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 Minnesota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Minnesota costs on average $4,050, typically $2,900-$5,800 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $185 to $350 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 | $2,900 | $4,050 | $5,800 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,400 | $5,650 | $9,000 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$185 – $350/ hour
Median: $270/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 Minnesota. The recorded median total is $4,050, with reported quotes clustering between $2,900 and $5,800. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,637–$3,687 of the Minnesota 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 $4,050, the median bankruptcy cost in Minnesota runs 16% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Minnesota carries 3 rows — simple, $1,050–$2,600 at $160–$295/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,900–$5,800 at $185–$350/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,400–$9,000 at $215–$430/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$4,050 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,150 above the $2,900 floor, $1,750 under the $5,800 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
At 11th of 47, Minnesota sits above the midpoint of the bankruptcy table: $450 more than the $3,600 median state, or 13%, with 10 states recording a higher median.
Washington ($4,100) and New Hampshire ($4,050) bracket Minnesota inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 11th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — Rhode Island, Washington, New Hampshire, Texas among them — record a median within three percent of Minnesota's $4,050. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $270 an hour Minnesota is only 18th of 47 on rate, yet 11th on total bankruptcy cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Minnesota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | California | $4,300 | +$250 |
| 6 | New York | $4,300 | +$250 |
| 7 | Virginia | $4,300 | +$250 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | $4,200 | +$150 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $4,100 | +$50 |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | +$50 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $4,050 | — |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $4,050 | −$0 |
| 13 | Texas | $3,950 | −$100 |
| 14 | Illinois | $3,900 | −$150 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | $3,900 | −$150 |
| 16 | Maryland | $3,800 | −$250 |
| 17 | Nevada | $3,800 | −$250 |
The 11th position is not a stable fact about Minnesota: $50 up or $0 down moves Minnesota a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 20 rows, 10 above and 10 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing New York, Virginia, District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Washington and adding $250 to the $4,050 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland: $250.
$350 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,700 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $270 an hour, the $4,050 median represents about 15 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 14 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Minnesota figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.6x a simple one in Minnesota, but the implied workload only rises 2.6x — 7 hours at $215 becomes 18 hours at $320 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.49x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $2,900 to $5,800 the moderate band is $2,900 wide, close to the $2,550 peer median. End to end that is 11 hours at $270.
A third ordering: by implied hours Minnesota is 10th of 47 at 15 hours, 1 places above its cost rank of 11th on cost — more work behind the same bankruptcy money.
24% up the $2,900–$5,800 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 13 hours at $270 against the 15 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | Minnesota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,050 | 11th |
| Hourly median | $270 | 18th |
| Implied hours | 15 | 10th |
| Simple median | $1,550 | 21st |
| Complex median | $5,650 | 14th |
$270 an hour puts Minnesota between Illinois ($270) and Oregon ($270) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
Illinois, Oregon record the same $270: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,050 buys 19 hours at $215, 15 at $270, 13 at $320.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Colorado | $280 |
| 17 | Illinois | $270 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $270 |
| 19 | Oregon | $270 |
| 20 | Pennsylvania | $260 |
Minnesota moves up the table as complexity rises: 21st at the simple tier, 11th at moderate, 14th 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 21st of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under District of Columbia ($1,550) and over Virginia ($1,550), $50 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$5,650 is 14th of 47 once contested, between Colorado ($5,650) and California ($5,600), $550 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$300 separates the simple ceiling of $2,600 from the moderate floor of $2,900, 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 Minnesota.
| Tier | Minnesota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,550 | 21st | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $4,050 | 11th | $3,600 | 15 |
| complex | $5,650 | 14th | $5,100 | 18 |
$1,550 drops Minnesota to 21st of 47 on straightforward matters, 10 below its moderate position and $50 (3%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $215: 47% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-4 months.
District of Columbia ($1,550) and Virginia ($1,550) bracket it — a $0 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $1,550 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
$5,650 drops Minnesota to 14th of 47 on contested matters, 3 below its moderate position and $550 (11%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $320: 120% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-5 years.
Colorado ($5,650) and California ($5,600) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $5,650, denser than the 4 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Alaska | $1,550 |
| 20 | District of Columbia | $1,550 |
| 21 | Minnesota | $1,550 |
| 22 | Virginia | $1,550 |
| 23 | Maine | $1,500 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Alaska | $5,650 |
| 13 | Colorado | $5,650 |
| 14 | Minnesota | $5,650 |
| 15 | California | $5,600 |
| 16 | New Hampshire | $5,550 |
In Minnesota a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,050, between Immigration and Real Estate Closing. At 38% of Criminal Defense ($10,750).
The state does not rank uniformly. Minnesota is 11th of 47 for Bankruptcy but 26th for Estate Planning / Probate, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 11th on bankruptcy says little about what the other lines cost.
Minnesota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 14% above its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 4% below its own midpoint — a 18-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Minnesota is 5.4x 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 Minnesota in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; bankruptcy is 11th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 78th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,550 | $10,750 | $30,600 | 34 | 20th | +5% | Colorado |
| Divorce | $3,200 | $9,350 | $21,800 | 29 | 21st | +9% | Maine |
| DUI / DWI | $3,900 | $8,300 | $20,000 | 28 | 13th | +11% | Connecticut |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $5,500 | $16,250 | — | — | +6% | — |
| Immigration | $2,200 | $5,400 | $11,050 | 18 | 16th | +14% | Texas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,550 | $4,050 | $5,650 | 15 | 11th | +13% | Washington |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,450 | $4,800 | 9 | 11th | +10% | New Hampshire |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,000 | $6,950 | 7 | 26th | −4% | Ohio |
Simple tier. $1,550 ÷ $215 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $443 a month. The $2,500 step to the moderate tier is 8 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,050 to $5,650 is a $1,600 step weighted toward price: 3 more hours at $270 is $810, but $320 across 18 hours adds $900 — 53% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. New Hampshire ($4,050) is $0 light, Washington ($4,100) is $50 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $450, 9x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Minnesota's own recorded figures, $5,650 buys 3.6 matters at the $1,550 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 Minnesotacourt'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.