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 Rhode Island, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Rhode Island costs on average $4,100, typically $2,900-$5,800 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $205 to $375 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 | $1,200 | $1,800 | $3,000 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $2,900 | $4,100 | $5,800 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,700 | $6,200 | $9,900 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$205 – $375/ hour
Median: $290/hr
3-5 years
For moderate complexity cases
New to how attorney fees work? Read the legal fees guide — hourly, flat, and contingency billing explained.
Researching costs in another area? These free tools from our network may help.
Add this calculator to your own site with a copy-paste snippet — includes an attribution link back to this page.
<iframe
id="legalcostcalc-embed"
src="https://legalcostcalc.co/embed/rhode-island/bankruptcy-cost"
title="Rhode Island Bankruptcy Cost Calculator"
width="100%"
height="720"
style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;max-width:768px;"
loading="lazy"
></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px;text-align:center;">
<a href="https://legalcostcalc.co/rhode-island/bankruptcy-cost?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=embed_snippet" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">
Powered by LegalCostCalc
</a>
</p>
<script>
window.addEventListener("message", function (event) {
if (!event.data || event.data.type !== "legalcostcalc:embed-resize") return;
var frame = document.getElementById("legalcostcalc-embed");
if (frame && typeof event.data.height === "number") {
frame.style.height = event.data.height + "px";
}
});
</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 Rhode Island. The recorded median total is $4,100, 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 $3,687–$3,737 of the Rhode Island 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 $4,100, the median bankruptcy cost in Rhode Island runs 18% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Rhode Island carries 3 rows — simple, $1,200–$3,000 at $175–$320/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,900–$5,800 at $205–$375/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,700–$9,900 at $230–$465/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$4,100 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,200 above the $2,900 floor, $1,700 under the $5,800 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
Rhode Island ranks 9th of 47 tracked states for a bankruptcy, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $3,600 midpoint is $500 — 14% — and only 8 states record a higher median.
District of Columbia ($4,200) and Washington ($4,100) bracket Rhode Island inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 9th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — District of Columbia, Washington, Minnesota, New Hampshire among them — record a median within three percent of Rhode Island's $4,100. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Rate and total sit 2 places apart — 11th of 47 at $290 an hour against 9th on the bankruptcy total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Rhode Island |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Connecticut | $4,350 | +$250 |
| 4 | Vermont | $4,350 | +$250 |
| 5 | California | $4,300 | +$200 |
| 6 | New York | $4,300 | +$200 |
| 7 | Virginia | $4,300 | +$200 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | $4,200 | +$100 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $4,100 | — |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | −$0 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $4,050 | −$50 |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $4,050 | −$50 |
| 13 | Texas | $3,950 | −$150 |
| 14 | Illinois | $3,900 | −$200 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | $3,900 | −$200 |
The 9th position is not a stable fact about Rhode Island: $100 up or $0 down moves Rhode Island a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 19 rows, 8 above and 11 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Vermont, California, New York, Virginia, District of Columbia and adding $250 to the $4,100 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Washington, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois: $200.
$300 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,750 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $290 an hour, the $4,100 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 Rhode Island is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.4x a simple one in Rhode Island, but the implied workload only rises 2.3x — 8 hours at $230 becomes 18 hours at $350 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.52x 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 10 hours at $290.
By implied hours Rhode Island falls to 24th of 47 at 14 hours, 15 places below its 9th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
24% up the $2,900–$5,800 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 12 hours at $290 against the 14 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | Rhode Island | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,100 | 9th |
| Hourly median | $290 | 11th |
| Implied hours | 14 | 24th |
| Simple median | $1,800 | 2nd |
| Complex median | $6,200 | 5th |
$290 an hour puts Rhode Island between New Hampshire ($290) and Alaska ($285) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
4 other states record exactly $290 — District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this bankruptcy table.
$4,100 buys 18 hours at $230, 14 at $290, 12 at $350.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Massachusetts | $290 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | $290 |
| 11 | Rhode Island | $290 |
| 12 | Alaska | $285 |
| 13 | Delaware | $285 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 2nd at the simple tier, 9th at moderate, 5th at complex of 47 — so Rhode Island keeps roughly the same relative position whether the bankruptcy is straightforward or contested.
$1,800 is 2nd of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Hawaii ($2,150) and over Delaware ($1,750), $300 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$6,200 is 5th of 47 once contested, between New Jersey ($6,200) and Maryland ($6,050), $1,100 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Rhode Island: the simple tier reaches $3,000 where the moderate tier starts at $2,900, and the moderate tier reaches $5,800 where the complex tier starts at $3,700. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Rhode Island | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,800 | 2nd | $1,500 | 8 |
| moderate | $4,100 | 9th | $3,600 | 14 |
| complex | $6,200 | 5th | $5,100 | 18 |
$1,800 puts Rhode Island 2nd of 47 on straightforward matters, 7 up on its moderate position, and $300 (20%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
8 implied hours at $230: 57% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-4 months.
Hawaii ($2,150) and Delaware ($1,750) bracket it — a $400 window.
2 states sit within three percent of the $1,800 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
$6,200 puts Rhode Island 5th of 47 on contested matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $1,100 (22%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $350: 129% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-5 years.
New Jersey ($6,200) and Maryland ($6,050) bracket it — a $150 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $6,200 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $2,150 |
| 2 | Rhode Island | $1,800 |
| 3 | Delaware | $1,750 |
| 4 | Vermont | $1,750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Massachusetts | $6,200 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $6,200 |
| 5 | Rhode Island | $6,200 |
| 6 | Maryland | $6,050 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $5,950 |
In Rhode Island a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,100, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 32% of Criminal Defense ($12,750).
Across practice areas Rhode Island ranges from 2nd of 47 for Criminal Defense to 13th for Real Estate Closing — a 11-place spread, with its 9th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 33% above its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 4% above its own midpoint — 29 percentage points apart. A single "Rhode Island is expensive" or "Rhode Island is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
Rhode Island'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 7 matter types tracked for Rhode Island places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 9th on bankruptcy is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 83th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,450 | $12,750 | $34,900 | 36 | 2nd | +25% | Hawaii |
| Divorce | $3,300 | $11,400 | $26,900 | 33 | 3rd | +33% | Washington |
| DUI / DWI | $4,400 | $9,400 | $18,100 | 29 | 3rd | +26% | Hawaii |
| Immigration | $2,550 | $6,250 | $13,250 | 20 | 3rd | +32% | New York |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $5,400 | $17,700 | — | — | +4% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,800 | $4,100 | $6,200 | 14 | 9th | +14% | District of Columbia |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,450 | $5,350 | 8 | 13th | +10% | Oregon |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,300 | $6,600 | 7 | 9th | +11% | New Jersey |
Simple tier. $1,800 ÷ $230 = about 8 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $514 a month. The $2,300 step to the moderate tier is 6 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,100 to $6,200 is a $2,100 step weighted toward price: 4 more hours at $290 is $1,160, but $350 across 18 hours adds $1,080 — 48% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Washington ($4,100) is $0 light, District of Columbia ($4,200) is $100 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $500, 5x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Rhode Island's own recorded figures, $6,200 buys 3.4 matters at the $1,800 simple median — or, counted in time, 18 implied hours against 8, a factor of 2.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Rhode Islandcourt'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.