Divorce Filing Fee and Earliest Final Date in Your State

Every line of a result comes from one row of the divorce dataset behind this site's 51-row chart of filing fees, waiting periods and rules, checked on October 14, 2026; a row resting on a national comparison table links that table. The tool adds, averages and estimates nothing: it reads the cells of the state you choose, uses your answers to decide which cells apply, and shows each one with the link it came from.

The four questions each change what a result shows. Contested or uncontested decides whether a waiting period recorded for one agreed path, such as an Ohio dissolution, a Pennsylvania mutual consent divorce or a Massachusetts joint petition, can be counted at all. Minor children add the parenting class line and pick the longer period where a state sets one for families with children: Michigan counts six months instead of 60 days and Tennessee 90 days instead of 60. The fee waiver question puts the state's recorded waiver path beside the fee. The filing date is optional and is only the day the count starts.

A waiting period the statute writes in days is counted in calendar days from the filing date entered, and one it writes in months is counted in calendar months, so six months from March 1 is September 1, not 180 days later. California, Michigan, Rhode Island and South Carolina write their periods in months (Michigan only with minor children). What the period runs from differs by state, and the result says which kind applies. In 18 states the statute counts from the filing of the petition or complaint, so the date shown is the earliest the recorded rule allows. In 11 states it counts from service on the other spouse, which can only come on or after filing, so the real date is that day or later. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont count from a later step in the case, such as the entry of a decree nisi or the trial and decision.

Some states get no date at all. Kentucky's 60 days are days of living apart, which can begin before anyone files. West Virginia's 20 days come from a national table that does not name what the period runs from. In the 17 jurisdictions with no statutory wait after filing, nothing is counted, because the court's calendar and the steps of the case set the date. A contested case can run far past any of these minimums, and because the dataset records no typical length for one, the tool shows none.

It shows no attorney fee. No attorney fee in this dataset is sourced, so the tool sticks to the parts of a divorce bill that are fixed and public: the court's filing fee and, where one exists, the path to have it waived. Service of process, a response fee paid by the other spouse, the price of a parenting class and certified copies are left out unless the state's fee note names them.

It also gives no view on your particular case. It does not say whether you need a lawyer, which court or county to file in, or how a judge will rule on property, support or custody.

Filing fees come from state court fee schedules and statutes for 44 of the 51 jurisdictions, and from FindLaw's July 2026 state table where a court page could not be reached. 11 fees are marked for a check against a current court schedule (Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington), and a result says so when one of them is picked. Residency rules and waiting periods are quoted from the state code or court self-help pages with the section number, and 42 of the 51 waiting periods rest on a primary source.

Parenting class and mediation rules come from the statute or court page named in the row, and an unchecked cell stays blank rather than guessed. Court fee schedules are often adjusted on July 1, and statutes can change after a legislative session, so open the source link on your result line before you pay. The chart's updated date shows when any cell last changed.