Cost of Divorce in Florida

Some divorce costs are official and set by the county. In Miami-Dade County, the Clerk’s fee to file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage is $409. (The statutory base under Florida Statutes section 28.241 is lower, around $295, with county surcharges bringing the total to about $409.) Most filers also pay a summons issuance fee of about $10.

If a spouse must be formally served, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s civil process fee is $40 for each service per address, plus a self-addressed stamped envelope, according to the county’s official fees page. Private certified process servers charge more and their rates vary. Court fees can change, so it is wise to reconfirm the current filing and service fees on the Miami-Dade Clerk and county websites before you rely on them.

Court-connected mediation has statutory fees. Under Florida Statutes section 44.108, court-connected family mediation costs $60 per person per session when the parties’ combined income is under $50,000 and $120 per person per session when combined income is $50,000 to $100,000, with indigent parties exempt.

Choosing a simplified dissolution does not lower the base filing fee. The same Clerk filing fee (about $409) applies. The simplified track mainly saves on later litigation steps and disclosure, not on the cost of filing itself.

The biggest costs in most divorces are not court fees; they are professional fees, and those are not official figures. Miami-metro family-law hourly rates and contested-case retainers are reported by secondary sources in broad ranges and should be treated as estimates, not official figures.

What pushes those costs up or down is fairly predictable: whether the case is contested or uncontested, whether there are minor children, how complex the assets are (a closely held business, for example), and how much discovery the case requires. A straightforward uncontested case generally costs far less than a heavily contested one.

Filers who cannot afford the fees have an option. An indigent filer can request a fee waiver by submitting an Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status through the Clerk.

Because county fee schedules are updated from time to time, the official amounts in this guide, current as of 2026, should be reconfirmed on the Miami-Dade Clerk and county pages before filing. Reading this guide does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own situation, speak with a licensed Florida attorney.