How Much Does Divorce Cost in Florida?

The two costs in every Florida divorce

However you divorce, your bill is really made of two separate buckets:

1. The court filing fee — paid to the county Clerk of Court. Everyone pays it, and it barely changes.
2. The cost of preparing your documents — this is the number that swings wildly, from nearly nothing (do it yourself) to five figures (a contested case with lawyers).

Keep those two buckets separate in your head and Florida divorce pricing suddenly makes sense. The filing fee is fixed. The preparation cost is a choice.

The Florida court filing fee (and the small extras)

The fee to file a petition for dissolution of marriage in Florida is about $408. It's set by statute, so it's consistent across all 67 counties, though small county surcharges can nudge it a few dollars higher. A handful of smaller charges can ride along with it:

What each route really costs

Here's the whole market on one page — total cost by how you choose to handle the paperwork:

The single biggest cost driver in any divorce isn't a lawyer's hourly rate — it's conflict. Every disagreement is more attorney hours. That's why an uncontested divorce, where you settle the terms between yourselves, costs a fraction of a contested one. If you're still weighing whether you qualify to file the simple way, our guide on how to file for divorce in Florida walks through it.

What a divorce lawyer costs in Florida

Lawyers bill two ways. For a simple uncontested case, many Florida attorneys offer a flat fee — roughly $499 to $2,500, higher with children. For anything contested, you're billed by the hour — commonly $260 to $400 an hour — usually against an upfront retainer of $2,500 to $5,000. Once a case is genuinely disputed, total attorney costs of $10,000 to $25,000 or more are normal, and a drawn-out custody or asset fight can climb well beyond that.

The takeaway: a lawyer's fee mostly tracks how much you and your spouse fight, not how complex divorce law is. Agree on the terms and most of that cost simply disappears.

The costs people forget

Beyond the filing fee and document prep, a few smaller costs catch people off guard:

• Parenting course — if you have minor children, each parent must complete Florida's Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before the divorce is finalized. Online versions typically run $15–$45 per parent.
• Mediation — not required for a truly agreed case, but common when there's one sticking point. County programs use a sliding scale (often $60–$120 per person per session); a private mediator runs $200–$400 an hour.
• Certified copies of your final judgment — usually about $10, needed to change a name, refinance, or update records.
• Re-filing — the sneakiest cost of all. A rejected packet doesn't just cost time; if you gave up and hired help after a failed DIY attempt, you paid twice.

The cheapest way to have a Florida divorce done for you

If you and your spouse agree, the rock-bottom option is to prepare the forms yourself and pay only the court fee. It's the cheapest on paper — and the riskiest, because Florida's forms are unforgiving and a bounced packet costs you weeks.

The cheapest way to have the whole thing handled — without an attorney's bill — is a flat-fee document service. Amicably prepares your complete, court-ready Florida packet for a flat $99: document preparation and a specialist review of every page are included, with no per-form or per-page add-ons, and online notarization is handled for you (the notary's session fee is separate, charged at cost).

You'll see online form tools advertised for less — $159, $299 — but read the fine print: those are self-service form generators. You still assemble the packet, arrange your own notary, and file everything yourself, and the headline price usually excludes review and filing help. Amicably is fully done for you: preparation, review, and filing guidance in the one flat fee, with online notarization arranged for you (the notary's session fee is separate, at cost). The only thing no service can absorb is the court's own ~$408 filing fee, which every Floridian pays directly to the clerk no matter how they divorce.

How Florida compares to the U.S. average

Nationally, divorce is expensive: the commonly cited figures put the median around $7,000 and the average around $11,300, driven up by contested cases and lawyer hours. Against that backdrop, an amicable Florida divorce handled for a flat $99 plus the filing fee is a small fraction of the typical American divorce bill. For the full national picture — including how costs differ by state and by contested vs. uncontested — see our guide to how much a divorce actually costs.

Does a cheaper divorce mean a worse one?

No. The court doesn't care whether a $30,000 lawyer or a $99 service prepared your paperwork — it cares whether the documents are correct, complete, and properly filed. For an amicable, uncontested case, paying attorney rates mostly buys peace of mind, not a better legal outcome. Where a lawyer genuinely earns the fee is a contested case with real disputes over assets, support, or children — and if that's you, hiring one is money well spent. If it isn't, you're mostly paying for hours you don't need.

Frequently asked questions