How Much Does a Bankruptcy Cost in Alaska?

Alaska carries 3 rows — simple, $1,050–$2,600 at $170–$310/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,650–$5,300 at $200–$370/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,400–$9,000 at $225–$450/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.

$3,700 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,050 above the $2,650 floor, $1,600 under the $5,300 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.

At 20th of 47, Alaska sits above the midpoint of the bankruptcy table: $100 more than the $3,600 median state, or 3%, with 19 states recording a higher median.

Pennsylvania ($3,800) and Colorado ($3,700) bracket Alaska inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 20th is close to arbitrary.

8 tracked states — Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania among them — record a median within three percent of Alaska's $3,700. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.

The two rankings disagree sharply. Alaska attorneys sit 12th of 47 on hourly rate at $285 an hour, but the state is only 20th on total bankruptcy cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.

The 20th position is not a stable fact about Alaska: $100 up or $0 down moves Alaska a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 16 rows, 9 above and 7 below in near-equal numbers.

Climbing five places would mean passing Wisconsin, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and adding $200 to the $3,700 recorded here.

Five places down means passing under Colorado, Delaware, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon: $150.

$700 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,350 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).

At $285 an hour, the $3,700 median represents about 13 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 14 hours: Alaska reaches its total in 1 fewer implied hours, because the rate rather than the workload carries more of it.

The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.6x a simple one in Alaska, but the implied workload only rises 2.4x — 7 hours at $225 becomes 17 hours at $340 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.51x carries an unusually large share of the increase.

From $2,650 to $5,300 the moderate band is $2,650 wide, close to the $2,550 peer median. End to end that is 9 hours at $285.

By implied hours Alaska falls to 40th of 47 at 13 hours, 20 places below its 20th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.

36% up the $2,650–$5,300 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 13 hours at $285 against the 13 the local bankruptcy median implies — 0 hours apart.

$285 an hour puts Alaska between Rhode Island ($290) and Delaware ($285) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.

Delaware, Vermont, Virginia record the same $285: rate cannot separate them, totals do.

$3,700 buys 16 hours at $225, 13 at $285, 11 at $340.

Alaska moves up the table as complexity rises: 19th at the simple tier, 20th at moderate, 12th at complex, a 7-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.

$1,550 is 19th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under New Hampshire ($1,600) and over District of Columbia ($1,550), $50 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.

$5,650 is 12th of 47 once contested, between Vermont ($5,850) and Colorado ($5,650), $550 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.

$50 separates the simple ceiling of $2,600 from the moderate floor of $2,650, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $3,400 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Alaska.

$1,550 puts Alaska 19th of 47 on straightforward matters, 1 up on its moderate position, and $50 (3%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.

7 implied hours at $225: 54% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-4 months.

New Hampshire ($1,600) and District of Columbia ($1,550) bracket it — a $50 window.

3 states sit within three percent of the $1,550 here, against 8 at the moderate row.

$5,650 puts Alaska 12th of 47 on contested matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $550 (11%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.

17 implied hours at $340: 131% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-5 years.

Vermont ($5,850) and Colorado ($5,650) bracket it — a $200 window.

5 states sit within three percent of the $5,650 here, against 8 at the moderate row.

In Alaska a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $3,700, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 35% of Divorce ($10,650).

The state does not rank uniformly. Alaska is 3rd of 47 for Estate Planning / Probate but 26th for Criminal Defense, a 23-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 20th on bankruptcy says little about what the other lines cost.

The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 27% above its own midpoint, while Criminal Defense sits on its own midpoint — 27 percentage points apart. A single "Alaska is expensive" or "Alaska is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.

The practice areas sit unusually close together in Alaska — the largest tracked median is 4.3x the smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state — so one figure travels further across matter types here than it would elsewhere.

5 of 7 matter types rank Alaska in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 2 between; bankruptcy is 20th.

In percentile terms it sits at the 59th percentile of the 47 tracked states.

Simple tier. $1,550 ÷ $225 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $443 a month. The $2,150 step to the moderate tier is 6 more hours at that rate.

Work against price. $3,700 to $5,650 is a $1,950 step weighted toward price: 4 more hours at $285 is $1,140, but $340 across 17 hours adds $935 — 45% of it.

Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Colorado ($3,700) lands $0 under Alaska; from Pennsylvania ($3,800), $100 over; from the $3,600 table midpoint, $100 out.

Contested against simple. At Alaska's own recorded figures, $5,650 buys 3.6 matters at the $1,550 simple median — or, counted in time, 17 implied hours against 7, a factor of 2.4 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.