The figure people repeat to each other is the fine, because it is the one printed in the statute and the one a judge says out loud in open court. It is also, for most people, the smallest of the recurring costs and the one that ends soonest. A careful reader working out what a conviction will do to a household budget has to look past the sentencing hearing entirely, at obligations that begin the week after and continue past the point where everyone has stopped talking about the case. Five years is roughly the horizon.
What the judgment says against what leaves the account
A criminal judgment in a Washington district or municipal court sets out a base fine, then a column of assessments that attach to it: victim penalty assessments, court costs, probation supervision fees charged monthly rather than once, and in many jurisdictions a separate fee for each condition the court imposes. Those figures are set by county and city schedules that change, so the number to check is the current schedule for the specific court, not a statewide average. Payment plans are usually available, and the practical question a reader should ask at arraignment is what the monthly obligation totals, not what the judgment totals.
Custody, monitoring, and the cost of not being at work
Mandatory minimum confinement under RCW 46.61.5055 can often be converted to electronic home monitoring, which is the outcome most people want and also the one that carries a daily charge paid by the person being monitored. That charge runs for every day of the term, including weekends, and is billed by the private monitoring agency rather than the court. Alongside it sits lost wages, which nobody puts in the judgment: days in custody, days at assessment appointments, days at treatment. A reader comparing options should price the monitoring day rate against the shift hours the alternative would cost, because the two rarely match.
Assessment and treatment billed by the hour, not by the case
A court-ordered alcohol and drug assessment at a state-approved agency produces a recommendation, and the recommendation drives everything downstream. One outcome is a short alcohol information school. Another is outpatient treatment measured in months, with group sessions weekly at first and then tapering, plus periodic urinalysis and a progress report the agency files with the court. Some insurance plans cover part of this and many do not cover the reporting and administrative fees at all. The number worth asking the agency for at intake is the total program cost including monitoring reports, since that is the figure that repeats for a year or more.
The interlock and the filing that quietly outlast the sentence
An ignition interlock device is rented, not bought, and the rental continues for the full required period on the license, which is measured in months for a first offense and considerably longer after a second. On top of the monthly rent sit installation, removal, and calibration visits at regular intervals, each with its own fee, plus a state administrative fee attached to the interlock license. Separately, reinstatement requires proof of financial responsibility filed by the insurer, the SR-22, and the filing itself is cheap while the premium behind it is not. High-risk rates persist for years, and comparing carriers before reinstatement is one of the few places in this process where shopping around genuinely moves the number.
The years the record is visible, and what shortens them
A conviction for driving under the influence is a prior for sentencing purposes for a long window, it appears on the driving abstract employers and insurers pull, and under current Washington law it is not eligible for vacation in the way many misdemeanors are. That visibility is the cost with no invoice: jobs requiring a clean abstract, commercial driving disqualification, rental car policies, and background checks run by licensing boards. It is also the strongest argument for looking hard at resolutions that avoid a conviction entry in the first place, since that decision is made early and cannot be revisited later. Impaired driving countermeasures are overseen federally by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the state programs follow that framework closely.
Put the recurring items in one column with a monthly figure beside each, add the months, and the total tends to be several times the fine. That arithmetic is worth doing before the first hearing rather than after, because most of the choices that change it are available only at the beginning.