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 criminal defense in New Hampshire, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a criminal defense in New Hampshire costs on average $12,450, typically $6,250-$18,700 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $235 to $470 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 3-6 months to resolve.
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $2,200 | $3,900 | $5,500 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $6,250 | $12,450 | $18,700 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $16,100 | $32,250 | $53,700 | 6-12+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$235 – $470/ hour
Median: $350/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>Criminal defense costs form primarily around charge severity and how the case resolves. A misdemeanor that ends in a straightforward plea negotiation is the least expensive scenario and is often billed as a flat fee, since the attorney can reasonably predict the hours involved. A felony charge, multiple counts, or a case that proceeds to trial multiplies the work substantially — pretrial motions, evidence review, witness preparation, and the trial itself — which is why most complex criminal defense engagements move to hourly billing or a large retainer with hourly drawdown.
Court-appointed public defenders are available at no direct cost to defendants who qualify financially, which is why the figures on this page reflect private attorney costs specifically. Private representation typically offers more attorney time per case and can be worth it for serious charges, but the actual price a defendant pays scales directly with case complexity and whether the matter is resolved pretrial or goes to trial.
Take a moderate-complexity criminal defense matter in New Hampshire. The recorded median total is $12,450, with reported quotes clustering between $6,250 and $18,700. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,600–$7,300, which leaves roughly $5,150–$10,850 of the New Hampshire 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 $12,450, the median criminal defense cost in New Hampshire runs 26% above the $9,905 national average across all 50 states and DC.
New Hampshire carries 3 rows — simple, $2,200–$5,500 at $175–$350/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $6,250–$18,700 at $235–$470/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $16,100–$53,700 at $350–$585/hr over 6-12+ months — on 3 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$12,450 is a median, not the middle of the band — $6,200 above the $6,250 floor, $6,250 under the $18,700 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
New Hampshire ranks 3rd of 51 tracked states for a criminal defense, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $10,200 midpoint is $2,250 — 22% — and only 2 states record a higher median.
Rhode Island ($12,750) and New York ($12,450) bracket New Hampshire inside a $300 window — narrow enough that 3rd is close to arbitrary.
Rhode Island, New York, District of Columbia record medians within three percent of New Hampshire's $12,450. A criminal defense quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
On hourly rate alone New Hampshire is 7th of 51 at $350 an hour, 4 places behind its 3rd position on total cost.
| Rank | State | Median | Against New Hampshire |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $13,350 | +$900 |
| 2 | Rhode Island | $12,750 | +$300 |
| 3 | New Hampshire | $12,450 | — |
| 4 | New York | $12,450 | −$0 |
| 5 | District of Columbia | $12,250 | −$200 |
| 6 | California | $12,050 | −$400 |
| 7 | Virginia | $11,850 | −$600 |
| 8 | Connecticut | $11,700 | −$750 |
| 9 | Vermont | $11,550 | −$900 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 8 below New Hampshire against 2 above. $300 up or $0 down moves New Hampshire a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 3rd position is propped up by a thin criminal defense field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Hawaii, Rhode Island and adding $900 to the $12,450 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under New York, District of Columbia, California, Virginia, Connecticut: $750.
$900 short of Hawaii ($13,350), $5,850 clear of Alabama ($6,600).
The $12,450 median divided by the $350 median rate implies roughly 36 billable hours. The peer median is 34 hours, so 2 more hours of work sit behind the New Hampshire figure than behind the typical state's.
The 8.3x step from the simple to the complex tier breaks down as 4.6x the hours against 1.77x the rate — 15 hours at $265 becomes 69 hours at $470. Hours dominate, but the rate contribution is large enough to notice.
In dollars the New Hampshire moderate band is wide: $6,250 to $18,700, a $12,450 range, $2,250 wider than the peer-median band of $10,200. End to end that is 36 hours at $350.
Across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $12,450 median is roughly $2,767 a month of elapsed time.
By implied hours New Hampshire falls to 8th of 51 at 36 hours, 5 places below its 3rd on cost — the criminal defense total arriving on less recorded work.
32% up the $6,250–$18,700 band sits the $10,200 table midpoint, buying 29 hours at $350 against the 36 the local criminal defense median implies — 7 hours apart.
| Measure | New Hampshire | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $12,450 | 3rd |
| Hourly median | $350 | 7th |
| Implied hours | 36 | 8th |
| Simple median | $3,900 | 14th |
| Complex median | $32,250 | 15th |
$350 an hour puts New Hampshire between Connecticut ($350) and Rhode Island ($350) — not the criminal defense cost pairing.
California, Connecticut, Rhode Island record the same $350: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$12,450 buys 47 hours at $265, 36 at $350, 26 at $470.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | California | $350 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $350 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $350 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $350 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | $345 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 14th at the simple tier, 3rd at moderate, 15th at complex of 51 — so New Hampshire keeps roughly the same relative position whether the criminal defense is straightforward or contested.
$3,900 is 14th of 51 on a straightforward criminal defense, under Wisconsin ($3,950) and over Nevada ($3,850), $500 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$32,250 is 15th of 51 once contested, between Arizona ($33,100) and Texas ($32,250), $2,350 off the $29,900 tier midpoint.
$750 separates the simple ceiling of $5,500 from the moderate floor of $6,250, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $16,100 upward. The expensive end of a routine criminal defense and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in New Hampshire.
| Tier | New Hampshire | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,900 | 14th | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $12,450 | 3rd | $10,200 | 36 |
| complex | $32,250 | 15th | $29,900 | 69 |
$3,900 drops New Hampshire to 14th of 51 on straightforward matters, 11 below its moderate position and $500 (15%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $265: 42% of the moderate tier's 36, over 1-3 months.
Wisconsin ($3,950) and Nevada ($3,850) bracket it — a $100 window.
5 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $3,900, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
$32,250 drops New Hampshire to 15th of 51 on contested matters, 12 below its moderate position and $2,350 (8%) over the $29,900 tier midpoint.
69 implied hours at $470: 192% of the moderate tier's 36, over 6-12+ months.
Arizona ($33,100) and Texas ($32,250) bracket it — a $850 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $32,250, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Utah | $3,950 |
| 13 | Wisconsin | $3,950 |
| 14 | New Hampshire | $3,900 |
| 15 | Nevada | $3,850 |
| 16 | Virginia | $3,800 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Illinois | $33,400 |
| 14 | Arizona | $33,100 |
| 15 | New Hampshire | $32,250 |
| 16 | Texas | $32,250 |
| 17 | Virginia | $32,100 |
Against the other matter types tracked in New Hampshire, a criminal defense carries the largest median of the 8 at $12,450 — ahead of Divorce, the next line down.
Across practice areas New Hampshire ranges from 2nd of 51 for Estate Planning / Probate to 12th for Bankruptcy — a 10-place spread, with its 3rd on criminal defense inside it.
New Hampshire is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 29% above its own midpoint while Real Estate Closing runs 12% above its own midpoint — a 17-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in New Hampshire is 5x 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 New Hampshire places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 3rd on criminal defense is not an outlier.
That places the criminal defense figure in the 96th percentile of the 51 states tracked here.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,900 | $12,450 | $32,250 | 36 | 3rd | +22% | Rhode Island |
| Divorce | $3,800 | $10,350 | $27,400 | 30 | 10th | +21% | Colorado |
| DUI / DWI | $4,200 | $8,600 | $19,550 | 27 | 11th | +15% | District of Columbia |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,150 | $13,300 | 19 | 6th | +29% | Washington |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,900 | $17,650 | — | 4th | +13% | Illinois |
| Bankruptcy | $1,600 | $4,050 | $5,550 | 14 | 12th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,550 | $7,550 | 8 | 2nd | +23% | Hawaii |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,500 | $5,750 | 9 | 10th | +12% | District of Columbia |
Simple tier. $3,900 ÷ $265 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,950 a month. The $8,550 step to the moderate tier is 21 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $12,450 to $32,250 is a $19,800 step weighted toward price: 33 more hours at $350 is $11,550, but $470 across 69 hours adds $8,280 — 42% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. New York ($12,450) is $0 light, Rhode Island ($12,750) is $300 heavy — but the $10,200 table midpoint is out by $2,250, 8x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $6,250 is 18 hours at $350; $18,700 is 53. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate criminal defense, that is 4 to 12 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At New Hampshire's own recorded figures, $32,250 buys 8.3 matters at the $3,900 simple median — or, counted in time, 69 implied hours against 15, a factor of 4.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the New Hampshirecourt'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.