Arkansas Marriage & Divorce Records: State Copies for $10

Arkansas runs a conventional two-layer records system. The county clerk issues and keeps the marriage license, the state health department keeps a copy and sells certified copies, and the circuit court keeps divorce case files. What sets Arkansas apart is the price: $10.00 a copy is at the bottom of the national range, less than half what several neighboring states charge.

This page covers obtaining documents. For grounds, residency, and process, see Arkansas divorce laws. For the state-by-state comparison, see the marriage and divorce records hub.

Arkansas marriage records: county clerk plus state copy

A marriage in Arkansas starts at a county clerk's office, which issues the license. After the ceremony the completed license is returned there and recorded. That county clerk remains the custodian of the original for its own county, and county holdings can reach back to the county's formation, which for the older counties means the early nineteenth century.

The Arkansas Department of Health, Office of Vital Records holds the state's copy and is the office most people should use for a modern record. It sells certified copies through its own ordering system.

One honest caveat on coverage. ADH's current marriage and divorce ordering pages do not state a coverage start year, and we could not confirm a start date against an ADH page as of August 2026. Treat any specific start year you see published elsewhere as unverified until ADH states it on its own page. The practical rule is unaffected: if ADH cannot find your record, the county clerk (marriage) or circuit clerk (divorce) is the custodian to try, and county coverage predates the state's.

Arkansas divorce records: decree versus record

Decide which document you need before ordering, because the two come from different offices.

The decree is the circuit court's judgment. It carries the terms, meaning property division, alimony, custody, child support, and name restoration. It is a court file, held by the circuit clerk in the county where the divorce was granted. Arkansas domestic relations cases are heard in circuit court, which absorbed the former chancery jurisdiction, so older files may be catalogued under chancery.

The divorce record from ADH is the vital record. It confirms who divorced, when, and in which county. It does not contain the terms. For a name change, a remarriage, a benefits filing, or an immigration matter, this is usually the document requested, and it is faster and cheaper than pulling a certified court file.

If an agency demands "the divorce papers," ask specifically whether it wants proof that a divorce occurred or the terms of the judgment. The answer determines which office you write to.

Who may request, and what is public

ADH's ordering pages describe requests as coming from "eligible individuals" and link to a separate identification-requirements document rather than spelling out the eligibility class in the page text. We were not able to render that document as text, so we are not going to reproduce an eligibility sentence we did not read on an official Arkansas source.

What can be said accurately as of August 2026:

• ADH does not run a free public search. Every request is an application with a fee attached, and it requires acceptable identification.
• ADH flags genealogical requests for events before 1935 as non-routine, which slows processing but does not bar the request.
• We found no Arkansas analogue to California's confidential-marriage program, and no categorical sealing statute for marriage or divorce records on an official source. As always, an individual court file can be sealed by order in a specific case.

Court files are the other access layer. Divorce case files at the circuit clerk are court records, and access questions there run through the courts and Arkansas public-records framework rather than through ADH. See Arkansas public records laws for that route.

Fees and how to order

Figures are as of August 2026 from ADH's own pages. The $10.00 functions as a search fee: if no record is found, ADH retains it.

Steps:

1. Decide which document you need. ADH record for proof of the event; circuit clerk decree for the terms.
2. Collect full names including maiden name, the approximate date, and the county.
3. Order from ADH online through its own vital-records portal, by mail to Arkansas Department of Health, Vital Records, Slot 44, 4815 West Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72205, in person at that address on weekdays, or by phone at the number ADH publishes.
4. Include acceptable identification as ADH's requirements document directs.
5. For a decree, apply separately to the circuit clerk in the county of the divorce, and ask that office for its own copy and certification fees.

A note on channels. VitalChek is not named on ADH's own marriage or divorce ordering pages; Arkansas routes online orders through the state's own vital-records ordering system. Do not assume the VitalChek route applies here simply because it does in neighboring states.

Older records and genealogy

For a marriage older than the state's holdings, the county clerk is the custodian, and the older counties hold licenses back to their formation. For an older divorce, the circuit clerk holds the file, including material that predates the chancery-to-circuit consolidation.

ADH's own handling of pre-1935 requests as genealogical rather than routine is a useful signal about where the practical line sits. Build in extra time for anything that old.

Arkansas recognizes common-law marriages only when they were validly formed in a state that permits them; it does not allow them to be created in Arkansas. That matters here because no license and no certificate exists for such a marriage. See Arkansas common-law marriage.

Related Arkansas pages

See Arkansas death records for the sibling process at the same ADH office. For cross-state process, see how to get a copy of your marriage certificate and how to find out if someone is married or divorced.