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 Washington, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a dui / dwi in Washington costs on average $9,800, typically $6,550-$13,100 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $240 to $450 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 | $2,450 | $4,300 | $6,100 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $6,550 | $9,800 | $13,100 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $11,250 | $19,100 | $28,100 | 6-12 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$240 – $450/ hour
Median: $330/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
New to how attorney fees work? Read the legal fees guide — hourly, flat, and contingency billing explained.
Researching costs in another area? These free tools from our network may help.
Add this calculator to your own site with a copy-paste snippet — includes an attribution link back to this page.
<iframe
id="legalcostcalc-embed"
src="https://legalcostcalc.co/embed/washington/dui-cost"
title="Washington DUI / DWI Cost Calculator"
width="100%"
height="720"
style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;max-width:768px;"
loading="lazy"
></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px;text-align:center;">
<a href="https://legalcostcalc.co/washington/dui-cost?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=embed_snippet" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">
Powered by LegalCostCalc
</a>
</p>
<script>
window.addEventListener("message", function (event) {
if (!event.data || event.data.type !== "legalcostcalc:embed-resize") return;
var frame = document.getElementById("legalcostcalc-embed");
if (frame && typeof event.data.height === "number") {
frame.style.height = event.data.height + "px";
}
});
</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 Washington. The recorded median total is $9,800, with reported quotes clustering between $6,550 and $13,100. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,200–$3,500, which leaves roughly $6,300–$8,600 of the Washington 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 $9,800, the median dui / dwi cost in Washington runs 32% above the $7,403 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Washington carries 3 rows — simple, $2,450–$6,100 at $180–$360/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $6,550–$13,100 at $240–$450/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $11,250–$28,100 at $300–$540/hr over 6-12 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$9,800 is a median, not the middle of the band — $3,250 above the $6,550 floor, $3,300 under the $13,100 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Washington ranks 1st of 51 tracked states for a dui / dwi, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $7,450 midpoint is $2,350 — 32% — and only 0 states record a higher median.
No tracked state records a higher median dui / dwi figure than Washington; the next row down is Hawaii at $9,700, $100 lower.
Only one other tracked state, Hawaii, records a median within three percent of Washington's $9,800 — a pairing rather than a cluster.
Rate and total sit 1 place apart — 2nd of 51 at $330 an hour against 1st on the dui / dwi total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | $9,800 | — |
| 2 | Hawaii | $9,700 | −$100 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | $9,400 | −$400 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $9,200 | −$600 |
| 5 | Virginia | $8,950 | −$850 |
| 6 | Colorado | $8,900 | −$900 |
| 7 | Delaware | $8,850 | −$950 |
$100 less moves Washington down a row, and only 6 tracked states sit within ten percent of the Washington figure: 0 above it and 6 below. The position is comparatively well separated from its neighbours.
There is nothing above Washington to climb past: $9,800 is the highest dui / dwi median recorded in this dataset.
Five places down means passing under Hawaii, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado: $900.
$0 short of Washington ($9,800), $4,250 clear of South Carolina ($5,550).
The $9,800 median divided by the $330 median rate implies roughly 30 billable hours. The peer median is 27 hours, so 3 more hours of work sit behind the Washington figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex dui / dwi costs 4.4x a simple one in Washington, but the implied workload only rises 2.8x — 16 hours at $270 becomes 45 hours at $420 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.56x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the Washington moderate band is wide: $6,550 to $13,100, a $6,550 range, $1,550 wider than the peer-median band of $5,000. End to end that is 20 hours at $330.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $2,178 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $2,122 a month across the 6-12 months recorded for a complex one.
Ranked by implied hours rather than money, Washington is 3rd of 51 at 30 hours, where cost and rate also put it.
14% up the $6,550–$13,100 band sits the $7,450 table midpoint, buying 23 hours at $330 against the 30 the local dui / dwi median implies — 7 hours apart.
| Measure | Washington | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $9,800 | 1st |
| Hourly median | $330 | 2nd |
| Implied hours | 30 | 3rd |
| Simple median | $4,300 | 5th |
| Complex median | $19,100 | 12th |
$330 an hour puts Washington between Hawaii ($370) and New Jersey ($325) — not the dui / dwi cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $330 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Washington on its own within this dataset.
$9,800 buys 36 hours at $270, 30 at $330, 23 at $420.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $370 |
| 2 | Washington | $330 |
| 3 | New Jersey | $325 |
| 4 | New York | $325 |
Ranked tier by tier, Washington slides 7 places downward: 5th at the simple tier, 1st at moderate, 12th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$4,300 is 5th of 51 on a straightforward dui / dwi, under District of Columbia ($4,300) and over New York ($4,250), $900 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$19,100 is 12th of 51 once contested, between Illinois ($19,400) and Vermont ($18,850), $2,750 off the $16,350 tier midpoint.
$450 separates the simple ceiling of $6,100 from the moderate floor of $6,550, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $11,250 upward. The expensive end of a routine dui / dwi and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Washington.
| Tier | Washington | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $4,300 | 5th | $3,400 | 16 |
| moderate | $9,800 | 1st | $7,450 | 30 |
| complex | $19,100 | 12th | $16,350 | 45 |
$4,300 drops Washington to 5th of 51 on straightforward matters, 4 below its moderate position and $900 (26%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $270: 53% of the moderate tier's 30, over 1-3 months.
District of Columbia ($4,300) and New York ($4,250) bracket it — a $50 window.
6 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $4,300, denser than the 1 around the moderate row.
$19,100 drops Washington to 12th of 51 on contested matters, 11 below its moderate position and $2,750 (17%) over the $16,350 tier midpoint.
45 implied hours at $420: 150% of the moderate tier's 30, over 6-12 months.
Illinois ($19,400) and Vermont ($18,850) bracket it — a $550 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $19,100, denser than the 1 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Connecticut | $4,350 |
| 4 | District of Columbia | $4,300 |
| 5 | Washington | $4,300 |
| 6 | New York | $4,250 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $4,200 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Virginia | $19,500 |
| 11 | Illinois | $19,400 |
| 12 | Washington | $19,100 |
| 13 | Vermont | $18,850 |
| 14 | Arizona | $18,700 |
$9,800 ranks a dui / dwi 3rd of 8 in Washington, under Criminal Defense, over Immigration. At 86% of Divorce ($11,450).
Across practice areas Washington ranges from 1st of 51 for DUI / DWI to 13th for Estate Planning / Probate — a 12-place spread, with its 1st on dui / dwi inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 34% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 6% above its own midpoint — 28 percentage points apart. A single "Washington is expensive" or "Washington is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Washington is 5.2x 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 7 matter types tracked for Washington places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 1st on dui / dwi is not an outlier.
That places the dui / dwi figure in the 100th percentile of the 51 states tracked here.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,800 | $11,450 | $27,500 | 32 | 2nd | +34% | Hawaii |
| Criminal Defense | $4,200 | $11,450 | $33,850 | 32 | 10th | +12% | Vermont |
| DUI / DWI | $4,300 | $9,800 | $19,100 | 30 | 1st | +32% | — |
| Immigration | $2,600 | $6,200 | $14,100 | 19 | 5th | +31% | Vermont |
| Personal Injury | $1,950 | $6,000 | $19,850 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $4,100 | $6,350 | 14 | 10th | +14% | Rhode Island |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,200 | $2,800 | $5,450 | 9 | 3rd | +26% | New York |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $7,400 | 7 | 13th | +6% | Texas |
Simple tier. $4,300 ÷ $270 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $2,150 a month. The $5,500 step to the moderate tier is 14 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $9,800 to $19,100 is a $9,300 step weighted toward price: 15 more hours at $330 is $4,950, but $420 across 45 hours adds $4,050 — 45% of it.
What using the wrong reference figure costs. Washington ends the dui / dwi table, so one side has no row to borrow. The $7,450 midpoint of all 51 tracked states is out by $2,350 against the $9,800 recorded here.
Both ends, in time. $6,550 is 20 hours at $330; $13,100 is 40. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate dui / dwi, that is 4 to 9 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At Washington's own recorded figures, $19,100 buys 4.4 matters at the $4,300 simple median — or, counted in time, 45 implied hours against 16, a factor of 2.8 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Washingtoncourt'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.