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 Texas, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Texas costs on average $7,800, typically $5,200-$10,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $210 to $395 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 | $1,950 | $3,400 | $4,900 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,200 | $7,800 | $10,400 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $9,750 | $16,600 | $24,400 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $395/ hour
Median: $290/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 Texas. The recorded median total is $7,800, with reported quotes clustering between $5,200 and $10,400. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $4,300–$6,600 of the Texas 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 $7,800, the median dui / dwi cost in Texas runs 5% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Texas carries 3 rows — simple, $1,950–$4,900 at $155–$315/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,200–$10,400 at $210–$395/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $9,750–$24,400 at $260–$470/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$7,800 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,600 above the $5,200 floor, $2,600 under the $10,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
At 22nd of 51, Texas sits above the midpoint of the dui / dwi table: $350 more than the $7,450 median state, or 5%, with 21 states recording a higher median.
Illinois ($7,850) and Utah ($7,750) bracket Texas inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 22nd is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — California, Michigan, Oregon, Illinois among them — record a median within three percent of Texas's $7,800. 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.
The two measures nearly agree: 20th of 51 on hourly rate at $290 an hour, 22nd on total cost, 2 places apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Texas |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Vermont | $8,150 | +$350 |
| 17 | Massachusetts | $8,050 | +$250 |
| 18 | California | $8,000 | +$200 |
| 19 | Michigan | $7,950 | +$150 |
| 20 | Oregon | $7,950 | +$150 |
| 21 | Illinois | $7,850 | +$50 |
| 22 | Texas | $7,800 | — |
| 23 | Utah | $7,750 | −$50 |
| 24 | Georgia | $7,700 | −$100 |
| 25 | Nevada | $7,450 | −$350 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | $7,450 | −$350 |
| 27 | Wyoming | $7,450 | −$350 |
| 28 | Maine | $7,200 | −$600 |
The 22nd position is not a stable fact about Texas: $50 up or $50 down moves Texas a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 18 rows, 10 above and 8 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Massachusetts, California, Michigan, Oregon, Illinois and adding $250 to the $7,800 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Utah, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Wyoming: $350.
$2,000 short of Washington ($9,800), $2,250 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $7,800 median divided by the $290 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload Texas is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 4.9x a simple one in Texas, but the implied workload only rises 3.2x — 14 hours at $235 becomes 45 hours at $365 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $5,200 to $10,400 the moderate band is $5,200 wide, close to the $5,000 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $290.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $1,733 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $1,844 a month across the 6-12 months recorded for a complex one.
By implied hours Texas falls to 32nd of 51 at 27 hours, 10 places below its 22nd on cost — the dui / dwi total arriving on less recorded work.
43% up the $5,200–$10,400 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 26 hours at $290 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Texas | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $7,800 | 22nd |
| Hourly median | $290 | 20th |
| Implied hours | 27 | 32nd |
| Simple median | $3,400 | 26th |
| Complex median | $16,600 | 25th |
$290 an hour puts Texas between Oregon ($295) and Pennsylvania ($285) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $290 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Texas on its own within this dataset.
$7,800 buys 33 hours at $235, 27 at $290, 21 at $365.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
| 20 | Texas | $290 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | $285 |
| 22 | Utah | $285 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 26th at the simple tier, 22nd at moderate, 25th at complex of 51 — so Texas keeps roughly the same relative position whether the dui / dwi is straightforward or contested.
$3,400 is 26th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Wisconsin ($3,450) and over Arizona ($3,300), $0 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$16,600 is 25th of 51 once contested, between Ohio ($16,700) and Tennessee ($16,350), $250 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
$300 separates the simple ceiling of $4,900 from the moderate floor of $5,200, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $9,750 upward. The expensive end of a routine dui / dwi and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Texas.
| Tier | Texas | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,400 | 26th | $3,400 | 14 |
| moderate | $7,800 | 22nd | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $16,600 | 25th | $16,350 | 45 |
$3,400 drops Texas to 26th of 51 on straightforward matters, 4 below its moderate position and $0 (0%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
14 implied hours at $235: 52% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
Wisconsin ($3,450) and Arizona ($3,300) bracket it — a $150 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $3,400 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
$16,600 drops Texas to 25th of 51 on contested matters, 3 below its moderate position and $250 (2%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
45 implied hours at $365: 167% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
Ohio ($16,700) and Tennessee ($16,350) bracket it — a $350 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $16,600 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Nevada | $3,500 |
| 25 | Wisconsin | $3,450 |
| 26 | Texas | $3,400 |
| 27 | Arizona | $3,300 |
| 28 | Ohio | $3,300 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Georgia | $17,000 |
| 24 | Ohio | $16,700 |
| 25 | Texas | $16,600 |
| 26 | Tennessee | $16,350 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | $16,050 |
$7,800 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Texas, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 71% of Criminal Defense ($10,950).
Across practice areas Texas ranges from 12th of 51 for Estate Planning / Probate to 24th for Real Estate Closing — a 12-place spread, with its 22nd on dui / dwi inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 17% above its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 9% below its own midpoint — 26 percentage points apart. A single "Texas is expensive" or "Texas is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Texas is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
4 of 8 matter types rank Texas in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 4 between; dui / dwi is 22nd.
In percentile terms it sits at the 58th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,700 | $10,950 | $32,250 | 35 | 16th | +7% | Arizona |
| Divorce | $3,000 | $8,900 | $25,250 | 28 | 24th | +4% | Nevada |
| DUI / DWI | $3,400 | $7,800 | $16,600 | 27 | 22nd | +5% | Illinois |
| Immigration | $1,900 | $5,550 | $10,850 | 19 | 15th | +17% | Utah |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $4,750 | $14,950 | — | 21st | −9% | Iowa |
| Bankruptcy | $1,500 | $3,950 | $4,800 | 15 | 13th | +10% | New Hampshire |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,050 | $2,200 | $4,700 | 8 | 24th | −1% | Illinois |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $6,500 | 8 | 12th | +6% | Illinois |
Simple tier. $3,400 ÷ $235 = about 14 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,700 a month. The $4,400 step to the moderate tier is 13 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $7,800 to $16,600 is a $8,800 step, mostly work: 18 more hours at $290 is $5,220, while moving to $365 across 45 hours adds $3,375. Work carries 61%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Utah ($7,750) is $50 light, Illinois ($7,850) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $350, 7x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,200 is 18 hours at $290; $10,400 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 Texas's own recorded figures, $16,600 buys 4.9 matters at the $3,400 simple median — or, counted in time, 45 implied hours against 14, a factor of 3.2 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Texascourt'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.