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 New York, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in New York costs on average $4,300, typically $3,050-$6,100 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $210 to $385 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 | $1,100 | $1,650 | $2,800 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $3,050 | $4,300 | $6,100 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,600 | $5,950 | $9,600 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $385/ hour
Median: $300/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 New York. The recorded median total is $4,300, with reported quotes clustering between $3,050 and $6,100. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,887–$3,937 of the New York 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 $4,300, the median bankruptcy cost in New York runs 24% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
New York carries 3 rows — simple, $1,100–$2,800 at $180–$325/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $3,050–$6,100 at $210–$385/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,600–$9,600 at $240–$475/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$4,300 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,250 above the $3,050 floor, $1,800 under the $6,100 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
New York ranks 6th of 47 tracked states for a bankruptcy, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $3,600 midpoint is $700 — 19% — and only 5 states record a higher median.
California ($4,300) and Virginia ($4,300) bracket New York inside a $0 window — narrow enough that 6th is close to arbitrary.
7 tracked states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont among them — record a median within three percent of New York's $4,300. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
New York ranks 3rd of 47 on hourly rate at $300 an hour and 6th on total cost — 3 places apart, enough that the rate is a slightly optimistic guide to the total.
| Rank | State | Median | Against New York |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $4,400 | +$100 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | $4,400 | +$100 |
| 3 | Connecticut | $4,350 | +$50 |
| 4 | Vermont | $4,350 | +$50 |
| 5 | California | $4,300 | −$0 |
| 6 | New York | $4,300 | — |
| 7 | Virginia | $4,300 | −$0 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | $4,200 | −$100 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $4,100 | −$200 |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | −$200 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $4,050 | −$250 |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $4,050 | −$250 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 8 below New York against 4 above. $0 up or $0 down moves New York a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 6th position is propped up by a thin bankruptcy field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, California and adding $100 to the $4,300 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Virginia, District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Washington, Minnesota: $250.
$100 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,950 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $300 an hour, the $4,300 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 New York is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.6x a simple one in New York, but the implied workload only rises 2.4x — 7 hours at $240 becomes 17 hours at $355 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.48x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the New York moderate band is wide: $3,050 to $6,100, a $3,050 range, $500 wider than the peer-median band of $2,550. End to end that is 10 hours at $300.
By implied hours New York falls to 21st of 47 at 14 hours, 15 places below its 6th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
18% up the $3,050–$6,100 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 12 hours at $300 against the 14 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | New York | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,300 | 6th |
| Hourly median | $300 | 3rd |
| Implied hours | 14 | 21st |
| Simple median | $1,650 | 15th |
| Complex median | $5,950 | 8th |
$300 an hour puts New York between New Jersey ($300) and Washington ($300) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
New Jersey, Washington record the same $300: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,300 buys 18 hours at $240, 14 at $300, 12 at $355.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $335 |
| 2 | New Jersey | $300 |
| 3 | New York | $300 |
| 4 | Washington | $300 |
| 5 | California | $295 |
New York moves up the table as complexity rises: 15th at the simple tier, 6th at moderate, 8th at complex, a 7-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$1,650 is 15th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Massachusetts ($1,650) and over Oregon ($1,650), $150 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$5,950 is 8th of 47 once contested, between Connecticut ($5,950) and Delaware ($5,900), $850 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$250 separates the simple ceiling of $2,800 from the moderate floor of $3,050, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $3,600 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in New York.
| Tier | New York | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,650 | 15th | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $4,300 | 6th | $3,600 | 14 |
| complex | $5,950 | 8th | $5,100 | 17 |
$1,650 drops New York to 15th of 47 on straightforward matters, 9 below its moderate position and $150 (10%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $240: 50% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-4 months.
Massachusetts ($1,650) and Oregon ($1,650) bracket it — a $0 window.
6 states sit within three percent of the $1,650 here, against 7 at the moderate row.
$5,950 drops New York to 8th of 47 on contested matters, 2 below its moderate position and $850 (17%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $355: 121% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-5 years.
Connecticut ($5,950) and Delaware ($5,900) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $5,950 here, against 7 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Colorado | $1,650 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | $1,650 |
| 15 | New York | $1,650 |
| 16 | Oregon | $1,650 |
| 17 | Pennsylvania | $1,650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Maryland | $6,050 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $5,950 |
| 8 | New York | $5,950 |
| 9 | Delaware | $5,900 |
| 10 | Virginia | $5,900 |
In New York a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,300, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 35% of Criminal Defense ($12,450).
Across practice areas New York ranges from 2nd of 47 for Immigration to 12th for Divorce — a 10-place spread, with its 6th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 32% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 8% above its own midpoint — 24 percentage points apart. A single "New York is expensive" or "New York is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
New York's practice areas fan out more than most: its largest tracked median is 5.5x its smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state. Prices here are set matter by matter rather than by one statewide level.
Every one of the 8 matter types tracked for New York places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 6th on bankruptcy is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 89th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,250 | $12,450 | $34,800 | 35 | 4th | +22% | New Hampshire |
| Divorce | $3,600 | $10,100 | $26,450 | 28 | 12th | +18% | Delaware |
| DUI / DWI | $4,250 | $8,800 | $20,600 | 27 | 9th | +18% | Alaska |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,250 | $12,950 | 19 | 2nd | +32% | Hawaii |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,700 | $19,400 | — | 8th | +10% | Connecticut |
| Bankruptcy | $1,650 | $4,300 | $5,950 | 14 | 6th | +19% | California |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,100 | $2,800 | $5,600 | 9 | 2nd | +26% | Hawaii |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $800 | $2,250 | $7,050 | 7 | 10th | +8% | Rhode Island |
Simple tier. $1,650 ÷ $240 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $471 a month. The $2,650 step to the moderate tier is 7 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,300 to $5,950 is a $1,650 step weighted toward price: 3 more hours at $300 is $900, but $355 across 17 hours adds $935 — 51% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Virginia ($4,300) is $0 light, California ($4,300) is $0 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $700, 700x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At New York's own recorded figures, $5,950 buys 3.6 matters at the $1,650 simple median — or, counted in time, 17 implied hours against 7, a factor of 2.4 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the New Yorkcourt'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.