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 South Carolina, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in South Carolina costs on average $3,050, typically $2,200-$4,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $140 to $260 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 | $700 | $1,100 | $1,800 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $2,200 | $3,050 | $4,400 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $2,550 | $4,250 | $6,800 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$140 – $260/ hour
Median: $200/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 South Carolina. The recorded median total is $3,050, with reported quotes clustering between $2,200 and $4,400. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $2,637–$2,687 of the South Carolina 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 $3,050, the median bankruptcy cost in South Carolina runs 12% below the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
South Carolina carries 3 rows — simple, $700–$1,800 at $120–$220/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,200–$4,400 at $140–$260/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $2,550–$6,800 at $160–$320/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$3,050 is a median, not the middle of the band — $850 above the $2,200 floor, $1,350 under the $4,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
Sorted by median cost, South Carolina is 36th of 47 for a bankruptcy, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $550 and 15% below the $3,600 midpoint, with 11 states recording a lower median still.
North Dakota ($3,100) and Wyoming ($3,000) bracket South Carolina inside a $100 window — narrow enough that 36th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — Georgia, Indiana, North Dakota, Wyoming among them — record a median within three percent of South Carolina's $3,050. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
On hourly rate alone South Carolina is 41st of 47 at $200 an hour, 5 places behind its 36th position on total cost.
| Rank | State | Median | Against South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Idaho | $3,200 | +$150 |
| 31 | Florida | $3,150 | +$100 |
| 32 | North Carolina | $3,150 | +$100 |
| 33 | Georgia | $3,100 | +$50 |
| 34 | Indiana | $3,100 | +$50 |
| 35 | North Dakota | $3,100 | +$50 |
| 36 | South Carolina | $3,050 | — |
| 37 | Wyoming | $3,000 | −$50 |
| 38 | Tennessee | $2,950 | −$100 |
| 39 | Mississippi | $2,900 | −$150 |
| 40 | West Virginia | $2,900 | −$150 |
| 41 | Oklahoma | $2,800 | −$250 |
| 42 | New Mexico | $2,700 | −$350 |
Within ten percent of the South Carolina figure there are 9 states above and only 5 below. $50 up or $50 down moves South Carolina a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the bankruptcy field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, North Dakota and adding $100 to the $3,050 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Wyoming, Tennessee, Mississippi, West Virginia, Oklahoma: $250.
$1,350 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $700 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $200 an hour, the $3,050 median represents about 15 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 14 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the South Carolina figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.9x a simple one in South Carolina, but the implied workload only rises 2.6x — 7 hours at $160 becomes 18 hours at $240 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.5x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $2,200 to $4,400 the moderate band is $2,200 wide, close to the $2,550 peer median. End to end that is 11 hours at $200.
A third ordering: by implied hours South Carolina is 3rd of 47 at 15 hours, 33 places above its cost rank of 36th on cost — more work behind the same bankruptcy money.
64% up the $2,200–$4,400 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 18 hours at $200 against the 15 the local bankruptcy median implies — 3 hours apart.
| Measure | South Carolina | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $3,050 | 36th |
| Hourly median | $200 | 41st |
| Implied hours | 15 | 3rd |
| Simple median | $1,100 | 47th |
| Complex median | $4,250 | 37th |
$200 an hour puts South Carolina between New Mexico ($200) and South Dakota ($200) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
New Mexico, South Dakota record the same $200: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$3,050 buys 19 hours at $160, 15 at $200, 13 at $240.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | West Virginia | $205 |
| 40 | New Mexico | $200 |
| 41 | South Carolina | $200 |
| 42 | South Dakota | $200 |
| 43 | Louisiana | $195 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. South Carolina runs 47th at the simple tier, 36th at moderate, 37th at complex of 47 — it climbs 10 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward bankruptcy work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
At the simple tier South Carolina records $1,100 and ranks 47th of 47, against a tier midpoint of $1,500.
$4,250 is 37th of 47 once contested, between North Dakota ($4,300) and Indiana ($4,100), $850 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$400 separates the simple ceiling of $1,800 from the moderate floor of $2,200, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $2,550 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in South Carolina.
| Tier | South Carolina | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,100 | 47th | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $3,050 | 36th | $3,600 | 15 |
| complex | $4,250 | 37th | $5,100 | 18 |
$1,100 drops South Carolina to 47th of 47 on straightforward matters, 11 below its moderate position and $400 (27%) under the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $160: 47% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-4 months.
Nothing else sits within three percent of the $1,100 here, against 4 at the moderate tier.
$4,250 drops South Carolina to 37th of 47 on contested matters, 1 below its moderate position and $850 (17%) under the $5,100 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $240: 120% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-5 years.
North Dakota ($4,300) and Indiana ($4,100) bracket it — a $200 window.
2 states sit within three percent of the $4,250 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | Kentucky | $1,150 |
| 46 | North Carolina | $1,150 |
| 47 | South Carolina | $1,100 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | New Mexico | $4,350 |
| 36 | North Dakota | $4,300 |
| 37 | South Carolina | $4,250 |
| 38 | Indiana | $4,100 |
| 39 | Tennessee | $4,100 |
In South Carolina a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $3,050, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 35% of Criminal Defense ($8,700).
The state does not rank uniformly. South Carolina is 35th of 47 for Criminal Defense but 51st for DUI / DWI, a 16-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 36th on bankruptcy says little about what the other lines cost.
South Carolina is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Criminal Defense runs 15% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 28% below its own midpoint — a 13-point spread between the extremes.
South Carolina'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.
All 7 tracked matter types place South Carolina in the lower third of their tables, the bankruptcy figure included.
In percentile terms it sits at the 24th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,000 | $8,700 | $23,100 | 36 | 35th | −15% | Missouri |
| Divorce | $2,500 | $6,450 | $18,600 | 27 | 50th | −25% | Arkansas |
| DUI / DWI | $2,550 | $5,550 | $13,050 | 25 | 51st | −26% | Oklahoma |
| Immigration | $1,500 | $4,000 | $8,250 | 18 | 41st | −16% | Arkansas |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $3,850 | $12,200 | — | — | −26% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,100 | $3,050 | $4,250 | 15 | 36th | −15% | North Dakota |
| Real Estate Closing | $850 | $1,800 | $3,900 | 9 | 37th | −19% | North Carolina |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $450 | $1,500 | $4,550 | 7 | 44th | −28% | Oklahoma |
Simple tier. $1,100 ÷ $160 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $314 a month. The $1,950 step to the moderate tier is 8 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $3,050 to $4,250 is a $1,200 step weighted toward price: 3 more hours at $200 is $600, but $240 across 18 hours adds $720 — 55% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Wyoming ($3,000) is $50 light, North Dakota ($3,100) is $50 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $550, 11x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At South Carolina's own recorded figures, $4,250 buys 3.9 matters at the $1,100 simple median — or, counted in time, 18 implied hours against 7, a factor of 2.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the South Carolinacourt'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.