Good question. You’ll find a multitude of answers online. Search “how much is a divorce in California” and you’ll see everything from $139 to $26,300 with children, and beyond. The only consensus on the subject is that the average divorce in California costs $17,500, and that’s $2,500 more than it costs in most states. Why? Because in California, not only is the cost of living higher than most states, the taxes are, too, and with that comes higher hourly divorce lawyer fees.
And now for the good news: you can end your marriage or domestic partnership without having anything to do with the court system. In fact, if you find that you qualify for a summary dissolution of your marriage, “It’s less expensive and there’s not as much paperwork as the standard divorce process,” according to selfhelp.courts.ca.gov. “In general, it’s only for couples who:
- Have been married less than 5 years
- Have no children together and neither of you is pregnant
- Own or owe relatively little;
- You do not own or lease real estate; you do not own or lease a house, land, or any other building.
- The property you and your spouse own together is worth less than $53,000. Property is things like money (cash or in a bank) and items you own, like furniture. Do not count the value of any cars.
- You each have property worth less than $53,000 from before you married or after you separated. This also includes things you inherited or were a gift to just one of you
- Together you owe less than $7,000. This just counts what you owe from when you married to the day you split up. Exclude any car loans in this count.
- Do not want spousal support, also known as alimony.
- Agree on how to split any property
- You must both agree that you want to end the marriage or domestic partnership, that neither of you will ever get spousal support, and how you will split up any property and debts.
To use the process, all of these must be true. If even one isn’t true, you cannot use the summary dissolution process.”
But you also have to meet California’s residency requirement. “One of you must have lived in California for the last 6 months and in the county where you file for summary dissolution for the last 3 months.” If you are ending a registered domestic partnership on the other hand, and not a marriage, the residency requirement does not apply; you can end your partnership even if neither of you live in the state. The cost of a summary dissolution is $435-450 payable to the clerk when you file your forms. Here’s a step by step guide to summary dissolution of a domestic partnership.
How Much Does it Cost to File for Divorce in California?
The standard filing fee for a divorce in California is $435-$450. Under certain circumstances however you can ask that the fee be waived. Here’s selfhelp.courts.ca.gov again:
“You qualify for a fee waiver if:
- You receive public benefits
For example, you qualify if you receive unemployment, Medi-Cal, Food Stamps (Cal Fresh), WIC, Cal-Works, General Assistance, SSI, SSP Tribal TANF, IHHS, or CAPI. You will need to list which benefit you receive to qualify this way. - Your household income, before taxes, is below a set amount
The set amount is listed on Form FW-001 in item 5b. You will need to give the court information about your household income to qualify this way. - You can’t meet your household’s basic needs and pay the filing fees
You will need to give the court information about your income and expenses to qualify this way.
Here are step by step instructions on how to file for a fee waiver.
If you don’t quite meet all the requirements for a summary dissolution, the next best alternative may be filing for an uncontested divorce.
How Much is an Uncontested Divorce? And What is it?
An uncontested divorce in California costs less than a contested divorce because it’s essentially a divorce without dispute. And what does an uncontested divorce in California cost? Since there’s no dispute, you can obtain an uncontested divorce in California for a flat fee that’s as low as $139. An uncontested divorce can either come about passively or actively. A passive uncontested divorce occurs when one party fails to respond to the other party’s divorce filing. Forbes explains, “The petitioner files the divorce papers and has them served to the respondent. The respondent then has a certain period of time (10 days to a couple of weeks) to either file a response or appear at a scheduled court appearance. If the respondent does neither, the court evaluates what the petitioner is asking for and issues a decision.” In other words, it’s uncontested by default. Forbes continues, “your process will also be fast and inexpensive. There will be no negotiation, no trial, and no conflict.”
But when a couple decides to actively pursue an uncontested divorce, both parties will find a way to agree on everything including alimony or spousal support, who gets custody of the children and what the visitation will be, child support and who pays what, the division of marital assets as well as the division of any shared debt. And both parties will be 100% ready and willing to sign the same agreement. How often could that possibly happen? Well for obvious reasons, an uncontested divorce is far more likely to occur when the couple has few assets and perhaps no children and no debt. Forbes indicates, “At least 90% of all divorces are uncontested, but many start out as contested and then the parties eventually reach an agreement.” In other words, the couple realizes that they’re protracted negotiations and arguments will ultimately come out of their settlement. That’s often enough of an incentive for both parties to come to the table, willing to compromise in order to hash out an agreement. Those who cannot work out an agreement despite working with attorneys or mediators will have to go to court where a judge will decide the terms of their marital settlement agreement.
How Much is a Contested Divorce in California?
A contested divorce is basically any divorce that does not meet the requirements of either a summary dissolution or an uncontested divorce. To a large degree, what your contested divorce will cost is largely up to you and your partner: contested divorces are often as expensive as its parties are intransigent.
If you and your partner have a fair amount of assets and find it impossible to agree on anything, this is not the time to be price shopping for the attorney who will advise and represent you, and help co-draft one of the most consequential contracts of a lifetime – your marital settlement agreement. This is the time to make a smart decision when choosing your divorce counsel.
There are basically two kinds of California divorce lawyers. There are those who run or work in a divorce mill taking every case that comes their way, immediately handing it over to an associate, and putting the least amount of energy into the work as possible. It’s divorce by cookie cutter.
The other sort of California divorce lawyer believes that no two cases are the same. They may be similar, but no two marriages and no two marriage partners are ever identical. And it’s only upon deeper consideration, discovery and questioning that a most productive approach can be found. This is the sort of California divorce law firm that Laughlin Legal has always been.
So How Much Does a Divorce Cost in California?
If there’s one thing you may have learned from this post it’s that the answer to that question is: it all depends on a number of factors – whether you were married or had a domestic partnership, how long you were together, whether you had children together or one of you is pregnant, whether you accumulated a lot of assets and/or a lot of debt, whether one of you wants spousal support, and whether you and your partner can negotiate a marital agreement together. And one more factor: whether the two of you signed a premarital agreement before you got married.
Whatever your divorce cost, if you find yourself tempted to get married again, you won’t need to price-shop for a divorce lawyer to draft a premarital agreement. At Laughlin Legal, the fee you’ll pay for a prenup can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars should the marriage end in divorce.