What a hire actually costs
- Salary: roughly $55,000–$70,000 for an experienced bankruptcy paralegal, depending on your market
- Payroll taxes and benefits: typically another 25–30% on top of salary
- A bankruptcy software seat, plus general office tooling
- Recruiting: bankruptcy-experienced paralegals are scarce; searches commonly run two to three months
- Training and management time — yours, billed at your rate
- The slow months: the salary runs in February whether or not the cases came in
Call it $6,000–$7,500 a month before the employee drafts a single schedule. That's a fine trade for a practice filing at volume — and a heavy fixed cost for everyone else.
What outsourcing costs at your volume
- 3 cases a month: roughly $900–$1,500 — versus ~$7,000 for a hire doing the same three petitions
- 8 cases a month: roughly $2,400–$4,000 — still less than half the all-in cost of an employee
- 15–20 cases a month: $4,500–$10,000 — this is where a dedicated hire starts to compete on price
- 0 cases in a slow month: $0
What the math misses — in both directions
To be fair to the hire: an employee does more than petitions. They answer the phone, run your calendar, sit with clients, and absorb whatever the day brings. If you need a person in the office, the comparison isn't really about petitions at all.
To be fair to outsourcing: a single employee is also a single point of failure. Vacation, sick weeks, resignation, and retraining all land on you — and turnover means starting the $70,000 clock over with a two-month search. A bankruptcy-only team carries coverage, consistency, and quality-control review as part of the fee, and it scales in both directions: send more when you're busy, nothing when you're not.
The decision, by filing volume
Under 5 filings a month
Outsource per case. A hire at this volume costs you more per petition than the fees the cases generate. This is the clearest call of the three.
5–15 filings a month
Outsource, or run a hybrid: office staff for client contact, per-case drafting sent out. You keep flexibility while the practice grows into a hire.
15+ steady filings a month
A dedicated in-house paralegal starts to make sense — and firms at this volume still use per-case overflow for spikes, vacancies, and vacations rather than turning cases away.
The per-case numbers
$300 personal Chapter 7 · $400 business Chapter 7 · $400 Chapter 13 without plan · $500 with plan · Chapter 11 at $90/hour with a hourly · overflow tasks at $70/hour. Prepared in your Best Case, Jubilee, or NextChapter; you review, sign, and file.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a full-time bankruptcy paralegal really cost?
Plan on roughly $70,000–$90,000 a year all-in: a $55,000–$70,000 salary depending on market and experience, plus payroll taxes and benefits (typically 25–30% on top), a bankruptcy software seat, recruiting and training time, and paid time off you cover regardless of filing volume.
When does hiring beat outsourcing?
When your filing volume is high and steady. At roughly 15–20 consumer filings every month, a dedicated employee starts to pencil out — especially since an employee also answers phones, manages the calendar, and does non-petition work. Below that volume, you're paying full-time money for part-time output.
Can I combine an in-house paralegal with outsourcing?
Yes, and many firms do exactly that: staff covers the baseline and client contact, and overflow petitions go out per case when volume spikes, someone's on vacation, or a position is being refilled. You never turn away cases because of desk capacity.
Is outsourced work supervised the same way?
Everything we prepare goes through our quality-control review and then your review — you sign and file, exactly as you would with an employee's draft. We work in your own Best Case, Jubilee, or NextChapter, under your supervision. We are not a petition preparer and give no legal advice.
Services are provided exclusively to licensed attorneys and law firms. We are not a bankruptcy petition preparer and do not provide legal advice or services to the public.