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 New Hampshire, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in New Hampshire costs on average $8,600, typically $5,750-$11,500 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $235 to $440 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 | $2,400 | $4,200 | $6,000 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,750 | $8,600 | $11,500 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $11,500 | $19,550 | $28,800 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$235 – $440/ hour
Median: $320/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 New Hampshire. The recorded median total is $8,600, with reported quotes clustering between $5,750 and $11,500. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $5,100–$7,400 of the New Hampshire 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 $8,600, the median dui / dwi cost in New Hampshire runs 16% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
New Hampshire carries 3 rows — simple, $2,400–$6,000 at $175–$350/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,750–$11,500 at $235–$440/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $11,500–$28,800 at $290–$525/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$8,600 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,850 above the $5,750 floor, $2,900 under the $11,500 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
New Hampshire ranks 11th of 51 tracked states for a dui / dwi, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $7,450 midpoint is $1,150 — 15% — and only 10 states record a higher median.
District of Columbia ($8,650) and Connecticut ($8,500) bracket New Hampshire inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 11th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Delaware, Alaska, New York, District of Columbia among them — record a median within three percent of New Hampshire's $8,600. 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.
New Hampshire ranks 7th of 51 on hourly rate at $320 an hour and 11th on total cost — 4 places apart, enough that the rate is a slightly optimistic guide to the total.
| Rank | State | Median | Against New Hampshire |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Virginia | $8,950 | +$350 |
| 6 | Colorado | $8,900 | +$300 |
| 7 | Delaware | $8,850 | +$250 |
| 8 | Alaska | $8,800 | +$200 |
| 9 | New York | $8,800 | +$200 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | $8,650 | +$50 |
| 11 | New Hampshire | $8,600 | — |
| 12 | Connecticut | $8,500 | −$100 |
| 13 | Minnesota | $8,300 | −$300 |
| 14 | Arizona | $8,250 | −$350 |
| 15 | Maryland | $8,250 | −$350 |
| 16 | Vermont | $8,150 | −$450 |
| 17 | Massachusetts | $8,050 | −$550 |
The 11th position is not a stable fact about New Hampshire: $50 up or $100 down moves New Hampshire a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 20 rows, 8 above and 12 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Colorado, Delaware, Alaska, New York, District of Columbia and adding $300 to the $8,600 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Connecticut, Minnesota, Arizona, Maryland, Vermont: $450.
$1,200 short of Washington ($9,800), $3,050 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $8,600 median divided by the $320 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire, but the implied workload only rises 3x — 16 hours at $265 becomes 48 hours at $410 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $5,750 to $11,500 the moderate band is $5,750 wide, close to the $5,000 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $320.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $8,600 median works out to roughly $1,911 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,172 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours New Hampshire falls to 33rd of 51 at 27 hours, 22 places below its 11th on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
30% up the $5,750–$11,500 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 23 hours at $320 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 4 hours apart.
| Measure | New Hampshire | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $8,600 | 11th |
| Hourly median | $320 | 7th |
| Implied hours | 27 | 33rd |
| Simple median | $4,200 | 7th |
| Complex median | $19,550 | 9th |
$320 an hour puts New Hampshire between Connecticut ($320) and Rhode Island ($320) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
California, Connecticut, Rhode Island record the same $320: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$8,600 buys 32 hours at $265, 27 at $320, 21 at $410.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | California | $320 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $320 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $320 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $320 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | $315 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 7th at the simple tier, 11th at moderate, 9th at complex of 51 — so New Hampshire keeps roughly the same relative position whether the dui / dwi is straightforward or contested.
$4,200 is 7th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under New York ($4,250) and over Colorado ($4,150), $800 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$19,550 is 9th of 51 once contested, between New Jersey ($19,850) and Virginia ($19,500), $3,200 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in New Hampshire: the simple tier reaches $6,000 where the moderate tier starts at $5,750, and the moderate tier reaches $11,500 where the complex tier starts at $11,500. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | New Hampshire | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $4,200 | 7th | $3,400 | 16 |
| moderate | $8,600 | 11th | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $19,550 | 9th | $16,350 | 48 |
$4,200 puts New Hampshire 7th of 51 on straightforward matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $800 (24%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $265: 59% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
New York ($4,250) and Colorado ($4,150) bracket it — a $100 window.
6 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $4,200, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
$19,550 puts New Hampshire 9th of 51 on contested matters, 2 up on its moderate position, and $3,200 (20%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
48 implied hours at $410: 178% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
New Jersey ($19,850) and Virginia ($19,500) bracket it — a $350 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $19,550 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Washington | $4,300 |
| 6 | New York | $4,250 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $4,200 |
| 8 | Colorado | $4,150 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | $4,150 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Minnesota | $20,000 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $19,850 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | $19,550 |
| 10 | Virginia | $19,500 |
| 11 | Illinois | $19,400 |
$8,600 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in New Hampshire, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 69% of Criminal Defense ($12,450).
Across practice areas New Hampshire ranges from 2nd of 51 for Estate Planning / Probate to 12th for Bankruptcy — a 10-place spread, with its 11th on dui / dwi inside it.
New Hampshire is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 29% above its own midpoint while Real Estate Closing runs 12% above its own midpoint — a 17-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in New Hampshire is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
Every one of the 8 matter types tracked for New Hampshire places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 11th on dui / dwi is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 80th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,900 | $12,450 | $32,250 | 36 | 3rd | +22% | Rhode Island |
| Divorce | $3,800 | $10,350 | $27,400 | 30 | 10th | +21% | Colorado |
| DUI / DWI | $4,200 | $8,600 | $19,550 | 27 | 11th | +15% | District of Columbia |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,150 | $13,300 | 19 | 6th | +29% | Washington |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,900 | $17,650 | — | 4th | +13% | Illinois |
| Bankruptcy | $1,600 | $4,050 | $5,550 | 14 | 12th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,550 | $7,550 | 8 | 2nd | +23% | Hawaii |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,500 | $5,750 | 9 | 10th | +12% | District of Columbia |
Simple tier. $4,200 ÷ $265 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $2,100 a month. The $4,400 step to the moderate tier is 11 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $8,600 to $19,550 is a $10,950 step, mostly work: 21 more hours at $320 is $6,720, while moving to $410 across 48 hours adds $4,320. Work carries 61%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Connecticut ($8,500) is $100 light, District of Columbia ($8,650) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,150, 12x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,750 is 18 hours at $320; $11,500 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 New Hampshire's own recorded figures, $19,550 buys 4.7 matters at the $4,200 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 New Hampshirecourt'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.