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 Vermont, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Vermont costs on average $4,350, typically $3,100-$6,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $370 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 | $1,750 | $3,000 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $3,100 | $4,350 | $6,200 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,500 | $5,850 | $9,400 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $370/ hour
Median: $285/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/vermont/bankruptcy-cost"
title="Vermont 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/vermont/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 Vermont. The recorded median total is $4,350, with reported quotes clustering between $3,100 and $6,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $363–$413, which leaves roughly $3,937–$3,987 of the Vermont 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 $4,350, the median bankruptcy cost in Vermont runs 25% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Vermont carries 3 rows — simple, $1,200–$3,000 at $170–$315/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $3,100–$6,200 at $200–$370/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,500–$9,400 at $230–$455/hr over 3-5 years — on 5 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$4,350 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,250 above the $3,100 floor, $1,850 under the $6,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
Vermont ranks 4th of 47 tracked states for a bankruptcy, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $3,600 midpoint is $750 — 21% — and only 3 states record a higher median.
Connecticut ($4,350) and California ($4,300) bracket Vermont inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 4th is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California among them — record a median within three percent of Vermont's $4,350. The figure sits in the densest part of the bankruptcy distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
The total is doing something the rate does not explain. Vermont sits 14th of 47 on rate at $285 an hour but 4th on total bankruptcy cost, 10 places higher — a signal that recorded matters here run long rather than dear.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Vermont |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $4,400 | +$50 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | $4,400 | +$50 |
| 3 | Connecticut | $4,350 | −$0 |
| 4 | Vermont | $4,350 | — |
| 5 | California | $4,300 | −$50 |
| 6 | New York | $4,300 | −$50 |
| 7 | Virginia | $4,300 | −$50 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | $4,200 | −$150 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $4,100 | −$250 |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | −$250 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 9 below Vermont against 2 above. $0 up or $50 down moves Vermont a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 4th 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 and adding $50 to the $4,350 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under California, New York, Virginia, District of Columbia, Rhode Island: $250.
$50 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $2,000 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $285 an hour, the $4,350 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 Vermont figure than behind the typical state's.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.3x a simple one in Vermont, but the implied workload only rises 2.1x — 8 hours at $230 becomes 17 hours at $340 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.48x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the Vermont moderate band is wide: $3,100 to $6,200, a $3,100 range, $550 wider than the peer-median band of $2,550. End to end that is 11 hours at $285.
A third ordering: by implied hours Vermont is 2nd of 47 at 15 hours, 2 places above its cost rank of 4th on cost — more work behind the same bankruptcy money.
16% up the $3,100–$6,200 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 13 hours at $285 against the 15 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | Vermont | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,350 | 4th |
| Hourly median | $285 | 14th |
| Implied hours | 15 | 2nd |
| Simple median | $1,750 | 4th |
| Complex median | $5,850 | 11th |
$285 an hour puts Vermont between Delaware ($285) and Virginia ($285) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
Alaska, Delaware, Virginia record the same $285: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,350 buys 19 hours at $230, 15 at $285, 13 at $340.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Alaska | $285 |
| 13 | Delaware | $285 |
| 14 | Vermont | $285 |
| 15 | Virginia | $285 |
| 16 | Colorado | $280 |
Ranked tier by tier, Vermont slides 7 places downward: 4th at the simple tier, 4th at moderate, 11th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$1,750 is 4th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Delaware ($1,750) and over Connecticut ($1,700), $250 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$5,850 is 11th of 47 once contested, between Virginia ($5,900) and Alaska ($5,650), $750 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$100 separates the simple ceiling of $3,000 from the moderate floor of $3,100, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $3,500 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Vermont.
| Tier | Vermont | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,750 | 4th | $1,500 | 8 |
| moderate | $4,350 | 4th | $3,600 | 15 |
| complex | $5,850 | 11th | $5,100 | 17 |
$1,750 keeps Vermont at 4th on straightforward matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $250 (17%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
8 implied hours at $230: 53% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-4 months.
Delaware ($1,750) and Connecticut ($1,700) bracket it — a $50 window.
8 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $1,750, denser than the 6 around the moderate row.
$5,850 drops Vermont to 11th of 47 on contested matters, 7 below its moderate position and $750 (15%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $340: 113% of the moderate tier's 15, over 3-5 years.
Virginia ($5,900) and Alaska ($5,650) bracket it — a $250 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $5,850 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Rhode Island | $1,800 |
| 3 | Delaware | $1,750 |
| 4 | Vermont | $1,750 |
| 5 | Connecticut | $1,700 |
| 6 | Illinois | $1,700 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Delaware | $5,900 |
| 10 | Virginia | $5,900 |
| 11 | Vermont | $5,850 |
| 12 | Alaska | $5,650 |
| 13 | Colorado | $5,650 |
In Vermont a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,350, between Personal Injury and Estate Planning / Probate. At 38% of Criminal Defense ($11,550).
Across practice areas Vermont ranges from 4th of 47 for Immigration to 18th for Real Estate Closing — a 14-place spread, with its 4th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 31% above its own midpoint, while Real Estate Closing runs 6% above its own midpoint — 25 percentage points apart. A single "Vermont is expensive" or "Vermont is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Vermont is 4.9x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
6 of 7 matter types rank Vermont in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 1 between; bankruptcy is 4th.
That places the bankruptcy figure in the 93th percentile of the 47 states tracked here.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,700 | $11,550 | $36,650 | 34 | 9th | +13% | Connecticut |
| Divorce | $3,150 | $10,100 | $26,900 | 30 | 13th | +18% | New York |
| DUI / DWI | $3,600 | $8,150 | $18,850 | 26 | 16th | +9% | Maryland |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,200 | $11,600 | 20 | 4th | +31% | Rhode Island |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $6,000 | $17,600 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,750 | $4,350 | $5,850 | 15 | 4th | +21% | Connecticut |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,400 | $6,550 | 8 | 5th | +16% | District of Columbia |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,050 | $2,350 | $5,050 | 8 | 18th | +6% | Utah |
Simple tier. $1,750 ÷ $230 = about 8 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $500 a month. The $2,600 step to the moderate tier is 7 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,350 to $5,850 is a $1,500 step weighted toward price: 2 more hours at $285 is $570, but $340 across 17 hours adds $935 — 62% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. California ($4,300) is $50 light, Connecticut ($4,350) is $0 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $750, 15x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Vermont's own recorded figures, $5,850 buys 3.3 matters at the $1,750 simple median — or, counted in time, 17 implied hours against 8, a factor of 2.1 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Vermontcourt'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.