Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer: The three-way choice is usually framed as a budget: the filing fee if you do it yourself, a few hundred for an online package, thousands for a lawyer. Two statutes break that frame. The filing fee is waivable – in California the waiver is mandatory, not discretionary, for people receiving named benefits – and representation is fundable by the other spouse under the same fee-award statute that funds experts.
What the do-it-yourself floor actually is
| State | Statutory fee | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | $95 → $168 | Wis. Stat. § 814.61(1)(a), (1)(b) |
| West Virginia | $135 | W. Va. Code § 59-1-11(a)(3) |
| North Dakota | $160 | N.D. Cent. Code § 27-05.2-03(1)(b) |
| Montana | $170 | Mont. Code Ann. § 25-1-201(1)(a) |
| Kansas | $173 | Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-2001(a) |
| Oklahoma | $183 | Okla. Stat. tit. 28, § 152(A)(1) |
| … | … | … |
| Iowa | $265 | Iowa Code § 602.8105(1)(b) |
| Minnesota | $340 | Minn. Stat. § 357.021(2)(1) |
| California | $435 | Cal. Gov. Code § 70670(b) |
The floor of the do-it-yourself path, in the 11 jurisdictions where a statute fixes one. The full table is on the filing-fee page.
That is the whole of the unavoidable court cost in the states where a statute fixes one, and it is the number the online packages are priced against.
The filing fee is not a fixed cost: the fee waiver
California’s fee-waiver statute does not say the court may waive. It says permission to proceed without paying court fees “shall be granted initially to all of the following persons:” and then lists people receiving named public benefits – Supplemental Security Income and the State Supplementary Payment, CalWORKs, and others.
Shall be granted initially. For someone on those benefits, the $95-to-$435 range on the filing-fee page is not what they pay. Every state has some route to proceed without paying court fees; only California’s was read this session, so only California’s is quoted.
The bigger lever is who funds the representation
The same California chapter that funds experts also directs the court to make findings: “the court shall make findings on whether an award of attorney’s fees and costs under this section is appropriate, whether there is a disparity in access to funds to retain counsel”.
Disparity in access to funds to retain counsel is precisely the situation of the lower-earning spouse in a long marriage. It is the statutory description of the exact position that pushes people to the do-it-yourself route, and the statute treats it as a reason for an order rather than a reason to go unrepresented.
That does not make a lawyer free and it does not mean the order will be made. It means the reasoning that starts I cannot afford one, so I will do it myself skips a step that the statute puts in front of you.
Where do-it-yourself is genuinely the right answer
Short marriage, no children, no real property, no employer retirement plan to divide, and both people agreeing. The court fee is the cost, the forms are published, and there is nothing for a lawyer to do that you cannot.
After 50 that description usually fails on one item: the employer retirement plan. A plan needs a separate court order, and that order has its own cost that no divorce package includes – see what a QDRO costs for the two published federal figures. If a plan has to be divided, the do-it-yourself path has a second bill in it that the comparison you were shown did not.
What this page does not settle
One state’s fee-waiver statute and one state’s fee-award statute, read at primary. No online divorce service is priced here and none is named.
The fee-waiver statute quoted is California’s. Every state has a route to proceed without paying court fees, but only California’s was read this session.
No online divorce service’s price is published. We read no primary source for one.
The cost of getting it wrong without a lawyer is not quantified here. We have no primary source that measures it.
Sources
- Cal. Fam. Code § 2030(a)(2) — https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM§ionNum=2030
- Cal. Gov. Code § 68632 — https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=68632
Related: Divorce Filing Fees by State · Mediation, Collaborative or Litigated · the money decisions a form does not make · the checks that are cheaper before signing.
General information drawn from the primary statutes, regulations and published federal plan documents named above, not legal, tax or financial advice. Court fees change, and the figures here are what each statute said on the date above; check the section before relying on it.
The attorney question is only the first fork. Tracing assets can add a forensic accountant’s fee on top of either answer, and the cost estimator puts the pieces together.