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 North Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in North Dakota costs on average $5,800, typically $3,850-$7,700 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $170 to $315 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 | $1,650 | $2,900 | $4,200 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $3,850 | $5,800 | $7,700 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $8,950 | $15,250 | $22,400 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$170 – $315/ hour
Median: $230/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 North Dakota. The recorded median total is $5,800, with reported quotes clustering between $3,850 and $7,700. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $2,300–$4,600 of the North Dakota 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 $5,800, the median dui / dwi cost in North Dakota runs 22% below the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
North Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $1,650–$4,200 at $125–$250/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $3,850–$7,700 at $170–$315/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $8,950–$22,400 at $210–$375/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$5,800 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,950 above the $3,850 floor, $1,900 under the $7,700 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Sorted by median cost, North Dakota is 45th of 51 for a dui / dwi, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $1,650 and 22% below the $7,450 midpoint, with 6 states recording a lower median still.
Alabama ($5,950) and Kansas ($5,750) bracket North Dakota inside a $200 window — narrow enough that 45th is close to arbitrary.
Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana record medians within three percent of North Dakota's $5,800. A dui / dwi quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
North Dakota ranks 42nd of 51 on hourly rate at $230 an hour and 45th on total cost — 3 places apart, enough that the rate is a slightly optimistic guide to the total.
| Rank | State | Median | Against North Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | Iowa | $6,300 | +$500 |
| 40 | Nebraska | $6,250 | +$450 |
| 41 | Mississippi | $6,200 | +$400 |
| 42 | West Virginia | $6,200 | +$400 |
| 43 | South Dakota | $6,000 | +$200 |
| 44 | Alabama | $5,950 | +$150 |
| 45 | North Dakota | $5,800 | — |
| 46 | Kansas | $5,750 | −$50 |
| 47 | Louisiana | $5,700 | −$100 |
| 48 | Arkansas | $5,600 | −$200 |
| 49 | Kentucky | $5,600 | −$200 |
| 50 | Oklahoma | $5,550 | −$250 |
| 51 | South Carolina | $5,550 | −$250 |
The 45th position is not a stable fact about North Dakota: $150 up or $50 down moves North Dakota a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 14 rows, 8 above and 6 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Nebraska, Mississippi, West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama and adding $450 to the $5,800 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma: $250.
$4,000 short of Washington ($9,800), $250 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $5,800 median divided by the $230 median rate implies roughly 25 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours: North Dakota reaches its total in 2 fewer implied hours, because the rate rather than the workload carries more of it.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.3x a simple one in North Dakota, but the implied workload only rises 3.5x — 15 hours at $190 becomes 52 hours at $295 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
The North Dakota moderate band spans $3,850 to $7,700 — $3,850 — which is $1,150 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 17 hours at $230.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $5,800 median works out to roughly $1,289 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $1,694 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
By implied hours North Dakota falls to 48th of 51 at 25 hours, 3 places below its 45th on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
94% up the $3,850–$7,700 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 32 hours at $230 against the 25 the local dui / dwi median implies — 7 hours apart.
| Measure | North Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $5,800 | 45th |
| Hourly median | $230 | 42nd |
| Implied hours | 25 | 48th |
| Simple median | $2,900 | 41st |
| Complex median | $15,250 | 34th |
$230 an hour puts North Dakota between North Carolina ($230) and West Virginia ($230) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
5 other states record exactly $230 — Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this dui / dwi table.
$5,800 buys 31 hours at $190, 25 at $230, 20 at $295.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Nebraska | $230 |
| 41 | North Carolina | $230 |
| 42 | North Dakota | $230 |
| 43 | West Virginia | $230 |
| 44 | New Mexico | $220 |
North Dakota moves up the table as complexity rises: 41st at the simple tier, 45th at moderate, 34th at complex, a 7-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$2,900 is 41st of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under West Virginia ($2,950) and over Alabama ($2,800), $500 under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$15,250 is 34th of 51 once contested, between North Carolina ($15,250) and Florida ($14,950), $1,100 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $4,200 against a moderate floor of $3,850 — but there is a clear gap of $1,250 between the moderate ceiling of $7,700 and the complex floor of $8,950. In North Dakota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | North Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,900 | 41st | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $5,800 | 45th | $7,450 | 25 |
| complex | $15,250 | 34th | $16,350 | 52 |
$2,900 puts North Dakota 41st of 51 on straightforward matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $500 (15%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $190: 60% of the moderate tier's 25, over 1-3 months.
West Virginia ($2,950) and Alabama ($2,800) bracket it — a $150 window.
2 states sit within three percent of the $2,900 here, against 3 at the moderate row.
$15,250 puts North Dakota 34th of 51 on contested matters, 11 up on its moderate position, and $1,100 (7%) under the $16,350 tier midpoint.
52 implied hours at $295: 208% of the moderate tier's 25, over 6-12 months.
North Carolina ($15,250) and Florida ($14,950) bracket it — a $300 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $15,250, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | South Dakota | $2,950 |
| 40 | West Virginia | $2,950 |
| 41 | North Dakota | $2,900 |
| 42 | Alabama | $2,800 |
| 43 | Kansas | $2,800 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | Michigan | $15,250 |
| 33 | North Carolina | $15,250 |
| 34 | North Dakota | $15,250 |
| 35 | Florida | $14,950 |
| 36 | Kansas | $14,900 |
$5,800 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in North Dakota, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 68% of Criminal Defense ($8,550).
The state does not rank uniformly. North Dakota is 24th of 51 for Personal Injury but 45th for DUI / DWI, a 21-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 45th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
North Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 8% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 23% below its own midpoint — a 15-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in North Dakota is 5.3x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
0 of 8 matter types rank North Dakota in the upper third, 5 in the lower, 3 between; dui / dwi is 45th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 12th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,550 | $24,250 | 34 | 39th | −16% | Montana |
| Divorce | $2,600 | $7,200 | $17,750 | 29 | 44th | −16% | Oklahoma |
| DUI / DWI | $2,900 | $5,800 | $15,250 | 25 | 45th | −22% | Alabama |
| Immigration | $1,650 | $4,350 | $8,900 | 19 | 34th | −8% | Florida |
| Personal Injury | $1,350 | $4,050 | $12,100 | — | 24th | −22% | Kansas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,200 | $3,100 | $4,300 | 15 | 35th | −14% | Indiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $750 | $1,950 | $3,850 | 9 | 31st | −12% | Montana |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $550 | $1,600 | $5,200 | 7 | 40th | −23% | Louisiana |
Simple tier. $2,900 ÷ $190 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,450 a month. The $2,900 step to the moderate tier is 10 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $5,800 to $15,250 is a $9,450 step, mostly work: 27 more hours at $230 is $6,210, while moving to $295 across 52 hours adds $3,380. Work carries 65%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Kansas ($5,750) is $50 light, Alabama ($5,950) is $150 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $1,650, 11x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $3,850 is 17 hours at $230; $7,700 is 33. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate dui / dwi, that is 4 to 7 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At North Dakota's own recorded figures, $15,250 buys 5.3 matters at the $2,900 simple median — or, counted in time, 52 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 North Dakotacourt'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.