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 North Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a criminal defense in North Dakota costs on average $8,550, typically $4,250-$12,800 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $170 to $335 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 | $1,800 | $3,150 | $4,500 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $4,250 | $8,550 | $12,800 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $12,100 | $24,250 | $40,400 | 6-12+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$170 – $335/ hour
Median: $250/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 North Dakota. The recorded median total is $8,550, with reported quotes clustering between $4,250 and $12,800. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,600–$7,300, which leaves roughly $1,250–$6,950 of the North Dakota 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 $8,550, the median criminal defense cost in North Dakota runs 14% below the $9,905 national average across all 50 states and DC.
North Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $1,800–$4,500 at $125–$250/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $4,250–$12,800 at $170–$335/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $12,100–$40,400 at $250–$420/hr over 6-12+ months — on 3 shared citations. They put it below the midpoint of the table without reaching the bottom quarter.
$8,550 is a median, not the middle of the band — $4,300 above the $4,250 floor, $4,250 under the $12,800 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
North Dakota occupies the 39th row of 51 for a criminal defense. Its $8,550 median trails the $10,200 table midpoint by $1,650, which is 16% — close enough that a single firm's quote can straddle both figures.
Montana ($8,550) and Tennessee ($8,500) bracket North Dakota inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 39th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — South Carolina, Iowa, North Carolina, Montana among them — record a median within three percent of North Dakota's $8,550. The figure sits in the densest part of the criminal defense distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
On hourly rate alone North Dakota is 42nd of 51 at $250 an hour, 3 places behind its 39th position on total cost.
| Rank | State | Median | Against North Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | West Virginia | $9,000 | +$450 |
| 34 | Missouri | $8,950 | +$400 |
| 35 | South Carolina | $8,700 | +$150 |
| 36 | Iowa | $8,650 | +$100 |
| 37 | North Carolina | $8,600 | +$50 |
| 38 | Montana | $8,550 | −$0 |
| 39 | North Dakota | $8,550 | — |
| 40 | Tennessee | $8,500 | −$50 |
| 41 | Louisiana | $8,250 | −$300 |
| 42 | Nebraska | $8,250 | −$300 |
| 43 | Idaho | $8,200 | −$350 |
| 44 | Kansas | $8,150 | −$400 |
| 45 | Mississippi | $8,000 | −$550 |
The 39th position is not a stable fact about North Dakota: $0 up or $50 down moves North Dakota a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 15 rows, 8 above and 7 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Missouri, South Carolina, Iowa, North Carolina, Montana and adding $400 to the $8,550 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Tennessee, Louisiana, Nebraska, Idaho, Kansas: $400.
$4,800 short of Hawaii ($13,350), $1,950 clear of Alabama ($6,600).
The $8,550 median divided by the $250 median rate implies roughly 34 billable hours. That rounds to the same 34 hours as the peer median, so on workload North Dakota is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
North Dakota records a 7.7x gap between its simple and complex criminal defense medians. Decomposed, that is 4.2x more billed time and 1.76x a higher rate: 17 hours at $190 becomes 72 hours at $335.
The North Dakota moderate band spans $4,250 to $12,800 — $8,550 — which is $1,650 narrower than the peer-median band of $10,200, so quoted criminal defense figures cluster more tightly here than in most tracked states. End to end that is 34 hours at $250.
Across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $8,550 median is roughly $1,900 a month of elapsed time.
A third ordering: by implied hours North Dakota is 21st of 51 at 34 hours, 18 places above its cost rank of 39th on cost — more work behind the same criminal defense money.
70% up the $4,250–$12,800 band sits the $10,200 table midpoint, buying 41 hours at $250 against the 34 the local criminal defense median implies — 7 hours apart.
| Measure | North Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $8,550 | 39th |
| Hourly median | $250 | 42nd |
| Implied hours | 34 | 21st |
| Simple median | $3,150 | 36th |
| Complex median | $24,250 | 38th |
$250 an hour puts North Dakota between North Carolina ($250) and West Virginia ($250) — not the criminal defense cost pairing.
5 other states record exactly $250 — Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this criminal defense table.
$8,550 buys 45 hours at $190, 34 at $250, 26 at $335.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Nebraska | $250 |
| 41 | North Carolina | $250 |
| 42 | North Dakota | $250 |
| 43 | West Virginia | $250 |
| 44 | New Mexico | $240 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 36th at the simple tier, 39th at moderate, 38th at complex of 51 — so North Dakota keeps roughly the same relative position whether the criminal defense is straightforward or contested.
$3,150 is 36th of 51 on a straightforward criminal defense, under Mississippi ($3,150) and over Tennessee ($3,150), $250 under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$24,250 is 38th of 51 once contested, between Idaho ($24,550) and Indiana ($24,200), $5,650 off the $29,900 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in North Dakota: the simple tier reaches $4,500 where the moderate tier starts at $4,250, and the moderate tier reaches $12,800 where the complex tier starts at $12,100. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | North Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,150 | 36th | $3,400 | 17 |
| moderate | $8,550 | 39th | $10,200 | 34 |
| complex | $24,250 | 38th | $29,900 | 72 |
$3,150 puts North Dakota 36th of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $250 (7%) under the $3,400 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $190: 50% of the moderate tier's 34, over 1-3 months.
Mississippi ($3,150) and Tennessee ($3,150) bracket it — a $0 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $3,150 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$24,250 puts North Dakota 38th of 51 on contested matters, 1 up on its moderate position, and $5,650 (19%) under the $29,900 tier midpoint.
72 implied hours at $335: 212% of the moderate tier's 34, over 6-12+ months.
Idaho ($24,550) and Indiana ($24,200) bracket it — a $350 window.
7 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $24,250, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 34 | Ohio | $3,200 |
| 35 | Mississippi | $3,150 |
| 36 | North Dakota | $3,150 |
| 37 | Tennessee | $3,150 |
| 38 | Indiana | $3,050 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | Nebraska | $25,200 |
| 37 | Idaho | $24,550 |
| 38 | North Dakota | $24,250 |
| 39 | Indiana | $24,200 |
| 40 | South Dakota | $24,000 |
Against the other matter types tracked in North Dakota, a criminal defense carries the largest median of the 8 at $8,550 — ahead of Divorce, the next line down.
The state does not rank uniformly. North Dakota is 24th of 51 for Personal Injury but 45th for DUI / DWI, a 21-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 39th on criminal defense says little about what the other lines cost.
North Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 8% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 23% below its own midpoint — a 15-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in North Dakota is 5.3x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
0 of 8 matter types rank North Dakota in the upper third, 5 in the lower, 3 between; criminal defense is 39th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 24th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,550 | $24,250 | 34 | 39th | −16% | Montana |
| Divorce | $2,600 | $7,200 | $17,750 | 29 | 44th | −16% | Oklahoma |
| DUI / DWI | $2,900 | $5,800 | $15,250 | 25 | 45th | −22% | Alabama |
| Immigration | $1,650 | $4,350 | $8,900 | 19 | 34th | −8% | Florida |
| Personal Injury | $1,350 | $4,050 | $12,100 | — | 24th | −22% | Kansas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,200 | $3,100 | $4,300 | 15 | 35th | −14% | Indiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $750 | $1,950 | $3,850 | 9 | 31st | −12% | Montana |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $550 | $1,600 | $5,200 | 7 | 40th | −23% | Louisiana |
Simple tier. $3,150 ÷ $190 = about 17 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,575 a month. The $5,400 step to the moderate tier is 17 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $8,550 to $24,250 is a $15,700 step, mostly work: 38 more hours at $250 is $9,500, while moving to $335 across 72 hours adds $6,120. Work carries 61%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Tennessee ($8,500) is $50 light, Montana ($8,550) is $0 heavy — but the $10,200 table midpoint is out by $1,650, 33x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $4,250 is 17 hours at $250; $12,800 is 51. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate criminal defense, that is 4 to 11 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At North Dakota's own recorded figures, $24,250 buys 7.7 matters at the $3,150 simple median — or, counted in time, 72 implied hours against 17, a factor of 4.2 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the North Dakotacourt'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.