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 Tennessee, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Tennessee costs on average $6,550, typically $4,350-$8,700 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $175 to $335 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 | $1,700 | $3,000 | $4,300 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $4,350 | $6,550 | $8,700 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $9,600 | $16,350 | $24,100 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$175 – $335/ hour
Median: $245/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 Tennessee. The recorded median total is $6,550, with reported quotes clustering between $4,350 and $8,700. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $3,050–$5,350 of the Tennessee 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 $6,550, the median dui / dwi cost in Tennessee runs 12% below the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Tennessee carries 3 rows — simple, $1,700–$4,300 at $135–$265/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $4,350–$8,700 at $175–$335/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $9,600–$24,100 at $220–$400/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it below the midpoint of the table without reaching the bottom quarter.
$6,550 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,200 above the $4,350 floor, $2,150 under the $8,700 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Tennessee occupies the 35th row of 51 for a dui / dwi. Its $6,550 median trails the $7,450 table midpoint by $900, which is 12% — close enough that a single firm's quote can straddle both figures.
In the dui / dwi table Tennessee falls between North Carolina at $6,400 and Indiana at $6,800, $150 above the first and $250 below the second.
Only one other tracked state, North Carolina, records a median within three percent of Tennessee's $6,550 — a pairing rather than a cluster.
Rate and total sit 2 places apart — 37th of 51 at $245 an hour against 35th on the dui / dwi total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Tennessee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | Florida | $7,150 | +$600 |
| 30 | Montana | $7,150 | +$600 |
| 31 | Pennsylvania | $6,950 | +$400 |
| 32 | Idaho | $6,850 | +$300 |
| 33 | Ohio | $6,850 | +$300 |
| 34 | Indiana | $6,800 | +$250 |
| 35 | Tennessee | $6,550 | — |
| 36 | North Carolina | $6,400 | −$150 |
| 37 | Missouri | $6,350 | −$200 |
| 38 | New Mexico | $6,350 | −$200 |
| 39 | Iowa | $6,300 | −$250 |
| 40 | Nebraska | $6,250 | −$300 |
| 41 | Mississippi | $6,200 | −$350 |
The 35th position is not a stable fact about Tennessee: $250 up or $150 down moves Tennessee a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 16 rows, 7 above and 9 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Montana, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Ohio, Indiana and adding $600 to the $6,550 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under North Carolina, Missouri, New Mexico, Iowa, Nebraska: $300.
$3,250 short of Washington ($9,800), $1,000 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $6,550 median divided by the $245 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload Tennessee is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.5x a simple one in Tennessee, but the implied workload only rises 3.5x — 15 hours at $200 becomes 53 hours at $310 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $4,350 to $8,700 the moderate band is $4,350 wide, close to the $5,000 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $245.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $6,550 median works out to roughly $1,456 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $1,817 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
Ranked by implied hours rather than money, Tennessee is 35th of 51 at 27 hours, where cost and rate also put it.
71% up the $4,350–$8,700 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 30 hours at $245 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 3 hours apart.
| Measure | Tennessee | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $6,550 | 35th |
| Hourly median | $245 | 37th |
| Implied hours | 27 | 35th |
| Simple median | $3,000 | 38th |
| Complex median | $16,350 | 26th |
$245 an hour puts Tennessee between Montana ($245) and Kansas ($230) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
5 other states record exactly $245 — Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this dui / dwi table.
$6,550 buys 33 hours at $200, 27 at $245, 21 at $310.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Missouri | $245 |
| 36 | Montana | $245 |
| 37 | Tennessee | $245 |
| 38 | Kansas | $230 |
| 39 | Mississippi | $230 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Tennessee runs 38th at the simple tier, 35th at moderate, 26th at complex of 51 — it climbs 12 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward dui / dwi work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$3,000 is 38th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Missouri ($3,050) and over South Dakota ($2,950), $400 under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$16,350 is 26th of 51 once contested, between Texas ($16,600) and Pennsylvania ($16,050), $0 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 Tennessee maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Tennessee | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,000 | 38th | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $6,550 | 35th | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $16,350 | 26th | $16,350 | 53 |
$3,000 drops Tennessee to 38th of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 below its moderate position and $400 (12%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $200: 56% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
Missouri ($3,050) and South Dakota ($2,950) bracket it — a $100 window.
4 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $3,000, denser than the 1 around the moderate row.
$16,350 puts Tennessee 26th of 51 on contested matters, 9 up on its moderate position, and $0 (0%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
53 implied hours at $310: 196% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
Texas ($16,600) and Pennsylvania ($16,050) bracket it — a $550 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $16,350, denser than the 1 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | Iowa | $3,050 |
| 37 | Missouri | $3,050 |
| 38 | Tennessee | $3,000 |
| 39 | South Dakota | $2,950 |
| 40 | West Virginia | $2,950 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Ohio | $16,700 |
| 25 | Texas | $16,600 |
| 26 | Tennessee | $16,350 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | $16,050 |
| 28 | Indiana | $16,000 |
$6,550 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Tennessee, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 77% of Criminal Defense ($8,500).
The state does not rank uniformly. Tennessee is 25th of 51 for Personal Injury but 41st for Divorce, a 16-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 35th on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 1% below its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 22% below its own midpoint — 21 percentage points apart. A single "Tennessee is expensive" or "Tennessee is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The practice areas sit unusually close together in Tennessee — the largest tracked median is 4.6x the smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state — so one figure travels further across matter types here than it would elsewhere.
0 of 8 matter types rank Tennessee in the upper third, 4 in the lower, 4 between; dui / dwi is 35th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 32th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,500 | $26,900 | 32 | 40th | −17% | North Dakota |
| Divorce | $2,800 | $7,400 | $18,550 | 28 | 41st | −13% | Indiana |
| DUI / DWI | $3,000 | $6,550 | $16,350 | 27 | 35th | −12% | Indiana |
| Immigration | $1,600 | $4,700 | $10,650 | 19 | 26th | −1% | Michigan |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $4,050 | $12,500 | — | 25th | −22% | North Dakota |
| Bankruptcy | $1,250 | $2,950 | $4,100 | 13 | 38th | −18% | Wyoming |
| Real Estate Closing | $900 | $2,100 | $4,150 | 10 | 27th | −6% | Wyoming |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $500 | $1,850 | $5,400 | 8 | 33rd | −11% | Michigan |
Simple tier. $3,000 ÷ $200 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,500 a month. The $3,550 step to the moderate tier is 12 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $6,550 to $16,350 is a $9,800 step, mostly work: 26 more hours at $245 is $6,370, while moving to $310 across 53 hours adds $3,445. Work carries 65%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from North Carolina ($6,400) lands $150 under Tennessee; from Indiana ($6,800), $250 over; from the $7,450 table midpoint, $900 out.
Both ends, in time. $4,350 is 18 hours at $245; $8,700 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 Tennessee's own recorded figures, $16,350 buys 5.5 matters at the $3,000 simple median — or, counted in time, 53 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 Tennesseecourt'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.