The Florida Divorce Kit
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Florida gives you the forms for free. What it doesn’t give you is the order, the deadlines, the traps that get filings rejected, or anyone to tell you which path you’re actually on. That’s this.
Put in the day you filed and this page works out every deadline in your case, then hands you a calendar file that reminds you a week before each one and again the day before. It opens in the calendar you already use. Free, no account, nothing stored.
1 · The two routes, and what the rule requires
Florida has two routes to a dissolution of marriage, and the difference between them is set by statute and rule, not by preference. Filing under the simplified route without meeting every one of its conditions is the most expensive mistake in the process — those petitions get rejected and the case starts over.
Before either route is available, Florida requires one spouse to have lived in the state for 6 months before filing. There is no way around it: until six months have run, the petition belongs in the state where one spouse does meet the residency rule.
Simplified Dissolution of Marriage
Fla. Fam. L. R. P. Form 12.901(a)
The fastest route Florida offers. There is no service of process and no mandatory disclosure, and the petition is filed jointly by both spouses.
Because it is a joint filing, neither spouse is a respondent and nobody is served.
Available only where all of these are true:
- There are no minor or dependent children of the marriage, the wife is not pregnant, and there is no minor child born during the marriage.
- The assets and debts are already divided and both spouses agree with how.
- Neither spouse is seeking alimony.
- Both spouses sign the petition and appear at the final hearing together.
Both spouses must physically appear at the final hearing, together. Rule 12.105(b) requires it in every simplified case, and skipping it can get the case dismissed.
Florida’s own e-filing portal carries a free guided tool, DIY Florida, that covers this route question by question and files it — myflcourtaccess.com/authority/diy. It does not cover the route with children.
In Miami-Dade, both spouses are expected to appear together in person to file a simplified dissolution.
Regular Dissolution of Marriage
Fla. Stat. ch. 61; Fla. Fam. L. R. P. Forms 12.901(b)(1)–(3)
The route for every case the simplified conditions do not cover. It is more steps — service of process, mandatory disclosure, and a petition matched to whether there are children, property, or neither.
More steps does not mean contested. Most regular dissolutions in Florida are agreed and self-represented; it is the machinery that differs, not the outcome.
This is the route wherever any of these is true:
- There are minor or dependent children of the marriage, the wife is pregnant, or there is a minor child born during the marriage.
- The property and debts are not yet divided, or the spouses do not agree on how.
- Either spouse is seeking alimony.
- The spouses are not filing the petition jointly.
A cooperating spouse can skip service of process entirely by voluntarily filing Form 12.903(a), the Answer and Waiver — which saves the $40 service cost. It must be notarized and dated after the petition.
Form 12.902(e), the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, cannot be waived, even where the parents have agreed on an amount or on equal time-sharing.
Florida’s free DIY Florida tool does not cover this route well; the forms below do.
2 · Every form Florida publishes for a divorce
The complete list, not a shortlist — because which forms a case needs depends on facts only you and, if you need one, your lawyer can weigh. Each row says which route it belongs to and carries the revision date clerks check. Every one is free.
The Cusp is not a law firm and cannot tell you which forms are right for your case. Everything here is general information about how Florida handles divorce, and every form below is published free by Florida itself — you do not have to buy anything from anyone to get them. If your situation is not straightforward, a consultation with a Florida family lawyer costs far less than fixing a filing that went wrong.
| Form | What it is | Route | Rev. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.901(a) | Joint Petition for Simplified Dissolution | Simplified | 06/25 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(f)(3) | Marital Settlement Agreement — Simplified | Simplified | 10/21 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(k) | Notice of Joint Verified Waiver of Filing Financial Affidavits — or file affidavits | Simplified | 10/23 | see clerk |
| 12.990(a) | Final Judgment of Simplified Dissolution | Simplified | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.901(b)(1) | Petition for Dissolution with Dependent or Minor Child(ren) | Regular | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.901(b)(2) | Petition — Property but No Minor Children | Regular | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.901(b)(3) | Petition — No Minor Children or Property | Regular | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(d) | UCCJEA Affidavit — where there are minor children | Regular | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(e) | Child Support Guidelines Worksheet — where there are minor children; cannot be waived | Regular | 06/25 | Download ↓ |
| 12.995(a) | Parenting Plan (or 12.995(b)/(c) if supervised or long-distance) | Regular | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(f)(1) | Marital Settlement Agreement — with Children | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(f)(2) | Marital Settlement Agreement — Property, No Children | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(b) | Financial Affidavit — short form, under $50k income | Regular | 10/21 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(c) | Financial Affidavit — long form, $50k+ income | Regular | 06/25 | Download ↓ |
| 12.932 | Certificate of Compliance with Mandatory Disclosure | Regular | 06/25 | Download ↓ |
| 12.903(a) | Answer, Waiver, and Request for Copy of Final Judgment (the responding spouse files it) | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.910(a) | Summons: Personal Service on an Individual — where the spouse is served | Regular | 10/21 | Download ↓ |
| 12.910(b) | Process Service Memorandum — where the spouse is served | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.923 | Notice of Hearing (General) | Regular | — | see clerk |
| 12.990(b)(1) | Final Judgment — with Children, Uncontested | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.990(b)(2) | Final Judgment — Property, No Children, Uncontested | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.990(b)(3) | Final Judgment — No Property or Children, Uncontested | Regular | — | Download ↓ |
| 12.999 | Final Disposition Form | Regular | 03/17 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(j) | Notice of Social Security Number | All | 06/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.902(i) | Affidavit of Corroborating Witness (if no 6-month-old FL ID) | All | 02/18 | Download ↓ |
| 12.928 | Cover Sheet for Family Court Cases | All | 02/24 | Download ↓ |
| 12.915 | Designation of Current Mailing and E-mail Address | All | 08/23 | see clerk |
| 12.900(h) | Notice of Related Cases | All | 02/24 | see clerk |
| DH513 | Report of Dissolution (Dept. of Health) | All | — | see clerk |
Every one of these is free. Download fresh each time — clerks reject superseded revisions, and saved copies go stale. Full catalog: flcourts.gov — Family Law Forms.
3 · Getting the forms and filling them in
Nobody explains this part, so here it is. Every Florida form is free, most of them are fillable on screen, and you never have to set foot in a courthouse if you don’t want to.
You may e-file, but you do not have to Your choice
- Portal
- Florida Courts E-Filing Portal (MyFLCourtAccess)
- Paper
- Still accepted — you can file over the counter.
- What it costs
- No fee to use the Portal. Broward Clerk: 'Pursuant to Florida Supreme Court order, fees cannot be charged for E-Filing; only statutorily mandated filing fees can be charged.' Palm Beach Clerk describes the Portal as 'a free service.' Statutory dissolution-of-marriage filing fee in Miami-Dade is stated as $409. Card surcharge: The Portal passes through a bank transaction / credit card processing fee of 3.5% of the filing fee; electronic check is a $5 flat rate.
- Worth knowing
- E-filing is mandatory for lawyers in Florida and optional for you. Clerks are directed to accept your paper and scan it into the case themselves. The Portal is free to use — the Supreme Court forbids charging for e-filing — so the only money involved is the statutory filing fee and, if you pay by card, the bank’s processing fee. One local quirk: for a simplified dissolution in Miami-Dade, both spouses are expected to appear together in person to file.
Pro se not required to e-file; clerk must accept and scan hard-copy filings from unrepresented litigants source
E-filing optional for pro se litigants in all divisions since 06/21/2014 source
E-filing not required; clerk accepts paper filings during business hours source
For a simplified dissolution of marriage both parties must appear together in person at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center to file; paper filing is the expected route source
Self-represented filers MAY e-file via the free statewide Portal; page instructs that if you e-file you should not also file the paper copy source
Step one — download them free
All Florida Supreme Court family law forms live here, at no cost:
flcourts.gov — Family Law Forms
Don’t reuse a saved copy or one a friend sent you. Forms get revised — 12.901(a) and 12.902(c) were both updated in June 2025 — and clerks reject superseded versions. The revision date is printed in the footer of every form.
Step two — fill them in on screen
Most Florida family law forms are fillable PDFs. Open them in Adobe Acrobat Reader (free), Preview on a Mac, or any browser, type directly into the fields, and save. Type everything — handwritten forms get rejected more often, and your own handwriting at 11pm is not your friend.
Two things that trip people up: fill in every field, writing “N/A” where something doesn’t apply rather than leaving it blank; and don’t touch the notary block — that section is completed by the notary, not by you.
Florida’s e-filing portal has a free guided tool called DIY Florida that walks you through simplified dissolution question by question and files it for you. If that’s your path, use it — myflcourtaccess.com/authority/diy. It doesn’t cover the with-children route, which is what this kit is for.
Step three — get them notarized, without leaving home
Several of these must be signed in front of a notary: your petition, the marital settlement agreement, financial affidavits, the parenting plan, the corroborating witness affidavit, and your spouse’s Answer and Waiver if they’re filing one.
Florida has allowed Remote Online Notarization since 2020, and it’s fully legal for these documents. You do it by video call — you show government ID, answer identity-verification questions, sign electronically, and the notary applies their seal. It takes about fifteen minutes. These are the services that do it, plus the free and cheaper alternatives:
| Service | Typical cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Proof (formerly Notarize) | ~$25 first seal, $10 each additional | Open ↗ |
| BlueNotary | ~$25 per session | Open ↗ |
| OneNotary | ~$25 first seal | Open ↗ |
| NotaryCam | ~$25 per session | Open ↗ |
| Notarize with your bank | Usually free for account holders | walk in |
| Deputy clerk at the courthouse | Small fee, when you file | in person |
Mobile notaries will also come to you for a travel fee.
Never sign in advance. You sign in the notary’s presence, with valid photo ID in hand. A form signed the night before is not notarized, it’s just signed.
Watch the dates. Your corroborating witness affidavit cannot be dated before the day you file, and your spouse’s Answer and Waiver cannot be dated before your petition. Notaries won’t catch this. Clerks will.
Step four — file them
Florida uses one statewide portal: myflcourtaccess.com. Registration is free — choose the self-represented litigant role. Upload your PDFs, pay the filing fee by card, and you’re filed.
You are not required to e-file as a self-represented litigant — you can still walk into the clerk’s office with paper, and for simplified dissolution that’s often easier since you both have to appear anyway. But e-filing gives you a timestamp and a record, which is worth having.
Once your spouse has been served, later documents get served by email under Rule 2.516 — which is why Form 12.915, the Designation of Current Mailing and E-mail Address, matters more than it looks. Self-represented filers may opt into email service; if you do it once, you follow it from then on.
4 · Your deadlines, calculated
Everything in a Florida divorce runs off two dates. Put them in and we’ll turn every rule into an actual date on your calendar — then you can add the whole thing to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook in one click.
5 · The order it actually happens in
6 · The rejection-proofing checklist
This is the part that’s genuinely worth paying for. These are the specific things that get Florida filings bounced — every one of them costs weeks.
Signing and notarizing
Each of these gets filings rejected and each is invisible until it happens. Your corroborating witness affidavit cannot be dated before the day you file. Your spouse’s Answer and Waiver cannot be dated before the petition. And your ID used for residency must have been issued more than six months before you file — not just be valid now.
Forms people forget
Timing
Alimony not requested in the petition is waived — you can’t ask for it later. And if you serve your spouse by publication because you can’t find them, the court can grant the divorce but cannot award you alimony, child support, or property. Both are irreversible.
7 · Mandatory Disclosure — the 17 categories
Due within 45 days of service. These go to your spouse, not the court file. Only the financial affidavit and child support worksheet get filed.
Under $50,000 gross annual income uses the short form 12.902(b). At or above $50,000 requires the long form 12.902(c). Filing the short form on higher income is one of the most routine rejections there is. The affidavit itself cannot be waived — though by agreement you can file Form 12.902(k) to waive filing it, as long as you still exchange it.
8 · What this costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Filing fee (Broward $409 · Hillsborough & Collier $408 · Manatee & Osceola $397.50) | ~$400 |
| Summons issuance, per summons | $10 |
| Sheriff service of process, per person | $40 |
| Parenting course, per parent (if children) | $20–70 |
| Vital statistics / final judgment recording | ~$10 |
| Service by publication, if you can’t locate your spouse | $100+ |
| Typical all-in, doing it yourselves | $430–530 |
Ask the clerk for the Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status. If your household income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, the fee is waived — and so are summons and sheriff service costs. The clerk decides, not a judge, and they’re required to help you fill it out if you ask. Receiving SNAP, Medicaid, or SSI generally qualifies you.
What this is. A guide to Florida’s own process, built from the Florida Statutes (ch. 61), the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure, the Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Forms, and published circuit court instructions. The forms themselves are free from flcourts.gov and this kit links you to them rather than reselling them.
What this is not. The Cusp is not a law firm and does not practice law. Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here tells you which choice is right for your particular situation — only what Florida requires of each path. If your case involves contested custody, a business, hidden assets, domestic violence, or a spouse with a lawyer, talk to an attorney. Many offer free consultations, and one hour of advice is cheaper than one mistake.
Free alternatives you should know about. Florida’s e-filing portal offers a free guided tool called DIY Florida that covers Simplified Dissolution. Several circuits — Hillsborough’s in particular — publish excellent free step-by-step packets. If Simplified Dissolution is your path, use those; you don’t need us.
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Everything we have written about Florida specifically. Every figure on these pages is quoted from Florida’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
- What it costs to file
- Child custody
- Child support
- Guardians ad litem and child representation
- Travel, custody and relocation
- Alimony
- Property, support and legal fees
- Protective orders
- Changing your name back
- Legal help you can afford
- Verified professionals
- What Divorce Actually Costs
- What Happens to the House in a Florida Divorce
The most expensive mistakes in a divorce are made in the year after it, by people who thought the case was over. After the divorce is the checklist for that year — the health-coverage clock, the retirement order a decree cannot replace, and the beneficiary form that outranks your will.
Filing is one household becoming two, and the second one starts empty. The two-household list is what to send the people who keep asking how they can help — the second of everything, and the half of it that costs nothing. Some people call it a divorce registry.