One flat fee. Agreed in writing. Before we start.
Most people calling a DWI lawyer have no idea what it will cost, and nobody will tell them. We quote your fee at the end of a free consultation, put it in writing, and it does not move because your case took more work than expected.
The clock runs from the date on your Notice of Suspension, not your court date. Miss it and, in the Department of Revenue’s own words, the hearing is denied and no further appeal is possible.
What to do in the next 15 daysPhotograph does not depict an actual client or case.
Text an attorney directly. Not an intake desk.
Direct numbers receive text messages only. Calls are answered on the main line at (314) 949-1515. Text is not a secure or confidential channel — send your name and a callback time, not case details.
The billable hour is the problem, not the price
When a lawyer bills hourly, every phone call you make costs you money, and the incentive runs backwards: the longer your case drags, the more the firm earns. A flat fee removes that. Call as often as you need to.
No trial tax
Some firms quote one price to plead your case out and a much larger one if you actually want a trial. That pricing quietly pushes people toward pleading guilty. Our fee for taking the case to trial is set at the start, so the decision is yours on the merits, not on the invoice.
The meter is not running
You are not charged for a phone call, an email, or a question you were nervous about asking. People with hourly lawyers stop calling. Then they miss things.
You know before you commit
You get the number at the end of your free consultation, in writing, alongside a plain list of what it does and does not cover. Then you decide.
Four things set your flat fee
We do not publish a single price because a first-offense municipal case and a felony DWI in circuit court are not the same job. These are the factors that actually move it.
Where it is charged
A city ordinance case in municipal court and a state charge in circuit court run on different tracks, with different exposure and different work. See the courts we appear in.
Prior offenses
Missouri counts prior intoxication-related offenses — including municipal ones — to raise a charge from a misdemeanor to a felony. See the ladder.
Test or refusal
A refusal case adds a separate one-year revocation and a separate court petition. How refusal cases work.
Accident or injury
Property damage, injury, a child in the car, or a CDL each change both the charge and the license consequences.
A former DWI prosecutor and a former public defender.
Chris LaPée served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney before returning to defense, then focused his practice on DWI defense at a dedicated DWI firm. He knows how the State builds these cases because he used to build them. His background →
Andy Morris spent years as a public defender, carrying the caseload most lawyers never see. He co-founded L&M Law Group in 2024 so the quality of someone’s defense would stop depending on what they could afford. His background →
Photograph does not depict an actual client or case.
Missouri DWI law changed on August 28, 2026
House Bill 1740 was signed on July 9, 2026 and took effect on August 28. It rewrites the DWI statute so that every injury and death tier moves up a full felony class, makes ignition interlock mandatory on first-offense restricted driving privileges, and creates a new child-maintenance obligation known as Bentley and Mason’s Law. If your offense date falls near that line, which version applies to you matters a great deal.
Answers people usually want first
How much does a DWI lawyer cost in St. Louis?
It depends on what you are charged with and where. The honest version is that a first-offense municipal case with a clean breath test and a felony DWI in circuit court are different amounts of work, and any firm quoting one number for both is either overcharging one client or underserving the other. We quote your exact figure at the end of a free consultation and put it in writing before you decide. The bigger number is usually not the lawyer — it is SATOP, interlock, reinstatement and insurance.
What happens in the first 15 days after a DWI arrest?
Two separate things are already running. Your criminal case is one. The Department of Revenue action against your license is the other, and it moves faster. You have 15 days from the date your Notice of Suspension (Form 2385) is issued to request an administrative hearing, and if you miss it the Department says the hearing will be denied with no further appeal. Here is what that process looks like.
Is a first-offense DWI in Missouri a felony?
No. A baseline first offense is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. It becomes a class A misdemeanor if you have one prior intoxication-related offense within five years, or if a person under 17 was in the vehicle. Felony exposure starts at persistent offender status — two or more prior offenses, with no lookback limit — or where an accident caused injury. The full ladder is here.
Does the flat fee include trial?
That is set out explicitly in your engagement agreement before you sign, rather than being discovered later. We tell you at the consultation which stages your quoted fee covers and what a later stage would add, so there is no moment where exercising your trial right suddenly costs more than you planned for. See the full included and not-included list.
I blew over the limit. Is there anything to defend?
Frequently, yes, though nobody can promise an outcome. A breath result is only as good as the stop that produced it, the officer’s permit, the maintenance record on the instrument, and whether the testing procedure followed the methods Missouri requires. Missouri also puts real conditions on refusal cases — you are entitled to 20 minutes to try to reach an attorney, and the Missouri Supreme Court held in 2019 that consultation has to actually be private. Those are the kinds of things a former DWI prosecutor looks for first.
Get your flat fee before you decide anything else.
A free, confidential consultation with Andy or Chris. You will leave knowing what you are charged with, what your license deadline is, and exactly what our fee would be to handle it.
Free · Confidential · No obligation