
| 15 | New Jersey | $3,900 |
| 16 | Delaware | $3,800 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Colorado | $20,700 |
| 6 | New York | $20,600 |
| 7 | Minnesota | $20,000 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $19,850 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | $19,550 |
$8,300 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Minnesota, under Divorce, over Personal Injury. At 77% of Criminal Defense ($10,750).
The state does not rank uniformly. Minnesota is 11th of 51 for Bankruptcy but 26th for Estate Planning / Probate, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 13th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
Minnesota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 14% above its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 4% below its own midpoint — a 18-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Minnesota is 5.4x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
4 of 7 matter types rank Minnesota in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; dui / dwi is 13th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 76th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,550 | $10,750 | $30,600 | 34 | 20th | +5% | Colorado |
| Divorce | $3,200 | $9,350 | $21,800 | 29 | 21st | +9% | Maine |
| DUI / DWI | $3,900 | $8,300 | $20,000 | 28 | 13th | +11% | Connecticut |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $5,500 | $16,250 | — | — | +6% | — |
| Immigration | $2,200 | $5,400 | $11,050 | 18 | 16th | +14% | Texas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,550 | $4,050 | $5,650 | 15 | 11th | +13% | Washington |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,450 | $4,800 | 9 | 11th | +10% | New Hampshire |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,000 | $6,950 | 7 | 26th | −4% | Ohio |
Simple tier. $3,900 ÷ $240 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,950 a month. The $4,400 step to the moderate tier is 12 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $8,300 to $20,000 is a $11,700 step, mostly work: 25 more hours at $295 is $7,375, while moving to $375 across 53 hours adds $4,240. Work carries 63%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Arizona ($8,250) is $50 light, Connecticut ($8,500) is $200 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $850, 4x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,550 is 19 hours at $295; $11,100 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 Minnesota's own recorded figures, $20,000 buys 5.1 matters at the $3,900 simple median — or, counted in time, 53 implied hours against 16, a factor of 3.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Minnesotacourt'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.