Do you have to e-file your divorce?
Almost certainly not. In 40 states the choice is yours, and in four more the court will not let you e-file at all even if you want to. 'Mandatory e-filing' usually means mandatory for attorneys — the exemption for people representing themselves is written into the rule, and it is not on the portal's front page.
Every clerk publishes the rule for one county. Nobody publishes the comparison, because no clerk covers two states. So this is the answer for all fifty, taken from each state's own court rule, administrative order or judiciary page, with the portal named and the cost of choosing to e-file separated from the filing fee you owe either way.
All fifty, side by side
The cost column is what choosing to e-file adds — not the statutory filing fee, which you owe whichever way you file. 'Varies by court' marks the states where the portal, the cost or the rule itself is set below state level, so your county is the one that counts. Each state name links to its full kit.
| State | Do you have to? | Can you file paper? | What e-filing adds | Portal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee; 4% card surcharge | AlaFile (Alabama Judicial System E-Filing) |
| Alaska | Required of you | Only via an exemption — self-certifying | No portal fee published | TrueFiling (Alaska Court System eFiling) |
| Arizona | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | $6.50 per submission + 3% card | eFileAZ (statewide superior court portal) |
| Arkansas | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | $20 a filing, and $100 to register | eFlex (Arkansas Judiciary Electronic Filing) |
| California | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | No statewide portal |
| Colorado | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | $12 a filing, + $12 to e-serve | Colorado Courts E-Filing (CCE) |
| Connecticut | Not confirmed | Not confirmed — ask the clerk | Not confirmed | Connecticut Judicial Branch E-Services (Superior Court e-filing) |
| Delaware | Paper only | Yes — there is nothing else | No e-filing in Family Court | No e-filing in Family Court (the divorce court) |
| Florida | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | Free by Supreme Court order; 3.5% card | Florida Courts E-Filing Portal (MyFLCourtAccess) |
| Georgia | Depends on your countyvaries by court | Depends on your circuit | $7 an envelope in Fulton; free at the courthouse terminal | eFileGA (Tyler/Odyssey), PeachCourt, and GreenFiling/InfoTrack |
| Hawaii | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | JEFS (Judiciary Electronic Filing and Service System) |
| Idaho | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Odyssey File and Serve (Idaho iCourt eFiling) |
| Illinois | Required of you | Only via an exemption — self-declared on a form | Free with the state providers | eFileIL |
| Indiana | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | Free with the state provider | Indiana E-Filing System (IEFS), free state provider at efile.incourts.gov |
| Iowa | Required of you | Only if the clerk grants good cause | No additional fee | EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) / Iowa eFile |
| Kansas | You file on paper | Yes — it is your only route | Not open to you | Kansas Courts eFiling (eFlex) |
| Kentucky | You file on paper | Yes — it is your only route | Not open to you for a divorce | KYeCourts / File & Serve (eFiling) |
| Louisiana | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | No single statewide trial-court portal |
| Maine | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee; 2.89% card or $0.25 e-check | eFileMaine (Maine eCourts) |
| Maryland | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | MDEC |
| Massachusetts | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | $22 once, + 2.89% card | eFileMA |
| Michigan | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | A fee exists; the amount is not published | MiFILE (statewide e-filing solution) |
| Minnesota | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | eFile and eServe (eFS) |
| Mississippi | You file on paper | Yes — it is your only route | Not open to you | Mississippi Electronic Courts (MEC) |
| Missouri | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Missouri eFiling System |
| Montana | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Montana Courts Electronic Filing (Montana eFile) |
| Nebraska | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Nebraska Judicial Branch eFiling |
| Nevada | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Varies by judicial district |
| New Hampshire | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Odyssey File & Serve (Superior Court and some Circuit Court case types) |
| New Jersey | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No e-filing surcharge published | Judiciary Electronic Document Submission (JEDS) for self-represented filers |
| New Mexico | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Odyssey File & Serve |
| New York | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | New York State Courts Electronic Filing System (NYSCEF) |
| North Carolina | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | Not published as an amount | eCourts File & Serve |
| North Dakota | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Odyssey File & Serve (North Dakota District Court E-Filing Portal) |
| Ohio | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | No statewide trial-court portal |
| Oklahoma | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No extra cost, by rule | OSCN E-Filing Portal (OUCMS eFiling) |
| Oregon | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Oregon eCourt / OJD File & Serve |
| Pennsylvania | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | Not uniform, and not published | No statewide portal |
| Rhode Island | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | eFileRI |
| South Carolina | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | South Carolina Statewide E-Filing |
| South Dakota | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee; 3.5% card surcharge | Odyssey File & Serve |
| Tennessee | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | Free in Shelby; not published elsewhere | No single statewide portal |
| Texas | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | eFileTexas |
| Utah | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | MyCase (self-represented parties) |
| Vermont | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Odyssey File & Serve (Vermont eFiling) |
| Virginia | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Virginia Judiciary eFiling System (VJEFS) |
| Washington | Your choicevaries by court | Yes, over the counter | Free in King and Snohomish; card fees apply | County-specific: King County eFiling / KC Script Portal |
| West Virginia | You file on paper | Yes — it is your only route | Not open to you | West Virginia Circuit and Family Courts E-File (CourtPLUS) |
| Wisconsin | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | $35 per filer per case | Wisconsin Circuit Court eFiling |
| Wyoming | Your choice | Yes, over the counter | No portal fee published | Wyoming District Court eFiling (File & ServeXpress) |
The ten states where the answer is not simply yes
These are the ones worth reading before you drive anywhere. Three require e-filing of you and reach that result three different ways; four will not let you near the system; one has no system; one changes by circuit; and one we could not confirm.
Alaska You are expected to e-file
Alaska does mandate e-filing for self-represented parties. But the five exemptions are self-certifying — no documentation required — which in practice keeps paper available to a pro se filer who needs it. Once TrueFiling is live in your location, the rule is that 'paper documents may be filed with the court only when TrueFiling is unavailable.'
Illinois You are expected to e-file
The clearest mandate in the country: Rule 9 reaches 'all documents in civil cases,' divorce included, and not only attorneys. But the exemption is broad and self-declared on a standard form, and the form itself is filed in person or by mail — so a filer who cannot e-file can still walk into the clerk's office to say so.
Iowa You are expected to e-file
The strictest of the three. The rule puts 'all self-represented persons' in the same sentence as attorneys, and the automatic exemptions — criminal defendants, confined persons, juvenile-case parents — do not cover a divorce petitioner. You must petition the clerk in writing for a good-cause exception under Rule 16.302(2)(c). Unlike Alaska and Illinois, you do not simply certify it yourself.
Kansas The system is closed to you
Douglas County District Court's clerk says it in as many words: 'eFiling is for Attorneys only. If you are a member of the public attempting to file with the District Court, do not use eFiling.' You file paper with the Clerk of the District Court, in person, by mail, or by drop box.
Kentucky Not for a divorce
A KYeCourts account offers 'Self-Represented Litigant' as an account type, which is why this one is so easy to get wrong. But the Court of Justice's own eCourts Help site states: 'At this time, self-represented litigants are only able to electronically file small claims cases.' Divorce is not on the list.
Mississippi Attorneys only, by rule
MEC Administrative Procedures Sec. 2.A: no person other than a registered attorney may register as a user, 'even if he or she is a party proceeding pro se.' Sec. 6.A.4.b requires your documents to be filed conventionally, and the clerk then uploads them for you. The system is live in all 82 counties, which changes nothing for you — it is the clerk using it.
West Virginia Attorneys only, by rule
Trial Court Rule 15A.04: 'Parties not represented by an attorney must file all Actions with the circuit clerk's office, who shall electronically file the Actions upon receipt.' CourtPLUS registration is limited to barred attorneys and government filers. That is the intended route, not a workaround.
Delaware There is no system to use
Delaware Family Court — the divorce court — has no e-filing platform at all, so the mandatory-or-optional question never arises. Everyone files on paper, in person or by mail at a Family Court Resource Center, and most civil filings may also be emailed. The other Delaware courts' e-filing mandates do not touch divorce.
Georgia It depends on your circuit
Georgia is the one state where nobody can give you a single answer, and you should not trust anyone who does — e-filing is set circuit by circuit. In Fulton County it is mandatory for a self-represented filer who has an email address, though the court removes the cost by letting you file free at a public access terminal in the courthouse, and a fee-waiver order exempts you from the fees entirely. Ogeechee also requires it. Gwinnett's rule reaches attorneys only.
Connecticut We could not confirm it
Connecticut runs one statewide Superior Court, so the answer will not change with your county — but we could not get a straight answer from the state. Every page that states the actual rule sits behind a block we will not work around. The Judicial Branch does invite self-represented parties to opt in to an E-Services account, which points toward voluntary. We are not willing to print that as a fact until we can read the rule.
What choosing to e-file costs you
This is the part that surprises people, because it runs the opposite way to what you would expect. These are charges for the act of e-filing, on top of the statutory filing fee. Card and e-check surcharges are separate again and are listed per state in the table above.
Three things that get people wrong
'Mandatory' almost always means mandatory for attorneys
New York is the clearest case and the most often misdescribed. Even in a county where matrimonial e-filing is mandatory, an unrepresented spouse is exempt by rule and files on paper unless they ask to take part — and under 202.5-bb(e)(1) the clerk has to explain that choice in plain language first. The exemption survives in both the mandatory (202.5-bb) and consensual (202.5-b) programs. Washington settles it at state level: GR 30 only lets a county make e-filing mandatory for attorneys, and requires that e-filing not become a barrier to access.
E-filing can cost you more than paper
The instinct is that the electronic option is the cheap one. In Colorado a pro se filer pays $12 per filing to e-file, while court staff will scan paper documents for free. In Arkansas the account itself costs $100. Meanwhile the states that charge nothing for e-filing charge nothing for paper either. The filing fee does not move — it is only the surcharge that changes, and the surcharge is the part nobody looks up.
The escape hatch is not the same escape hatch
All three mandatory states have an exemption, and the difference between them is the whole difference between an afternoon and a month. Alaska's exemptions are self-certifying — no documentation. Illinois's is self-declared on a standard form you can hand over the counter. Iowa's requires you to petition the clerk in writing for good cause, and the clerk decides. Same headline, three different weeks of your life.
How to settle it yourself in one phone call
Ask the clerk two questions, in this order
- May I e-file?
- Will you take paper?
They are different questions, and in some counties they have different answers. A clerk who says 'we use eFileGA' has answered neither. If the answer to the second is no, ask what the exemption is called and whether you certify it yourself or have to ask the court for it — that is the answer that decides how long this takes.
Do not rely on the portal's front page. In every state where a pro se exemption exists, it lives in the court rule or an administrative order, not on the site that wants you to register.
What we could not confirm
Five gaps, named rather than filled
- Connecticut — whether e-filing is voluntary for a self-represented divorce filer. The pages stating the rule sit behind a block we will not work around.
- Michigan — an e-filing system fee applies to case-initiating filings where a civil commencement fee is authorized, but the amount is not stated on the SCAO pages read.
- Kentucky — Tyler's convenience fee is a percentage of the filing fees, and the percentage is not published on the AOC page.
- North Carolina — the official page names three categories of fee but no dollar amount for any of them.
- Pennsylvania and Tennessee — there is no statewide figure to give. Each judicial district or court sets its own, and in Nashville two courts in the same county answer differently.
Somebody is about to pay $100 for a portal they did not need
This is the question people get wrong most expensively, and it takes one link to fix. Nothing here asks for their real name, and nobody finds out they looked.
How this table was built
The source hierarchy, what counts as confirmed, where it is uncertain, and what happens when we get it wrong — written for anyone deciding whether to cite it.
The filing fee itself, for all fifty states
What it actually costs to file, traced to the statute or the court's own schedule.
Everything else about filing in your state
Forms, residency, waiting periods, service of process, and what happens to the house.