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 Oregon, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a criminal defense in Oregon costs on average $11,350, typically $5,650-$17,000 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $215 to $430 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 3-6 months to resolve. Common related costs include court filing fee ($100-$300) and bail bond fee (10% of bail).
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $2,100 | $3,650 | $5,200 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,650 | $11,350 | $17,000 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $17,650 | $35,300 | $58,800 | 6-12+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$215 – $430/ hour
Median: $320/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 Oregon. The recorded median total is $11,350, with reported quotes clustering between $5,650 and $17,000. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,600–$7,300, which leaves roughly $4,050–$9,750 of the Oregon 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 $11,350, the median criminal defense cost in Oregon runs 15% above the $9,905 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Oregon carries 3 rows — simple, $2,100–$5,200 at $160–$320/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,650–$17,000 at $215–$430/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $17,650–$58,800 at $320–$535/hr over 6-12+ months — on 3 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$11,350 is a median, not the middle of the band — $5,700 above the $5,650 floor, $5,650 under the $17,000 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Oregon ranks 12th of 51 tracked states for a criminal defense, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $10,200 midpoint is $1,150 — 11% — and only 11 states record a higher median.
Utah ($11,400) and New Jersey ($11,200) bracket Oregon inside a $200 window — narrow enough that 12th is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — Vermont, Washington, Utah, New Jersey among them — record a median within three percent of Oregon's $11,350. 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.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $320 an hour Oregon is only 19th of 51 on rate, yet 12th on total criminal defense cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Oregon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | California | $12,050 | +$700 |
| 7 | Virginia | $11,850 | +$500 |
| 8 | Connecticut | $11,700 | +$350 |
| 9 | Vermont | $11,550 | +$200 |
| 10 | Washington | $11,450 | +$100 |
| 11 | Utah | $11,400 | +$50 |
| 12 | Oregon | $11,350 | — |
| 13 | New Jersey | $11,200 | −$150 |
| 14 | Delaware | $11,150 | −$200 |
| 15 | Arizona | $11,050 | −$300 |
| 16 | Texas | $10,950 | −$400 |
| 17 | Maine | $10,850 | −$500 |
| 18 | Massachusetts | $10,800 | −$550 |
The 12th position is not a stable fact about Oregon: $50 up or $150 down moves Oregon a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 22 rows, 9 above and 13 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont, Washington, Utah and adding $500 to the $11,350 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under New Jersey, Delaware, Arizona, Texas, Maine: $500.
$2,000 short of Hawaii ($13,350), $4,750 clear of Alabama ($6,600).
The $11,350 median divided by the $320 median rate implies roughly 35 billable hours. The peer median is 34 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Oregon figure than behind the typical state's.
Moving from a simple to a complex criminal defense multiplies the Oregon total by 9.7, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 15 hours at $240 becomes 82 hours at $430, so the workload grows 5.5x while the rate grows only 1.79x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $5,650 to $17,000 the moderate band is $11,350 wide, close to the $10,200 peer median. End to end that is 35 hours at $320.
Across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $11,350 median is roughly $2,522 a month of elapsed time.
A third ordering: by implied hours Oregon is 10th of 51 at 35 hours, 2 places above its cost rank of 12th on cost — more work behind the same criminal defense money.
40% up the $5,650–$17,000 band sits the $10,200 table midpoint, buying 32 hours at $320 against the 35 the local criminal defense median implies — 3 hours apart.
| Measure | Oregon | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $11,350 | 12th |
| Hourly median | $320 | 19th |
| Implied hours | 35 | 10th |
| Simple median | $3,650 | 22nd |
| Complex median | $35,300 | 5th |
$320 an hour puts Oregon between Minnesota ($320) and Texas ($315) — not the criminal defense cost pairing.
Minnesota records the same $320: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$11,350 buys 47 hours at $240, 35 at $320, 26 at $430.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | Illinois | $325 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $320 |
| 19 | Oregon | $320 |
| 20 | Texas | $315 |
| 21 | Utah | $315 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Oregon runs 22nd at the simple tier, 12th at moderate, 5th at complex of 51 — it climbs 17 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward criminal defense work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$3,650 is 22nd of 51 on a straightforward criminal defense, under Maryland ($3,650) and over Minnesota ($3,550), $250 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$35,300 is 5th of 51 once contested, between New Jersey ($35,550) and District of Columbia ($35,150), $5,400 off the $29,900 tier midpoint.
Neither pair of adjacent bands touches: $450 of clear space between the simple and moderate tiers, and $650 between the moderate and complex tiers. Every recorded criminal defense figure in Oregon maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Oregon | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,650 | 22nd | $3,400 | 15 |
| moderate | $11,350 | 12th | $10,200 | 35 |
| complex | $35,300 | 5th | $29,900 | 82 |
$3,650 drops Oregon to 22nd of 51 on straightforward matters, 10 below its moderate position and $250 (7%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
15 implied hours at $240: 43% of the moderate tier's 35, over 1-3 months.
Maryland ($3,650) and Minnesota ($3,550) bracket it — a $100 window.
6 states sit within three percent of the $3,650 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
$35,300 puts Oregon 5th of 51 on contested matters, 7 up on its moderate position, and $5,400 (18%) over the $29,900 tier midpoint.
82 implied hours at $430: 234% of the moderate tier's 35, over 6-12+ months.
New Jersey ($35,550) and District of Columbia ($35,150) bracket it — a $400 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $35,300 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Vermont | $3,700 |
| 21 | Maryland | $3,650 |
| 22 | Oregon | $3,650 |
| 23 | Minnesota | $3,550 |
| 24 | Illinois | $3,450 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Vermont | $36,650 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $35,550 |
| 5 | Oregon | $35,300 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | $35,150 |
| 7 | Rhode Island | $34,900 |
Against the other matter types tracked in Oregon, a criminal defense carries the largest median of the 8 at $11,350 — ahead of Divorce, the next line down.
The state does not rank uniformly. Oregon is 12th of 51 for Criminal Defense but 29th for Estate Planning / Probate, a 17-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 12th on criminal defense says little about what the other lines cost.
Oregon is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 12% above its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 6% below its own midpoint — a 18-point spread between the extremes.
Oregon's practice areas fan out more than most: its largest tracked median is 5.8x its smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state. Prices here are set matter by matter rather than by one statewide level.
2 of 7 matter types rank Oregon in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 5 between; criminal defense is 12th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 78th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,650 | $11,350 | $35,300 | 35 | 12th | +11% | Utah |
| Divorce | $3,000 | $8,850 | $21,600 | 28 | 25th | +4% | Texas |
| DUI / DWI | $3,800 | $7,950 | $17,400 | 27 | 20th | +7% | Michigan |
| Personal Injury | $1,500 | $5,500 | $15,700 | — | — | +6% | — |
| Immigration | $2,100 | $5,300 | $12,550 | 18 | 20th | +12% | Maine |
| Bankruptcy | $1,650 | $3,550 | $5,150 | 13 | 25th | −1% | Michigan |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,450 | $4,450 | 9 | 12th | +10% | Minnesota |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $600 | $1,950 | $6,750 | 7 | 29th | −6% | Indiana |
Simple tier. $3,650 ÷ $240 = about 15 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,825 a month. The $7,700 step to the moderate tier is 20 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $11,350 to $35,300 is a $23,950 step, mostly work: 47 more hours at $320 is $15,040, while moving to $430 across 82 hours adds $9,020. Work carries 63%.
Borrowing the wrong row. New Jersey ($11,200) is $150 light, Utah ($11,400) is $50 heavy — but the $10,200 table midpoint is out by $1,150, 8x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,650 is 18 hours at $320; $17,000 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 Oregon's own recorded figures, $35,300 buys 9.7 matters at the $3,650 simple median — or, counted in time, 82 implied hours against 15, a factor of 5.5 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Oregoncourt'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.