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 Washington, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a bankruptcy in Washington costs on average $4,100, typically $2,950-$5,900 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $210 to $390 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 | $1,150 | $1,700 | $2,800 | 3-4 months |
| Moderate | $2,950 | $4,100 | $5,900 | 3-5 years |
| Complex | $3,800 | $6,350 | $10,100 | 3-5 years |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $390/ hour
Median: $300/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 Washington. The recorded median total is $4,100, with reported quotes clustering between $2,950 and $5,900. 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 Washington 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 Washington runs 18% above the $3,479 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Washington carries 3 rows — simple, $1,150–$2,800 at $180–$330/hr over 3-4 months; moderate, $2,950–$5,900 at $210–$390/hr over 3-5 years; complex, $3,800–$10,100 at $240–$480/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 — $1,150 above the $2,950 floor, $1,800 under the $5,900 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 47.
Washington ranks 10th 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 9 states record a higher median.
Rhode Island ($4,100) and Minnesota ($4,050) bracket Washington inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 10th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New Hampshire among them — record a median within three percent of Washington'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.
The two rankings disagree sharply. Washington attorneys sit 4th of 47 on hourly rate at $300 an hour, but the state is only 10th on total bankruptcy cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | −$0 |
| 10 | Washington | $4,100 | — |
| 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 |
| 16 | Maryland | $3,800 | −$300 |
The 10th position is not a stable fact about Washington: $0 up or $50 down moves Washington 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 California, New York, Virginia, District of Columbia, Rhode Island and adding $200 to the $4,100 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin: $200.
$300 short of Hawaii ($4,400), $1,750 clear of Kentucky ($2,350).
At $300 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 Washington is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex bankruptcy costs 3.7x a simple one in Washington, but the implied workload only rises 2.6x — 7 hours at $240 becomes 18 hours at $360 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.5x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
In dollars the Washington moderate band is wide: $2,950 to $5,900, a $2,950 range, $400 wider than the peer-median band of $2,550. End to end that is 10 hours at $300.
By implied hours Washington falls to 28th of 47 at 14 hours, 18 places below its 10th on cost — the bankruptcy total arriving on less recorded work.
22% up the $2,950–$5,900 band sits the $3,600 table midpoint, buying 12 hours at $300 against the 14 the local bankruptcy median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | Washington | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,100 | 10th |
| Hourly median | $300 | 4th |
| Implied hours | 14 | 28th |
| Simple median | $1,700 | 10th |
| Complex median | $6,350 | 2nd |
$300 an hour puts Washington between New York ($300) and California ($295) — not the bankruptcy cost pairing.
New Jersey, New York record the same $300: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,100 buys 17 hours at $240, 14 at $300, 11 at $360.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | New Jersey | $300 |
| 3 | New York | $300 |
| 4 | Washington | $300 |
| 5 | California | $295 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $295 |
Washington moves up the table as complexity rises: 10th at the simple tier, 10th at moderate, 2nd at complex, a 8-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$1,700 is 10th of 47 on a straightforward bankruptcy, under Utah ($1,700) and over Arizona ($1,650), $200 over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
$6,350 is 2nd of 47 once contested, between Hawaii ($6,550) and Massachusetts ($6,200), $1,250 off the $5,100 tier midpoint.
$150 separates the simple ceiling of $2,800 from the moderate floor of $2,950, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $3,800 upward. The expensive end of a routine bankruptcy and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in Washington.
| Tier | Washington | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,700 | 10th | $1,500 | 7 |
| moderate | $4,100 | 10th | $3,600 | 14 |
| complex | $6,350 | 2nd | $5,100 | 18 |
$1,700 keeps Washington at 10th on straightforward matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $200 (13%) over the $1,500 tier midpoint.
7 implied hours at $240: 50% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-4 months.
Utah ($1,700) and Arizona ($1,650) bracket it — a $50 window.
14 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $1,700, denser than the 4 around the moderate row.
$6,350 puts Washington 2nd of 47 on contested matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $1,250 (25%) over the $5,100 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $360: 129% of the moderate tier's 14, over 3-5 years.
Hawaii ($6,550) and Massachusetts ($6,200) bracket it — a $350 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $6,350 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | New Jersey | $1,700 |
| 9 | Utah | $1,700 |
| 10 | Washington | $1,700 |
| 11 | Arizona | $1,650 |
| 12 | California | $1,650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $6,550 |
| 2 | Washington | $6,350 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | $6,200 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $6,200 |
In Washington a bankruptcy is 6th of 8 at $4,100, between Personal Injury and Real Estate Closing. At 36% of Divorce ($11,450).
Across practice areas Washington ranges from 1st of 47 for DUI / DWI to 13th for Estate Planning / Probate — a 12-place spread, with its 10th on bankruptcy inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 34% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 6% above its own midpoint — 28 percentage points apart. A single "Washington is expensive" or "Washington is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Washington is 5.2x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
Every one of the 7 matter types tracked for Washington places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 10th on bankruptcy is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 80th percentile of the 47 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,800 | $11,450 | $27,500 | 32 | 2nd | +34% | Hawaii |
| Criminal Defense | $4,200 | $11,450 | $33,850 | 32 | 10th | +12% | Vermont |
| DUI / DWI | $4,300 | $9,800 | $19,100 | 30 | 1st | +32% | — |
| Immigration | $2,600 | $6,200 | $14,100 | 19 | 5th | +31% | Vermont |
| Personal Injury | $1,950 | $6,000 | $19,850 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $4,100 | $6,350 | 14 | 10th | +14% | Rhode Island |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,200 | $2,800 | $5,450 | 9 | 3rd | +26% | New York |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $7,400 | 7 | 13th | +6% | Texas |
Simple tier. $1,700 ÷ $240 = about 7 hours, spread over 3-4 months at roughly $486 a month. The $2,400 step to the moderate tier is 7 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,100 to $6,350 is a $2,250 step weighted toward price: 4 more hours at $300 is $1,200, but $360 across 18 hours adds $1,080 — 47% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. Minnesota ($4,050) is $50 light, Rhode Island ($4,100) is $0 heavy — but the $3,600 table midpoint is out by $500, 10x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Washington's own recorded figures, $6,350 buys 3.7 matters at the $1,700 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 Washingtoncourt'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.