How Much Does a Divorce Cost in Florida?

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated May 28, 2026  ·  ← All blog posts

The honest answer is: it depends. Florida divorce costs vary enormously — an uncontested case with no children and few assets sits at one end, a contested high-net-worth case with depositions and expert witnesses at the other. Here’s what actually drives the difference.

Which Florida Statutes Govern a Dissolution of Marriage? (Chapter 61, 2025 Fla. Stat.)

A Florida divorce is a statutory proceeding. Fla. Stat. § 61.021 sets the residency requirement, and the rest of chapter 61 controls every stage that follows. Every proposition below is tied to the pinpoint subsection that supports it. Links go to the official text published by the Florida Legislature.

• § 61.021 — requires one party to have resided in Florida for 6 months before filing the petition.
• § 61.052 — permits dissolution on a finding that the marriage is irretrievably broken, or on mental incapacity meeting the statutory conditions — Florida is a no-fault state.
• § 61.19 — bars entry of a final judgment until at least 20 days after the petition is filed, unless the court finds injustice would result from the delay.
• § 61.071 — authorizes alimony pendente lite and suit money while the case is pending.
• § 61.075(1) — requires the court to begin equitable distribution from the premise that it should be equal.
• § 61.075(7) — fixes the classification cut-off at the earlier of a valid separation agreement or the filing of the petition.
• § 61.075(9) — directs the court to divide the estate first and consider alimony afterward.
• § 61.08(1)(a) — lists the available forms of alimony: temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational.
• § 61.08(2)(a) — requires a finding of the requesting party’s need and the other party’s ability to pay.
• § 61.13(2)(c)1. — presumes equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interests, rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence.
• § 61.13(2)(b) — sets the mandatory minimum contents of a parenting plan.
• § 61.30(1)(a) — makes the child support guidelines schedule the presumptive amount.
• § 61.16 — governs attorney’s fee and cost awards between the parties.
• § 61.14 — governs post-judgment modification and enforcement.
• § 44.102(2)(c) — requires referral of custody, visitation, and parental-responsibility disputes to family mediation, with an exception where a history of domestic violence would compromise the process.
• § 44.405 — governs mediation confidentiality, the mediation privilege, and its exceptions.
• § 61.183 — governs mediation of contested family issues; the public-records exemption is in subsection (3).
• §§ 61.501–61.542 — the UCCJEA determines which state may decide the parenting issues.

Source: Florida Legislature, 2025 Florida Statutes. Fla. Stat. ch. 61 Fla. Stat. ch. 61

“in distributing the marital assets and liabilities between the parties, the court must begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless there is a justification for an unequal distribution based on all relevant factors” — Fla. Stat. § 61.075(1)

“In a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, the court may grant alimony to either party in the form or forms of temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, or durational alimony, as is equitable.” — Fla. Stat. § 61.08(1)(a)

“Unless otherwise provided in this section or agreed to by the parties, there is a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing of a minor child is in the best interests of the minor child.” — Fla. Stat. § 61.13(2)(c)1.

Answers to the Questions the Statute Actually Decides

How long must you live in Florida before filing for divorce?

Six months. § 61.021 requires one of the parties to have resided in the state for 6 months before the petition is filed. Residency is typically proved by a Florida driver license, voter registration, or the corroborating testimony of a third party.

What is the shortest a Florida divorce can take under § 61.19?

Twenty days. The statute bars entry of a final judgment until at least 20 days after the petition is filed, unless the court finds that injustice would result from the delay. That is a statutory floor, not a typical timeline — contested cases run far longer.

Do you need to prove fault to get divorced in Florida?

No. Under § 61.052 a court may dissolve the marriage on a finding that it is irretrievably broken. The other statutory ground is mental incapacity meeting the conditions the section sets out. Fault is not an element, though § 61.08(1)(a) lets the court consider adultery and its economic impact when setting alimony.

Is mediation required under § 44.102(2)(c)?

Where a family mediation program exists and the court finds a dispute, § 44.102(2)(c) requires referral of custody, visitation, and parental-responsibility issues to mediation. The same paragraph directs the court not to refer a case on a party’s motion where it finds a history of domestic violence that would compromise the process.

Statutory authority checked against the 2025 Florida Statutes on 6 August 2026.

Cost is the first question almost every prospective client asks. There is no single answer because cost depends on several variables: whether the case is contested, the complexity of the marital estate, whether children are involved, and the strategy each spouse takes. This article breaks down the components honestly — with real Miami-Dade numbers — so you can budget realistically.

Florida Court Filing Fees

The fixed costs are the easy part. In Miami-Dade County (11th Judicial Circuit), the basic filing fees are roughly:

• Petition for Dissolution of Marriage: approximately $409.
• Service of process by sheriff or process server: $40–$75.
• Parenting course (required when minor children are involved): roughly $20–$50 per parent.
• Final hearing fees / certified copies of final judgment: typically under $50.

Filing fees may be waived for low-income filers who qualify under in forma pauperis standards.

Attorney Fees: The Largest Variable

Attorney time is the largest variable, and it tracks how much disagreement the case contains.

Uncontested

Florida’s simplified dissolution procedure (when the parties qualify) can be even less. Truly uncontested cases are uncommon in practice.

Contested

A contested divorce requires discovery, motions, mediation, and possibly trial. Cases that settle at mediation cost less than cases that go to trial.

High-net-worth

When the marital estate includes substantial assets, businesses, real estate portfolios, or international holdings, costs scale accordingly.

Other Costs to Budget For

• Mediation:A typical mediation session runs 4–8 hours.
• Forensic accountants and business valuators: retained where a business, professional practice, or commingled account has to be valued or traced.
• Real estate appraisers: needed when the parties cannot agree on the value of the marital home or investment property.
• Guardian ad litem or parenting coordinator: court-appointed in disputed custody cases, with rates varying.
• Court reporter and deposition transcripts: required for depositions and for any hearing you may need to appeal.
• Expert witnesses: psychologists, vocational experts, tax experts, etc., as needed.

How to Keep Costs Down

The single biggest factor in keeping costs reasonable is cooperation between the parties. Practical ways to reduce cost:

• Settle as much as possible voluntarily. Every issue resolved without litigation saves attorney fees.
• Be organized. Provide your attorney with complete financial documents, account statements, and tax returns up front. Time spent gathering information is billed.
• Communicate efficiently. Save questions for batched calls or emails rather than calling for each minor issue.
• Use mediation early. Voluntary mediation before extensive discovery often resolves cases at a fraction of trial cost.
• Consider collaborative divorce. Florida recognizes collaborative divorce, which is structured to avoid court entirely.

Payment Structures

Attorney time in Miami-Dade family cases is driven by:

• The number of contested issues (the main driver).
• Whether the case settles or proceeds to hearings.
• The length of the case — the longer a contested matter runs, the more attorney time it draws against.

Florida ethics rules generally prohibit contingency fees in family law matters. Some attorneys offer payment plans, particularly for clients in temporary financial hardship.

Who Pays for the Other Spouse’s Attorney? § 61.16 and Rosen v. Rosen

Under Fla. Stat. § 61.16, Florida courts can award attorney’s fees and costs from one spouse to the other. The seminal modern case interpreting this statute is Rosen v. Rosen, 696 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1997), in which the Florida Supreme Court held that the primary factors are the parties’ relative financial need and ability to pay — and that the trial court may also consider other equitable factors such as the scope and history of the litigation, the duration of the litigation, the merits of the respective positions, whether the litigation is brought or maintained primarily to harass, and the existence and course of prior or pending litigation.

When fee awards are common

• Income disparity: One spouse earns substantially more (or holds substantially more liquid assets) than the other.
• Stay-at-home parent: The lower- or non-earning parent has no realistic access to funds for representation.
• Wasted assets or marital misconduct affecting the estate: Where one spouse has dissipated marital assets, the court can shift fees to make the other whole.
• Litigation conduct: Under Rosen, fees can be shifted when one party’s litigation conduct unreasonably drives up the other’s costs.

Worked example: § 61.16 award math

Under Rosen, a typical outcome is this: court orders husband to pay wife’s reasonable attorney’s fees, often through interim awards as the case progresses so wife is not forced to settle for inadequate terms due to inability to pay counsel.

Awards under § 61.16 can be partial or full and may be ordered at the start (interim fees), during, or at the conclusion of the case. Practitioner note: if you are the lower-earning spouse, do not let lack of funds prevent you from seeking counsel — the § 61.16 framework was designed to prevent exactly that imbalance.

Mediation Cost vs. Litigation Cost — Real Math

The single largest variable is whether the case settles at mediation or goes to trial. Here is what the math typically looks like for a moderately contested Miami-Dade case (alimony + custody + asset division but no business valuation):

Path A: Voluntary mediation early, settles in 1–2 sessions.

• Pre-mediation preparation: financial affidavits, mandatory disclosure under Fla. Fam. L. R. P. 12.285, and a settlement proposal
• The mediation session itself, plus the mediator’s time, normally shared between the spouses
• Post-mediation drafting and finalization: roughly 10–15 hours of work
• Total per side: a modest number of attorney hours

Path B: Full contested litigation through trial.

• Formal discovery: interrogatories, requests to produce, and review of the documents that come back
• Depositions of both spouses, and of any expert either side retains
• Expert retention where a business, a pension, or real property has to be valued
• Temporary-relief and discovery motions, each with its own hearing
• Mandatory mediation under § 44.102(2)(c) — which still happens, only later, after the hours above are already spent
• Pretrial preparation: exhibit lists, witness lists, and trial memoranda
• Trial itself, plus post-trial motions — an order of magnitude more attorney hours than Path A

That gap in attorney hours is the premium litigation charges over mediation. The math is why every competent Florida family law attorney recommends a serious mediation attempt before contested litigation, even when the parties think mediation will fail. Often it does not.

The Bottom Line

Complex high-net-worth divorces can cost much more. The single biggest variable is the parties’ willingness to settle.

If cost is a concern, an early consultation lets a family law attorney assess your specific situation and provide a realistic estimate based on the issues in your case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Florida Divorce — Practice Area
• Florida Divorce Timeline
• Mediation vs. Litigation
• First Divorce Consultation Checklist
• Florida Family Law Glossary — 32+ Plain-English Definitions
• Florida Alimony 2026: The 4 Types After 2023 Reform
• QDROs and what it takes to actually divide a retirement account

Get Help in Your City

Pazos Law Group represents clients throughout South Florida:

• Coral Gables Divorce Attorney
• Doral Divorce Attorney
• Brickell Divorce Attorney

The cost figures on this page are typical ranges based on Miami-Dade attorney rates and Florida Supreme Court Mediator Qualifications Board rate surveys as of 2026. They are illustrative, not promises. Actual costs depend on case-specific facts. The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading or sharing this content does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pazos Law Group. Florida law and the application of statutes change over time; please consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation. In compliance with Florida Bar Rule 4-7.13, no fee statement on this page should be interpreted as a guarantee of cost in any individual case.