What Lawyers Charge in the US: Rates and Flat Fees Posted by 181 Firms
Hourly rates, paid first consultations and flat fees for an uncontested divorce, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and a first DUI, as law firms in large US cities post them on their own websites in November 2026. Test a quote against the ranges.
Updated
The middle posted hourly rate among lawyers who publish one is $438, and half of the paid first meetings cost between $100 and $350. Flat fees run from around $1,500 to $3,500 for an uncontested divorce and $825 to $1,648 for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. These ranges come from the price pages of 181 law firms in large US cities, read in November 2026, so they describe what firms post, not what every case costs.
Put your quote next to what firms publish
Pick the kind of fee, type the amount you were quoted and see where it falls among the firms that post that price.
Five prices firms post, and one court cost
The range is the middle half of the firms, so one in four posts less and one in four posts more. The last column says what was counted.
| Fee | Middle half of firms | Median | Based on | What was counted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyer hourly rateper hour | $334 to $500 | $438 | 30 firms in 18 cities | Rates on the firms' own fee or FAQ pages. One rate per firm, the middle one when a firm lists several lawyers. Mediation, paralegal and travel rates left out. |
| Paid first consultationper meeting | $100 to $350 | $200 | 91 firms in 36 cities | Fee for the first meeting, as the firm states it. Free consultations are not in this count because most firms do not state them as a price. |
| Uncontested divorce, flat feewhole case | $1,500 to $3,500 | $1,975 | 19 firms in 13 cities | A fee for the divorce itself with the spouses in agreement, before court costs. When a firm lists several versions, the lowest. |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy, attorney feewhole case | $825 to $1,648 | $1,195 | 17 firms in 14 cities | Attorney fee only. Court filing costs, business cases and partial or upfront payments are left out. When a firm lists several versions, the lowest. |
| First-offense DUI or DWI defensewhole case | $2,500 to $5,125 | $4,125 | 22 firms in 16 cities | Flat fee for a first-offense case, misdemeanor level. Repeat, aggravated and felony versions are left out. When a firm lists several, the lowest. |
| Federal court cost to file Chapter 7court, not lawyer | $338 in total | US Courts | $245 case fee plus $78 administrative fee plus a $15 trustee charge, as the US Courts fee schedule and bankruptcy basics page list them. Adding them is our own sum. Some court pages still show the older $335. | |
Source for all firm rows: the firms' own websites, read in November 2026, in cities such as Austin, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle. Median figures are rounded to the dollar.
The same divorce, priced by what is in the file
A single flat fee hides the fact that firms split it by what the case contains. Three firms in our sample post two versions of the same uncontested divorce:
Without children and with children.
Without minor children and with minor children.
Without children and with children.
Children added between $425 and $1,000 in these three. Property and debts are the other usual driver, and in the same sample the lowest post in 19 uncontested prices is $425 while the highest is $4,500.
Ask these before you sign a fee agreement
- Is this a flat fee, an hourly rate or a retainer you draw down? If it is a retainer, what happens to what is left?
- What is not included: court costs, process servers, experts, appeals, a hearing that runs long?
- Who will do the work, a lawyer or a paralegal, and what does each cost per hour?
- If the fee is a percentage of what you recover, is it counted before or after expenses?
- Is the agreement in writing, and does it say what happens if you end the relationship halfway?
These are questions, not legal rules. Your state's rules on fee agreements differ, and the state bar named on our license check page is the place to ask what applies.
How we read the price pages
Of the 483 firms on Lawyers List with at least one price on their website, 181 posted a figure we could place in one of the five fees above. Each firm counts once per fee, even when it posts the number on several pages. Court filing fees, discounts, coupons, deposits and prices for the second, third or aggravated version of a case were set aside, and a figure outside a plausible range for its fee was dropped.
On November 12, 2026 we went back to the firm's page for 24 randomly chosen prices. We found the amount on the page in 23 of them. In the other, a first-offense DUI fee, the page no longer showed any price, so we removed that firm and recalculated. The figures are what firms post and not what clients pay: nobody has audited their invoices.
Sources
- Price pages of the firms in the sample, read November 2026. The list is in our research file and available on request.
- US Courts, Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule, effective December 1, 2023.
- US Courts, Chapter 7 bankruptcy basics.
Written by the Lawyers List editorial team. Checked November 12, 2026. Prices change, and nothing here is legal advice.