Divorce Cost Calculator by State

Divorce filing fees by state

35 of the 51 jurisdictions (50 states and DC) set the divorce filing fee statewide, by statute or a statewide court schedule; in 6 of them some counties add small local charges. In the other 16, each county or court sets its own total, so the table shows an example county (usually the most populous). The lowest statewide-or-example fee is $80 (District of Columbia) and the highest is $435 (California).

Each fee links to the official schedule it came from. Fees change, often on July 1 or January 1, so the amount your clerk charges on the day you file is the one that counts.

Scheduled change: from March 1, 2031, the Michigan filing fee is $150 (MCL 600.1993 (sunset of the $25 electronic filing system fee); MCL 600.2529). (source)

Scheduled change: from November 1, 2026, the Wisconsin filing fee is $273 (2025 Wisconsin Act 179, Section 85 (effective the first day of the 7th month after publication on April 4, 2026); Wis. Stat. 814.61(1)(a),(b), 814.85(1)(a), 814.86(1) as amended). (source)

Uncontested vs contested: where the money goes

In an uncontested divorce, you and your spouse agree on property, debts, support and, if you have children, custody and parenting time. The court costs are mostly the filing fee. If your spouse signs an acceptance or waiver of service, there is no sheriff or process server to pay.

In a contested divorce, the court costs grow a little: the other spouse may pay a response fee, the papers usually have to be served, and some states require mediation or a parenting class. The big difference is lawyer time. Discovery, motions, hearings and a trial are billed by the hour, which is why the calculator asks for hours rather than guessing a total.

14 of the 51 jurisdictions require a parenting class in some or all divorces with minor children. Where the price is set by the class provider rather than by a court, the calculator says so instead of inventing a number.

If you can't afford the court fees

Every state has a way to ask the court to waive filing fees for a person who cannot afford them, though in a few states an approved request defers the fees or sets up a payment plan instead. The rules differ: some states look at whether you receive public benefits, others at your income compared with the federal poverty guidelines, and some ask the judge to decide from a sworn statement of your finances. The table above links each state's form.

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971) that a state may not deny access to its divorce courts to people who, in good faith, seek a divorce, solely because they cannot pay the court fees. Filing the waiver form does not guarantee a waiver; the court decides.

Lawyer and mediator fees

No official source publishes what a divorce costs in lawyer fees, and the surveys you see quoted are old and vary widely. So the calculator does not guess. If you enter the hours a lawyer estimates, it prices them at your state's average billed family-law rate from Clio's Legal Trends data (2025), or at a rate you enter.

Many lawyers handle an uncontested divorce for a flat fee, and many offer limited-scope help, such as reviewing forms you prepared. Private mediators set their own rates. Some courts run free or low-cost mediation programs; where a court sets the price, the calculator includes it.

How we calculated this

For each state we read the official fee schedule, statute or court rule, and saved the exact text each amount came from. An independent check then re-opened the sources to try to prove each number wrong. Where no official source states an amount, such as a sheriff fee set by each county, the calculator shows "set locally" and links where to ask.

Values were checked on October 24, 2026. The calculator runs in your browser and does not store or send anything you enter.