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 Utah, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Utah costs on average $7,750, 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 $390 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 | $1,900 | $3,300 | $4,700 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,200 | $7,750 | $10,400 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $10,950 | $18,600 | $27,400 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $390/ hour
Median: $285/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 Utah. The recorded median total is $7,750, 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 $4,250–$6,550 of the Utah 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 $7,750, the median dui / dwi cost in Utah runs 5% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Utah carries 3 rows — simple, $1,900–$4,700 at $155–$315/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,200–$10,400 at $210–$390/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $10,950–$27,400 at $260–$470/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$7,750 is a median, not the middle of the band — $2,550 above the $5,200 floor, $2,650 under the $10,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
At 23rd of 51, Utah sits above the midpoint of the dui / dwi table: $300 more than the $7,450 median state, or 4%, with 22 states recording a higher median.
Texas ($7,800) and Georgia ($7,700) bracket Utah inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 23rd is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Michigan, Oregon, Illinois, Texas among them — record a median within three percent of Utah's $7,750. 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: 22nd of 51 on hourly rate at $285 an hour, 23rd on total cost, 1 place apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Utah |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Massachusetts | $8,050 | +$300 |
| 18 | California | $8,000 | +$250 |
| 19 | Michigan | $7,950 | +$200 |
| 20 | Oregon | $7,950 | +$200 |
| 21 | Illinois | $7,850 | +$100 |
| 22 | Texas | $7,800 | +$50 |
| 23 | Utah | $7,750 | — |
| 24 | Georgia | $7,700 | −$50 |
| 25 | Nevada | $7,450 | −$300 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | $7,450 | −$300 |
| 27 | Wyoming | $7,450 | −$300 |
| 28 | Maine | $7,200 | −$550 |
| 29 | Florida | $7,150 | −$600 |
Within ten percent of the Utah figure there are 11 states above and only 7 below. $50 up or $50 down moves Utah a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the dui / dwi field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing California, Michigan, Oregon, Illinois, Texas and adding $250 to the $7,750 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Maine: $550.
$2,050 short of Washington ($9,800), $2,200 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $7,750 median divided by the $285 median rate implies roughly 27 billable hours. That rounds to the same 27 hours as the peer median, so on workload Utah is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 5.6x a simple one in Utah, but the implied workload only rises 3.6x — 14 hours at $235 becomes 51 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 $285.
Spread across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $7,750 median works out to roughly $1,722 a month. A complex dui / dwi runs longer, at 6-12 months, but it also runs hotter — about $2,067 a month — so the extra cost is not simply the extra calendar time.
Ranked by implied hours rather than money, Utah is 23rd of 51 at 27 hours, where cost and rate also put it.
43% up the $5,200–$10,400 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 26 hours at $285 against the 27 the local dui / dwi median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Utah | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $7,750 | 23rd |
| Hourly median | $285 | 22nd |
| Implied hours | 27 | 23rd |
| Simple median | $3,300 | 29th |
| Complex median | $18,600 | 15th |
$285 an hour puts Utah between Pennsylvania ($285) and Arizona ($280) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
Pennsylvania records the same $285: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$7,750 buys 33 hours at $235, 27 at $285, 21 at $365.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Texas | $290 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | $285 |
| 22 | Utah | $285 |
| 23 | Arizona | $280 |
| 24 | Wisconsin | $280 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Utah runs 29th at the simple tier, 23rd at moderate, 15th at complex of 51 — it climbs 14 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward dui / dwi work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$3,300 is 29th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under Ohio ($3,300) and over Georgia ($3,250), $100 under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$18,600 is 15th of 51 once contested, between Arizona ($18,700) and Maryland ($18,500), $2,250 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
Neither pair of adjacent bands touches: $500 of clear space between the simple and moderate tiers, and $550 between the moderate and complex tiers. Every recorded dui / dwi figure in Utah maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Utah | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,300 | 29th | $3,400 | 14 |
| moderate | $7,750 | 23rd | $7,450 | 27 |
| complex | $18,600 | 15th | $16,350 | 51 |
$3,300 drops Utah to 29th of 51 on straightforward matters, 6 below its moderate position and $100 (3%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
14 implied hours at $235: 52% of the moderate tier's 27, over 1-3 months.
Ohio ($3,300) and Georgia ($3,250) bracket it — a $50 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $3,300 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$18,600 puts Utah 15th of 51 on contested matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $2,250 (14%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
51 implied hours at $365: 189% of the moderate tier's 27, over 6-12 months.
Arizona ($18,700) and Maryland ($18,500) bracket it — a $200 window.
7 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $18,600, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | Arizona | $3,300 |
| 28 | Ohio | $3,300 |
| 29 | Utah | $3,300 |
| 30 | Georgia | $3,250 |
| 31 | Indiana | $3,250 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Vermont | $18,850 |
| 14 | Arizona | $18,700 |
| 15 | Utah | $18,600 |
| 16 | Maryland | $18,500 |
| 17 | Massachusetts | $18,450 |
$7,750 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Utah, under Divorce, over Immigration. At 68% of Criminal Defense ($11,400).
The state does not rank uniformly. Utah is 11th of 51 for Criminal Defense but 28th for Bankruptcy, a 17-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 23rd on dui / dwi says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 18% above its own midpoint, while Bankruptcy runs 7% below its own midpoint — 25 percentage points apart. A single "Utah is expensive" or "Utah is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Utah 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.
3 of 8 matter types rank Utah in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 5 between; dui / dwi is 23rd.
In percentile terms it sits at the 56th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,950 | $11,400 | $30,800 | 36 | 11th | +12% | Washington |
| Divorce | $3,200 | $9,500 | $22,900 | 30 | 19th | +11% | Michigan |
| DUI / DWI | $3,300 | $7,750 | $18,600 | 27 | 23rd | +4% | Texas |
| Immigration | $2,050 | $5,600 | $10,700 | 20 | 14th | +18% | Massachusetts |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $4,950 | $16,700 | — | 18th | −5% | Pennsylvania |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,350 | $5,450 | 13 | 28th | −7% | Maine |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,400 | $5,050 | 9 | 17th | +8% | Delaware |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,100 | $5,750 | 7 | 22nd | +1% | Nevada |
Simple tier. $3,300 ÷ $235 = about 14 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,650 a month. The $4,450 step to the moderate tier is 13 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $7,750 to $18,600 is a $10,850 step, mostly work: 24 more hours at $285 is $6,840, while moving to $365 across 51 hours adds $4,080. Work carries 63%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Georgia ($7,700) is $50 light, Texas ($7,800) is $50 heavy — but the $7,450 table midpoint is out by $300, 6x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,200 is 18 hours at $285; $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 Utah's own recorded figures, $18,600 buys 5.6 matters at the $3,300 simple median — or, counted in time, 51 implied hours against 14, a factor of 3.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Utahcourt'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.