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 Washington, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a criminal defense in Washington costs on average $11,450, typically $5,750-$17,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $240 to $480 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 | $2,400 | $4,200 | $6,000 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,750 | $11,450 | $17,200 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $16,900 | $33,850 | $56,400 | 6-12+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$240 – $480/ hour
Median: $360/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 Washington. The recorded median total is $11,450, with reported quotes clustering between $5,750 and $17,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,600–$7,300, which leaves roughly $4,150–$9,850 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 $11,450, the median criminal defense cost in Washington runs 16% above the $9,905 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Washington carries 3 rows — simple, $2,400–$6,000 at $180–$360/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,750–$17,200 at $240–$480/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $16,900–$56,400 at $360–$600/hr over 6-12+ months — on 3 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$11,450 is a median, not the middle of the band — $5,700 above the $5,750 floor, $5,750 under the $17,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Washington ranks 10th of 51 tracked states for a criminal defense, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $10,200 midpoint is $1,250 — 12% — and only 9 states record a higher median.
Vermont ($11,550) and Utah ($11,400) bracket Washington inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 10th is close to arbitrary.
6 tracked states — Connecticut, Vermont, Utah, Oregon among them — record a median within three percent of Washington's $11,450. 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.
The two rankings disagree sharply. Washington attorneys sit 2nd of 51 on hourly rate at $360 an hour, but the state is only 10th on total criminal defense cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | New York | $12,450 | +$1,000 |
| 5 | District of Columbia | $12,250 | +$800 |
| 6 | California | $12,050 | +$600 |
| 7 | Virginia | $11,850 | +$400 |
| 8 | Connecticut | $11,700 | +$250 |
| 9 | Vermont | $11,550 | +$100 |
| 10 | Washington | $11,450 | — |
| 11 | Utah | $11,400 | −$50 |
| 12 | Oregon | $11,350 | −$100 |
| 13 | New Jersey | $11,200 | −$250 |
| 14 | Delaware | $11,150 | −$300 |
| 15 | Arizona | $11,050 | −$400 |
| 16 | Texas | $10,950 | −$500 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 15 below Washington against 7 above. $100 up or $50 down moves Washington a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 10th position is propped up by a thin criminal defense field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing District of Columbia, California, Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont and adding $800 to the $11,450 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Utah, Oregon, New Jersey, Delaware, Arizona: $400.
$1,900 short of Hawaii ($13,350), $4,850 clear of Alabama ($6,600).
The $11,450 median divided by the $360 median rate implies roughly 32 billable hours. The peer median is 34 hours: Washington reaches its total in 2 fewer implied hours, because the rate rather than the workload carries more of it.
The 8.1x step from the simple to the complex tier breaks down as 4.4x the hours against 1.78x the rate — 16 hours at $270 becomes 71 hours at $480. Hours dominate, but the rate contribution is large enough to notice.
From $5,750 to $17,200 the moderate band is $11,450 wide, close to the $10,200 peer median. End to end that is 32 hours at $360.
Across the 3-6 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $11,450 median is roughly $2,544 a month of elapsed time.
By implied hours Washington falls to 42nd of 51 at 32 hours, 32 places below its 10th on cost — the criminal defense total arriving on less recorded work.
39% up the $5,750–$17,200 band sits the $10,200 table midpoint, buying 28 hours at $360 against the 32 the local criminal defense median implies — 4 hours apart.
| Measure | Washington | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $11,450 | 10th |
| Hourly median | $360 | 2nd |
| Implied hours | 32 | 42nd |
| Simple median | $4,200 | 7th |
| Complex median | $33,850 | 10th |
$360 an hour puts Washington between Hawaii ($405) and New Jersey ($355) — not the criminal defense cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $360 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Washington on its own within this dataset.
$11,450 buys 42 hours at $270, 32 at $360, 24 at $480.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $405 |
| 2 | Washington | $360 |
| 3 | New Jersey | $355 |
| 4 | New York | $355 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 7th at the simple tier, 10th at moderate, 10th at complex of 51 — so Washington keeps roughly the same relative position whether the criminal defense is straightforward or contested.
$4,200 is 7th of 51 on a straightforward criminal defense, under California ($4,200) and over Colorado ($4,050), $800 over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
$33,850 is 10th of 51 once contested, between New York ($34,800) and Connecticut ($33,700), $3,950 off the $29,900 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Washington: the simple tier reaches $6,000 where the moderate tier starts at $5,750, and the moderate tier reaches $17,200 where the complex tier starts at $16,900. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Washington | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $4,200 | 7th | $3,400 | 16 |
| moderate | $11,450 | 10th | $10,200 | 32 |
| complex | $33,850 | 10th | $29,900 | 71 |
$4,200 puts Washington 7th of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $800 (24%) over the $3,400 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $270: 50% of the moderate tier's 32, over 1-3 months.
California ($4,200) and Colorado ($4,050) bracket it — a $150 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $4,200 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
$33,850 keeps Washington at 10th on contested matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $3,950 (13%) over the $29,900 tier midpoint.
71 implied hours at $480: 222% of the moderate tier's 32, over 6-12+ months.
New York ($34,800) and Connecticut ($33,700) bracket it — a $1,100 window.
6 states sit within three percent of the $33,850 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | New York | $4,250 |
| 6 | California | $4,200 |
| 7 | Washington | $4,200 |
| 8 | Colorado | $4,050 |
| 9 | Connecticut | $4,050 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Massachusetts | $34,850 |
| 9 | New York | $34,800 |
| 10 | Washington | $33,850 |
| 11 | Connecticut | $33,700 |
| 12 | Maryland | $33,450 |
$11,450 ranks a criminal defense 2nd of 8 in Washington, under Divorce, over DUI / DWI. At 100% of Divorce ($11,450).
Across practice areas Washington ranges from 1st of 51 for DUI / DWI to 13th for Estate Planning / Probate — a 12-place spread, with its 10th on criminal defense 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 criminal defense is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 82th percentile of the 51 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. $4,200 ÷ $270 = about 16 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $2,100 a month. The $7,250 step to the moderate tier is 16 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $11,450 to $33,850 is a $22,400 step, mostly work: 39 more hours at $360 is $14,040, while moving to $480 across 71 hours adds $8,520. Work carries 62%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Utah ($11,400) is $50 light, Vermont ($11,550) is $100 heavy — but the $10,200 table midpoint is out by $1,250, 13x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,750 is 16 hours at $360; $17,200 is 48. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate criminal defense, that is 4 to 11 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At Washington's own recorded figures, $33,850 buys 8.1 matters at the $4,200 simple median — or, counted in time, 71 implied hours against 16, a factor of 4.4 — 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.