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 Maryland, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Maryland costs on average $3,800, typically $2,750-$5,500 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 | $1,150 | $1,700 | $2,900 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $2,750 | $3,800 | $5,500 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,600 | $6,050 | $9,700 | 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 Maryland. The recorded median total is $3,800, with reported quotes clustering between $2,750 and $5,500. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,387–$3,437 of the Maryland 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 $3,800, the median bankruptcy cost in Maryland runs 9% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Maryland carries 3 rows — simple, $1,150–$2,900 at $175–$315/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,750–$5,500 at $200–$375/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,600–$9,700 at $230–$460/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$3,800 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,050 above the $2,750 floor, $1,700 under the $5,500 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
At 16th of 47, Maryland sits above the midpoint of the bankruptcy table: $200 more than the $3,600 median state, or 6%, with 15 states recording a higher median.
Wisconsin ($3,900) and Nevada ($3,800) bracket Maryland inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 16th is close to arbitrary.
7 tracked states — Illinois, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Jersey among them — record a median within three percent of Maryland's $3,800. 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. Maryland attorneys sit 8th of 47 on hourly rate at $290 an hour, but the state is only 16th on total bankruptcy cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Maryland |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | +$300 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $4,050 | +$250 |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $4,050 | +$250 |
| 13 | Texas | $3,950 | +$150 |
| 14 | Illinois | $3,900 | +$100 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | $3,900 | +$100 |
| 16 | Maryland | $3,800 | — |
| 17 | Nevada | $3,800 | −$0 |
| 18 | New Jersey | $3,800 | −$0 |
| 19 | Pennsylvania | $3,800 | −$0 |
| 20 | Alaska | $3,700 | −$100 |
| 21 | Colorado | $3,700 | −$100 |
| 22 | Delaware | $3,650 | −$150 |
The 16th position is not a stable fact about Maryland: $100 up or $0 down moves Maryland a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 14 rows, 7 above and 7 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin and adding $250 to the $3,800 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Colorado: $100.
$600 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,450 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $290 an hour, the $3,800 median represents about 13 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 14 hours: Maryland 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 Maryland, but the implied workload only rises 2.6x — 7 hours at $230 becomes 18 hours at $345 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.5x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $2,750 to $5,500 the moderate band is $2,750 wide, close to the $2,550 peer median. End to end that is 9 hours at $290.
By implied hours Maryland falls to 38th of 47 at 13 hours, 22 places below its 16th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
31% up the $2,750–$5,500 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 12 hours at $290 against the 13 the local bankruptcy median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Maryland | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $3,800 | 16th |
| Hourly median | $290 | 8th |
| Implied hours | 13 | 38th |
| Simple median | $1,700 | 7th |
| Complex median | $6,050 | 6th |
$290 an hour puts Maryland between District of Columbia ($290) and Massachusetts ($290) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
4 other states record exactly $290 — District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this bankruptcy table.
$3,800 buys 17 hours at $230, 13 at $290, 11 at $345.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Connecticut | $295 |
| 7 | District of Columbia | $290 |
| 8 | Maryland | $290 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | $290 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | $290 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 7th at the simple tier, 16th at moderate, 6th at complex of 47 — so Maryland keeps roughly the same relative position whether the bankruptcy is straightforward or contested.
$1,700 is 7th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Illinois ($1,700) and over New Jersey ($1,700), $200 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$6,050 is 6th of 47 once contested, between Rhode Island ($6,200) and Connecticut ($5,950), $950 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Maryland: the simple tier reaches $2,900 where the moderate tier starts at $2,750, and the moderate tier reaches $5,500 where the complex tier starts at $3,600. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Maryland | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,700 | 7th | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $3,800 | 16th | $3,600 | 13 |
| complex | $6,050 | 6th | $5,100 | 18 |
$1,700 puts Maryland 7th of 47 on straightforward matters, 9 up on its moderate position, and $200 (13%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $230: 54% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-4 months.
Illinois ($1,700) and New Jersey ($1,700) bracket it — a $0 window.
14 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $1,700, denser than the 7 around the moderate row.
$6,050 puts Maryland 6th of 47 on contested matters, 10 up on its moderate position, and $950 (19%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $345: 138% of the moderate tier's 13, over 3-5 years.
Rhode Island ($6,200) and Connecticut ($5,950) bracket it — a $250 window.
7 states sit within three percent of the $6,050 here, against 7 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Connecticut | $1,700 |
| 6 | Illinois | $1,700 |
| 7 | Maryland | $1,700 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $1,700 |
| 9 | Utah | $1,700 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | New Jersey | $6,200 |
| 5 | Rhode Island | $6,200 |
| 6 | Maryland | $6,050 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $5,950 |
| 8 | New York | $5,950 |
In Maryland a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $3,800, between Immigration and Real Estate Closing. At 36% of Divorce ($10,550).
Across practice areas Maryland ranges from 8th of 47 for Divorce to 21st for Criminal Defense — a 13-place spread, with its 16th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "Maryland is expensive" or "Maryland is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Maryland is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
4 of 7 matter types rank Maryland in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; bankruptcy is 16th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 67th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,750 | $10,550 | $27,650 | 31 | 8th | +23% | California |
| Criminal Defense | $3,650 | $10,500 | $33,450 | 30 | 21st | +3% | Minnesota |
| DUI / DWI | $4,000 | $8,250 | $18,500 | 26 | 15th | +11% | Arizona |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $6,000 | $17,300 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Immigration | $2,350 | $5,350 | $13,850 | 17 | 17th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,800 | $6,050 | 13 | 16th | +6% | Wisconsin |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,300 | $5,350 | 8 | 19th | +3% | Vermont |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,100 | $7,400 | 7 | 20th | +1% | Virginia |
Simple tier. $1,700 ÷ $230 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $486 a month. The $2,100 step to the moderate tier is 6 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $3,800 to $6,050 is a $2,250 step weighted toward price: 5 more hours at $290 is $1,450, but $345 across 18 hours adds $990 — 41% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Nevada ($3,800) lands $0 under Maryland; from Wisconsin ($3,900), $100 over; from the $3,600 table midpoint, $200 out.
Contested against simple. At Maryland's own recorded figures, $6,050 buys 3.6 matters at the $1,700 simple median — or, counted in time, 18 implied hours against 7, a factor of 2.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Marylandcourt'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.