New Jersey Marriage and Divorce Records: No Divorce Certificate (2026)

New Jersey holds marriage records at the state level from 1951, but it maintains no divorce record at all in its vital records system. A New Jersey divorce lives entirely in the court file, obtained from the Superior Court, and the state health department will simply redirect you there.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This page is part of our state-by-state guide to marriage and divorce records. New Jersey deserves close reading because the two record types follow completely different systems, and the most common request, a divorce record, is not a vital record here at all.

New Jersey Maintains No Divorce Vital Record

This is the single most useful fact on the page. The New Jersey Department of Health registers births, marriages, civil unions, domestic partnerships, and deaths. Divorce is absent from that list, and the department's own divorce page exists only to point elsewhere: "New Jersey divorce decrees are available through the Superior Court of New Jersey Records Center. For more information on obtaining a certified copy of a divorce decree, call the Records Center at: 609-421-6100."

There is no New Jersey divorce certificate, no verification letter from the health department, and no state vital record confirming a dissolution. New Jersey is in the same structural category as Ohio, New Mexico, and North Dakota on the divorce side, although New Jersey reaches that result by omission rather than by an explicit statement that it does not maintain the record.

The practical effect is that anyone asked to produce "proof of divorce" in New Jersey is being asked for the court's judgment, and needs to plan for a court records request rather than a vital records order.

How to Get a New Jersey Judgment of Divorce

Requests go to the Superior Court Clerk's Office. According to the Judiciary's own guidance, you should supply either the docket number, which begins with M or FM, along with the case title and the county of venue, or, if the docket number is unknown, the first and last names of both parties, the county where the divorce occurred, and the approximate year.

The fee is modest, though the Judiciary quotes it two ways. Its divorce FAQ states that "The minimum fee for a certified copy of a judgment of divorce is $10." Its Copies of Court Records fee list is more granular, pricing a Certificate of Divorce at $10 and a certified copy of the Final Judgment of Divorce itself at $25, with plain copies at five cents per letter-size page. Be specific about which document you want when you ask, because the two are priced differently.

Who may receive the document is the more important question, and the Judiciary answers it narrowly: "when requesting divorce documents, those documents will only be released to a party to the case or the attorney of record." A requesting party must include a valid state ID; anyone else must supply a court order directing the clerk to release the documents. The request itself goes on Records Request Form CN 10200, submitted through the Judiciary Electronic Document system or mailed to the Superior Court Clerk's Office, P.O. Box 971, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0971.

One logistical wrinkle: the Records Center does not hold every judgment. As the Judiciary explains, it "does not store all Judgments of Divorce at our facility," and depending on the year of the divorce a request may be forwarded to the county Family Division office for handling. Older judgments migrate to the Records Center over time, while more recent ones may still sit with the county. Expect the search to locate the docket first and the copy to follow.

For the substantive law that governs how a New Jersey divorce is decided, see New Jersey divorce laws.

New Jersey Marriage Records Start in 1951

On the marriage side New Jersey does run a conventional state vital records system. The Office of Vital Statistics and Registry lists exactly what it maintains, and its current statement is that it holds "Marriage records starting at 1951," alongside birth records from 1925 and death records from 1951.

That 1951 date is worth flagging because a widely reproduced federal reference page gives 1918 for New Jersey marriage records. That figure appears in material last reviewed years ago and is stated as a blanket range covering several record types at once. The state's own current page is the better authority, and 1951 is the number to work from.

Three offices can be involved:

• The state office in Trenton, for records from 1951 forward.
• The local registrar in the municipality where the marriage was recorded, which holds its own copy.
• The New Jersey State Archives, for the historical material described below.

Who Can Get a New Jersey Marriage Certificate

New Jersey is a restricted-access state and says so bluntly: "New Jersey law protects and restricts the release of vital records. Vital records are not public records and cannot be searched online."

A certified copy is limited to a defined group: the person named on the record, a parent, a legal guardian or legal representative, a spouse, a child, a grandchild, or a sibling who is of legal age, together with state or federal agencies acting for official purposes, requests made pursuant to a court order, and other emergent circumstances the Commissioner determines.

Applicants outside that group are not simply refused. They can receive a Certification, a non-legal copy that shows the record's information but cannot be used to establish identity or legal rights. Understanding that split avoids a common disappointment, where a requester receives a document that looks official and then finds it rejected for a passport, a name change, or an immigration filing.

Where the target is a court file rather than a certificate, a different access framework applies; see New Jersey public records laws.

Fees and Ordering Channels

As of August 2026, the state charges $25.00 for the initial search, which includes one certified copy, a Certification, or a No Record Statement, and $2.00 for each additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time. Both figures are published on the department's "Fees at a Glance" schedule at nj.gov/health/vital/order-vital/fees/, which is also where to check before assuming a figure quoted elsewhere still holds.

Court fees are separate and are set by the Judiciary, not the health department. Do not carry a vital-records figure into a court request or the reverse.

New Jersey names VitalChek directly as its online and telephone channel, at 877-622-7549, and also offers same-day walk-in service at 140 E. Front Street in Trenton. The Trenton walk-in center no longer accepts cash as of June 2026, so bring another payment method. The local registrar in the municipality of record is a fourth route and is often the quickest for a recent marriage.

Our general guide to getting a copy of your marriage certificate covers the identification documents and the mechanics that apply in every state.

Historical and Genealogical Records

Older New Jersey material sits with the New Jersey State Archives rather than with the Department of Health. Two distinct holdings matter, and they are frequently conflated into a single date range that does not exist.

The first is the colonial-era collection of New Jersey marriage records covering roughly 1665 to 1800, available as a searchable database on the Archives website. The second is the post-registration material: original birth, marriage, and death records from May 1, 1848 through December 31, 1916, with microfilm copies of marriage records for 1848 to 1914 available for in-person use.

There is no single Archives holding spanning 1665 to 1940, and a researcher planning around that range will be disappointed. Treat the two collections separately and confirm current access arrangements with the Archives before travelling.

Confirming Whether Someone Is Married or Divorced in New Jersey

New Jersey is one of the harder states for this question, for two different reasons on the two sides of the ledger.

Marriage records are closed. They are not public records, they cannot be searched online, and a requester who is not on the eligibility list cannot obtain a certified copy. There is no free public index to browse.

Divorce sits in a different system, but do not read that as a more open one. The Judiciary's own guidance describes the Records Center mechanics in terms of a party retrieving their own judgment: you supply the docket number, or the parties' names, county, and approximate year, and you submit a records request form with a valid state ID. The Judiciary is explicit that "when requesting divorce documents, those documents will only be released to a party to the case or the attorney of record," and that anyone else must provide a court order directing the clerk to release the documents.

So the honest summary is that neither layer is browsable by a stranger in New Jersey. If you are a party or that party's attorney, the court route is straightforward. If you are not, the docket may still be locatable through the court's public case information, but obtaining the judgment itself is a question to put directly to the Superior Court Clerk's Office rather than something to assume. Confirm access with the Records Center at 609-421-6100 before planning around it.

Commercial background-check products handle marriage and divorce data poorly, and using any consumer report to screen someone for employment or housing triggers Fair Credit Reporting Act obligations that a personal search does not satisfy. Our guide to finding out if someone is married or divorced walks through the lawful options.

Couples who never obtained a license have no certificate to look up at all, since New Jersey does not recognize new common-law marriages; see New Jersey common-law marriage. For the sibling record type, see New Jersey death records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how New Jersey marriage records and divorce judgments are held and released. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, ordering channels, and record locations change without notice; confirm current details with the New Jersey Office of Vital Statistics and Registry or the Superior Court Clerk's Office. For advice about a specific situation, consult an attorney licensed in New Jersey.

---

Last updated: 2026-08-04. Fees and procedures reflect the sources cited as of that date.