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 District of Columbia, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in District of Columbia costs on average $4,200, typically $3,000-$6,000 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $375 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 | $1,050 | $1,550 | $2,600 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $3,000 | $4,200 | $6,000 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,300 | $5,450 | $8,700 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $375/ hour
Median: $290/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 District of Columbia. The recorded median total is $4,200, with reported quotes clustering between $3,000 and $6,000. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,787–$3,837 of the District of Columbia 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 $4,200, the median bankruptcy cost in District of Columbia runs 21% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
District of Columbia carries 3 rows — simple, $1,050–$2,600 at $175–$315/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $3,000–$6,000 at $200–$375/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,300–$8,700 at $230–$460/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$4,200 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,200 above the $3,000 floor, $1,800 under the $6,000 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
District of Columbia ranks 8th of 47 tracked states for a bankruptcy, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $3,600 midpoint is $600 — 17% — and only 7 states record a higher median.
In the bankruptcy table District of Columbia falls between Rhode Island at $4,100 and Virginia at $4,300, $100 above the first and $100 below the second.
5 tracked states — California, New York, Virginia, Rhode Island among them — record a median within three percent of District of Columbia's $4,200. 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 measures nearly agree: 7th of 47 on hourly rate at $290 an hour, 8th on total cost, 1 place apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against District of Columbia |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Massachusetts | $4,400 | +$200 |
| 3 | Connecticut | $4,350 | +$150 |
| 4 | Vermont | $4,350 | +$150 |
| 5 | California | $4,300 | +$100 |
| 6 | New York | $4,300 | +$100 |
| 7 | Virginia | $4,300 | +$100 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | $4,200 | — |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $4,100 | −$100 |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | −$100 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $4,050 | −$150 |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $4,050 | −$150 |
| 13 | Texas | $3,950 | −$250 |
| 14 | Illinois | $3,900 | −$300 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below District of Columbia against 7 above. $100 up or $100 down moves District of Columbia a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 8th position is propped up by a thin bankruptcy field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Connecticut, Vermont, California, New York, Virginia and adding $150 to the $4,200 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Rhode Island, Washington, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas: $250.
$200 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,850 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $290 an hour, the $4,200 median represents about 14 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. That rounds to the same 14 hours as the peer median, so on workload District of Columbia is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.5x a simple one in District of Columbia, but the implied workload only rises 2.3x — 7 hours at $230 becomes 16 hours at $345 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.5x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the District of Columbia moderate band is wide: $3,000 to $6,000, a $3,000 range, $450 wider than the peer-median band of $2,550. End to end that is 10 hours at $290.
By implied hours District of Columbia falls to 18th of 47 at 14 hours, 10 places below its 8th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
20% up the $3,000–$6,000 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 12 hours at $290 against the 14 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | District of Columbia | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,200 | 8th |
| Hourly median | $290 | 7th |
| Implied hours | 14 | 18th |
| Simple median | $1,550 | 20th |
| Complex median | $5,450 | 18th |
$290 an hour puts District of Columbia between Connecticut ($295) and Maryland ($290) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
4 other states record exactly $290 — Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this bankruptcy table.
$4,200 buys 18 hours at $230, 14 at $290, 12 at $345.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | California | $295 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $295 |
| 7 | District of Columbia | $290 |
| 8 | Maryland | $290 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | $290 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 20th at the simple tier, 8th at moderate, 18th at complex of 47 — so District of Columbia keeps roughly the same relative position whether the bankruptcy is straightforward or contested.
$1,550 is 20th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Alaska ($1,550) and over Minnesota ($1,550), $50 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$5,450 is 18th of 47 once contested, between Illinois ($5,500) and Utah ($5,450), $350 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$400 separates the simple ceiling of $2,600 from the moderate floor of $3,000, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $3,300 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in District of Columbia.
| Tier | District of Columbia | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,550 | 20th | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $4,200 | 8th | $3,600 | 14 |
| complex | $5,450 | 18th | $5,100 | 16 |
$1,550 drops District of Columbia to 20th of 47 on straightforward matters, 12 below its moderate position and $50 (3%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $230: 50% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-4 months.
Alaska ($1,550) and Minnesota ($1,550) bracket it — a $0 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $1,550 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$5,450 drops District of Columbia to 18th of 47 on contested matters, 10 below its moderate position and $350 (7%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $345: 114% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-5 years.
Illinois ($5,500) and Utah ($5,450) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $5,450 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | New Hampshire | $1,600 |
| 19 | Alaska | $1,550 |
| 20 | District of Columbia | $1,550 |
| 21 | Minnesota | $1,550 |
| 22 | Virginia | $1,550 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | New Hampshire | $5,550 |
| 17 | Illinois | $5,500 |
| 18 | District of Columbia | $5,450 |
| 19 | Utah | $5,450 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | $5,350 |
In District of Columbia a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,200, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 34% of Criminal Defense ($12,250).
Across practice areas District of Columbia ranges from 4th of 47 for Estate Planning / Probate to 16th for Divorce — a 12-place spread, with its 8th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "District of Columbia is expensive" or "District of Columbia is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in District of Columbia is 5.1x 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 8 matter types tracked for District of Columbia places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 8th on bankruptcy is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 85th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,750 | $12,250 | $35,150 | 36 | 5th | +20% | New York |
| Divorce | $3,500 | $9,700 | $23,100 | 28 | 16th | +13% | Connecticut |
| DUI / DWI | $4,300 | $8,650 | $21,100 | 27 | 10th | +16% | New York |
| Immigration | $2,250 | $5,850 | $12,600 | 19 | 11th | +23% | California |
| Personal Injury | $1,700 | $5,250 | $17,550 | — | 14th | +1% | Massachusetts |
| Bankruptcy | $1,550 | $4,200 | $5,450 | 14 | 8th | +17% | Virginia |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,100 | $2,550 | $4,850 | 9 | 9th | +15% | Connecticut |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $700 | $2,400 | $6,700 | 8 | 4th | +16% | Alaska |
Simple tier. $1,550 ÷ $230 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $443 a month. The $2,650 step to the moderate tier is 7 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,200 to $5,450 is a $1,250 step weighted toward price: 2 more hours at $290 is $580, but $345 across 16 hours adds $880 — 60% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Rhode Island ($4,100) is $100 light, Virginia ($4,300) is $100 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $600, 6x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At District of Columbia's own recorded figures, $5,450 buys 3.5 matters at the $1,550 simple median — or, counted in time, 16 implied hours against 7, a factor of 2.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the District of Columbiacourt'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.