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 bankruptcy in Delaware, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Delaware costs on average $3,650, typically $2,600-$5,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $365 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 3-5 years to resolve. Common related costs include chapter 13 filing fee ($313) and credit counseling course ($25-$50).
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $1,150 | $1,750 | $2,900 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $2,600 | $3,650 | $5,200 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,550 | $5,900 | $9,400 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $365/ hour
Median: $285/hr
3-5 years
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>Bankruptcy cost formation splits along the two most common filing types. Chapter 7 (liquidation) is a shorter federal process, so attorney fees are usually charged as a flat fee covering the whole case. Chapter 13 (repayment plan) requires the attorney to stay involved for the full 3-5 year repayment period, so the fee is higher and is often split into an upfront portion plus ongoing amounts paid through the repayment plan itself.
On top of the attorney fee, every filer pays a federal court filing fee (set by statute, the same nationwide regardless of state) plus mandatory credit counseling and debtor education course fees. Case complexity within either chapter — multiple creditors, contested exemptions, business assets, or a means-test dispute — adds attorney hours beyond the base flat fee, which is why complex-case costs run well above the simple-case median shown on this page.
Take a moderate-complexity bankruptcy matter in Delaware. The recorded median total is $3,650, with reported quotes clustering between $2,600 and $5,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,237–$3,287 of the Delaware median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes. One further recorded fee is not itemised above and is not in that total.
At $3,650, the median bankruptcy cost in Delaware runs 5% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Delaware carries 3 rows — simple, $1,150–$2,900 at $170–$310/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,600–$5,200 at $200–$365/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,550–$9,400 at $225–$450/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$3,650 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,050 above the $2,600 floor, $1,550 under the $5,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
At 22nd of 47, Delaware sits above the midpoint of the bankruptcy table: $50 more than the $3,600 median state, or 1%, with 21 states recording a higher median.
Colorado ($3,700) and Arizona ($3,600) bracket Delaware inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 22nd is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan among them — record a median within three percent of Delaware's $3,650. 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. Delaware attorneys sit 13th of 47 on hourly rate at $285 an hour, but the state is only 22nd on total bankruptcy cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Delaware |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Maryland | $3,800 | +$150 |
| 17 | Nevada | $3,800 | +$150 |
| 18 | New Jersey | $3,800 | +$150 |
| 19 | Pennsylvania | $3,800 | +$150 |
| 20 | Alaska | $3,700 | +$50 |
| 21 | Colorado | $3,700 | +$50 |
| 22 | Delaware | $3,650 | — |
| 23 | Arizona | $3,600 | −$50 |
| 24 | Michigan | $3,600 | −$50 |
| 25 | Oregon | $3,550 | −$100 |
| 26 | Ohio | $3,500 | −$150 |
| 27 | Maine | $3,350 | −$300 |
| 28 | Utah | $3,350 | −$300 |
The 22nd position is not a stable fact about Delaware: $50 up or $50 down moves Delaware 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 Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Colorado and adding $150 to the $3,650 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, Ohio, Maine: $300.
$750 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,300 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $285 an hour, the $3,650 median represents about 13 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 14 hours: Delaware 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 3.4x a simple one in Delaware, but the implied workload only rises 2.1x — 8 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 $2,600 to $5,200 the moderate band is $2,600 wide, close to the $2,550 peer median. End to end that is 9 hours at $285.
By implied hours Delaware falls to 44th of 47 at 13 hours, 22 places below its 22nd on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
38% up the $2,600–$5,200 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 13 hours at $285 against the 13 the local bankruptcy median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Delaware | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $3,650 | 22nd |
| Hourly median | $285 | 13th |
| Implied hours | 13 | 44th |
| Simple median | $1,750 | 3rd |
| Complex median | $5,900 | 9th |
$285 an hour puts Delaware between Alaska ($285) and Vermont ($285) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
Alaska, Vermont, Virginia record the same $285: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$3,650 buys 16 hours at $225, 13 at $285, 11 at $340.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Rhode Island | $290 |
| 12 | Alaska | $285 |
| 13 | Delaware | $285 |
| 14 | Vermont | $285 |
| 15 | Virginia | $285 |
Ranked tier by tier, Delaware slides 6 places downward: 3rd at the simple tier, 22nd at moderate, 9th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$1,750 is 3rd of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Rhode Island ($1,800) and over Vermont ($1,750), $250 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$5,900 is 9th of 47 once contested, between New York ($5,950) and Virginia ($5,900), $800 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Delaware: the simple tier reaches $2,900 where the moderate tier starts at $2,600, and the moderate tier reaches $5,200 where the complex tier starts at $3,550. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Delaware | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,750 | 3rd | $1,500 | 8 |
| moderate | $3,650 | 22nd | $3,600 | 13 |
| complex | $5,900 | 9th | $5,100 | 17 |
$1,750 puts Delaware 3rd of 47 on straightforward matters, 19 up on its moderate position, and $250 (17%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
8 implied hours at $225: 62% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-4 months.
Rhode Island ($1,800) and Vermont ($1,750) bracket it — a $50 window.
8 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $1,750, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
$5,900 puts Delaware 9th of 47 on contested matters, 13 up on its moderate position, and $800 (16%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $340: 131% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-5 years.
New York ($5,950) and Virginia ($5,900) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $5,900 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $2,150 |
| 2 | Rhode Island | $1,800 |
| 3 | Delaware | $1,750 |
| 4 | Vermont | $1,750 |
| 5 | Connecticut | $1,700 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Connecticut | $5,950 |
| 8 | New York | $5,950 |
| 9 | Delaware | $5,900 |
| 10 | Virginia | $5,900 |
| 11 | Vermont | $5,850 |
In Delaware a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $3,650, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 33% of Criminal Defense ($11,150).
The state does not rank uniformly. Delaware is 7th of 47 for DUI / DWI but 22nd for Bankruptcy, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 22nd 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 Bankruptcy runs 1% above its own midpoint — 26 percentage points apart. A single "Delaware is expensive" or "Delaware is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Delaware 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.
6 of 7 matter types rank Delaware in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 1 between; bankruptcy is 22nd.
In percentile terms it sits at the 54th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,000 | $11,150 | $31,150 | 33 | 14th | +9% | New Jersey |
| Divorce | $3,300 | $10,200 | $24,000 | 30 | 11th | +19% | New Hampshire |
| DUI / DWI | $3,800 | $8,850 | $20,750 | 29 | 7th | +19% | Colorado |
| Immigration | $2,250 | $6,050 | $13,650 | 20 | — | +27% | — |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,600 | $15,900 | — | 9th | +8% | New York |
| Bankruptcy | $1,750 | $3,650 | $5,900 | 13 | 22nd | +1% | Colorado |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,400 | $4,600 | 8 | 16th | +8% | Colorado |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,150 | $7,100 | 7 | 17th | +4% | Colorado |
Simple tier. $1,750 ÷ $225 = about 8 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $500 a month. The $1,900 step to the moderate tier is 5 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $3,650 to $5,900 is a $2,250 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 Arizona ($3,600) lands $50 under Delaware; from Colorado ($3,700), $50 over; from the $3,600 table midpoint, $50 out.
Contested against simple. At Delaware's own recorded figures, $5,900 buys 3.4 matters at the $1,750 simple median — or, counted in time, 17 implied hours against 8, a factor of 2.1 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Delawarecourt'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.