What a Delaware divorce actually costs to file.
Not a range, not an estimate, not a lawyer’s blog. Every figure below is traced to a statute, a court fee schedule, or a clerk’s own published page — and linked to it.
See a different stateDelaware
It costs $175.00 to file for divorce in Delaware. Below is where that money goes, what it does not cover, and what to do if you do not have it.
Worth knowing before you file. The $175.00 buys you the divorce and nothing else — Delaware charges $90.00 per ancillary matter for property division, alimony, or a separation agreement, so a filer dividing property and seeking alimony pays $175.00 + $90.00 + $90.00. And if there are children under 18, the mandatory Parent Education Course (up to $100 per parent) is not optional paperwork: ‘if a Certificate of Completion is not received within 180 days of the date of the filing of the Petition, the Petition will be dismissed.’
Where the money goes
Delaware does publish a real component structure and it is reproduced above exactly as printed: a $165.00 divorce filing line plus a separately listed $10.00 court security assessment that the schedule’s own applicability list attaches to a Petition for Divorce. No further sub-allocation of the $165.00 is published, and none has been invented.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Civil Filing – DivorcePrinted as ‘Civil Filing – Divorce* (subject to $10 Court Security Fee) 165.00’. For comparison, an ordinary Family Court ‘Civil Filing’ is 90.00, so divorce carries a $75.00 premium over a general Family Court filing. Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs (court-issued schedule; no statute section is printed for this line) | $165.00 |
| Court Security Assessment – Criminal & CivilStatute: ‘All state courts shall assess as part of court costs a supplemental court security assessment not to exceed $10 on each initial civil filing…’ and ‘(e) There shall be no fee increases to the court security assessment pursuant to this section unless authorized by a further act of the General Assembly.’ The Family Court schedule’s page-3 list of ‘applicable civil filings’ expressly includes ‘PETITION FOR DIVORCE’. The schedule notes the Civil Court Security Assessment is effective February 29, 2008. 10 Del. C. § 8505 | $10.00 |
Does it change by county?
No — the fee is the same everywhere in Delaware
Delaware operates a single statewide Family Court with one Schedule of Assessed Costs applying to New Castle, Kent and Sussex Counties alike. The only county-dependent number on the entire schedule is newspaper publication when service by publication is used: $75.00 in New Castle County (News Journal) versus $25.00 in Kent & Sussex County (Delaware State News) — and even that is avoidable at no cost through the Family Court Legal Notices website.
What the filing fee does not cover
The filing fee is usually the smallest predictable number in a divorce. This is where the rest of the budget lives — and where “not published” appears most often.
Nothing extra to e-file
We looked for a portal fee and a card surcharge in Delaware and found neither published. That is not the same as a guarantee — clerks can charge for things they do not put on a web page — but there is no extra charge we can point you at. Whether you have to e-file at all is on the Delaware kit.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ancillary Matters — property division, alimony, separation agreementPrinted as ‘Ancillary Matters / i.e.: Property division, alimony, separation agreement / {Cost Per Matter} 90.00’, with the note: ‘A cost is not assessed for ancillary matters contained in an answer or counterclaim if the petitioner was assessed the cost for the same ancillary matters upon filing.’ This is charged PER MATTER, so a filer seeking both property division and alimony is looking at $90.00 each on top of the $175.00 divorce filing. Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $90.00 per matter |
| Parent Education Course — MANDATORY with minor childrenMANDATORY. ‘Who Must Attend? -All parents in divorce cases with children up to the age of 17 -All parents who are a party to a custody proceeding -A parent in a visitation proceeding if the opposing party is also a parent of the child.’ Fee: ‘Each program sets its own fee, but the fee may not be more than $100 per parent. The programs also offer financial aid.’ Course length is 6-8 hours. Enforcement is severe: ‘In a divorce case, if a Certificate of Completion is not received within 180 days of the date of the filing of the Petition, the Petition will be dismissed.’ Additional domestic-violence-related classes are required where one parent has a criminal conviction for a crime against the other or a Protection From Abuse Order exists or ever existed between the parties, and ‘Parents may not attend the same domestic violence class.’ The list of approved programs is at https://courts.delaware.gov/forms/download.aspx?id=23228 Family Court of the State of Delaware, FAQ-1033 Parent Education (Rev 8/26) | Set by each approved program, capped at $100.00 per parent; programs also offer financial aid |
| Divorce publication (service by publication)Printed note: ‘When publication is necessary, it can be accomplished through the Family Court Legal Notices website at no cost. If publication in a newspaper is chosen by the litigant or required by the Court, the following fees apply.’ This is the closest published equivalent to a service-of-process cost on the schedule. Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $0.00 via the Family Court Legal Notices website; $75.00 in New Castle County (News Journal); $25.00 in Kent & Sussex County (Delaware State News) |
| Sheriff/constable service of process, per respondentNot confirmed. The Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs contains no sheriff or constable service line — the only service-related costs it publishes are the publication fees above and a $10.00 Issuance of Subpoena. No per-respondent service fee was located on an official source. | not published |
| Issuance of subpoena Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $10.00 |
| Bad check / chargeback feeThis is the only card-related charge published. No percentage credit-card surcharge or e-filing surcharge appears on the schedule. Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $30.00 |
| Review De Novo or Review of a Commissioner’s OrderRelevant if a divorce or ancillary matter is decided by a Commissioner and a party seeks review. Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $110.00 |
| Motion filed pursuant to Family Court Civil Rule 60(b)Reopening a judgment is a fresh $90.00. Family Court Civil Rule 60(b); Schedule of Assessed Costs | $90.00 |
| Appeal to Supreme Court or Superior Court Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | $90.00 |
| Certified copies / document copying / exemplified copies Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs | Certified copies $4.00 first page and $4.00 each additional page; document copying $1.00 per page; exemplified copies $5.00 per page; fax copy $8.00; archived case retrieval $25.00 |
| Court-ordered mediationNot confirmed. No mediation fee appears anywhere on the Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs, and no separate official Delaware Family Court mediation fee schedule was located. | not published |
If you cannot afford to file
More people qualify than apply. If this section applies to you it is the most useful thing on this page.
Delaware has a way to file without paying up front
This is a normal court procedure, not a favor you have to plead for.
- Who qualifies: None published. The form’s financial criteria we could not read (see gaps), and no income figure or poverty-guideline multiplier is stated on any Delaware Courts page located.
- What it covers: Not published on the sources located. Note that the schedule independently zeroes out certain filings regardless of means: expungement of an adult or juvenile criminal record is 0.00, a Petition for Parentage Determination Minor Parents is 0.00, and the schedule cites 42 U.S.C. ch. 46 § 3796gg-5 for the rule that ‘no victim of domestic violence bear costs associated with obtaining protection.’
- What to ask for: Affidavit in Support of Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis — https://courts.delaware.gov/forms/download.aspx?id=658
- How it works: Apply to proceed in forma pauperis using the Family Court form ‘Affidavit in Support of Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis,’ which the Delaware Courts publish in the Family Court Divorce forms set. Separately, the Parent Education requirement has its own waiver route: ‘This requirement may be waived for good reason. If the Petitioner wants the Court to do so, he or she must file a Motion, asking the Court to waive the requirement and showing there is a good reason why he or she should not have to take the course.’ A party may also move for the Court to recognize a comparable education program, attaching that program’s curriculum.
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- The state-specific pointer to 10 Del. C. § 8603 is INCORRECT and should not be used. Title 10, Chapter 86 of the Delaware Code is ‘Recoupment of Defense Costs’ — §§ 8601-8603 govern making a convicted criminal defendant repay the cost of court-appointed counsel, and have nothing to do with Family Court filing fees. Verified at https://delcode.delaware.gov/title10/c086/index.html . The divorce filing fee is set by the Family Court’s own Schedule of Assessed Costs, not by a code section; the only statute in play is 10 Del. C. § 8505 for the $10 security assessment.
- No statute is printed on the schedule for the $165.00 divorce line itself. Title 10, Chapter 85 § 8504 provides only that ‘A court may, in its discretion, make a reasonable allowance for any service not expressly provided for in this part,’ which is general fee-setting authority rather than a specific divorce fee. The $165.00 is therefore court-schedule-based, not statutory.
- The ‘Affidavit in Support of Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis’ PDF (form id=658) downloaded successfully but its text could not be extracted (image-based or XFA form), so the eligibility threshold and the exact scope of what the waiver covers are unconfirmed. The form’s existence, title and URL are confirmed.
- No sheriff or constable service-of-process fee per respondent is published anywhere on the Family Court Schedule of Assessed Costs.
- No court-ordered mediation fee is published.
- No e-filing fee or percentage credit-card surcharge is published; the only card-related charge on the schedule is a $30.00 bad check/chargeback fee. The Family Court payment page states that electronic and kiosk payment options ‘may only be used for payments related to criminal charges’ (and child support at kiosks), implying civil divorce filing fees are paid in person, but it does not state a card surcharge either way.
- The exact per-program Parent Education fee is not published — only the $100.00 statutory-style ceiling and the fact that each approved program sets its own fee and offers financial aid.
- Sources we could not read: https://courts.delaware.gov/family/fees.aspx — HTTP 200 but served the site’s ‘Page Not Found’ template; the live fee page is at https://courts.delaware.gov/family/payment.aspx which links the Schedule of Assessed Costs
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Everything above is a real limit on what Delaware’s own agencies publish, not an omission on our part.
How we know this
Every figure on this page came from a statute, a state court system, or a clerk’s own published fee schedule — never a law firm’s blog, a legal-forms company, or a fee aggregator. Where a state publishes no date on its fee schedule, we say so rather than implying the number is current. Where nothing is published, we leave it blank.
Court fees change, and they change without announcement. Confirm with your clerk before you write the check.
What people actually report paying
Everything above is the filing fee, traced to the statute. It is also the smallest number in a divorce. Here is the other side of it — and a warning about how to read it.
We read hundreds of public accounts from people who have been through it. Three findings held up across nearly all of them:
- The total is bimodal, not an average. Self-filers cluster around $300–$500. Anyone with two lawyers and a real disagreement clusters around $20,000–$30,000. Almost nobody reports the middle, so “the average divorce costs X” describes almost no actual divorce.
- Cost is driven by the other person’s conduct, not by how complicated your assets are. People with millions who agreed to split evenly reported paying filing fees only. People with one house and one child reported $45,000 because the case got dragged out.
- Every large surprise is a third professional. The guardian ad litem, the custody evaluator, the forensic accountant, the QDRO preparer — all billed separately from both lawyers, and often introduced by the court before anyone had budgeted for one.
These are anecdotes, not prices. People post about a divorce cost when the number shocked them, so the high figures are heavily over-represented and the ordinary divorce is nearly invisible. Every figure on the full page is labeled with how many people reported it.
See what people report paying →Know someone in Delaware staring at this number?
A straight answer about money is more useful than most advice, and it costs nothing to pass along. Nothing here asks for their real name, and nobody finds out they looked.
Now the part the fees don’t cover
The forms, the deadlines, the residency rule, and what actually happens next.
Or find someone to help
Delaware attorneys, mediators, CDFAs and therapists, credentials checked against the state’s own records. Nobody paid to be there.
The rest of what we have written about Delaware. Every figure is quoted from Delaware’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.