Hard court costs · verified 2026-08-20
What a Illinois 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.
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Illinois does not have one single number. Below is what is actually published, where it comes from, and what it does not cover.
What it costs to file
Statutory maximum $371.00 in a county of 3,000,000 or more (Cook); statutory maximum $321.00 in every other county. Actual confirmed county example: $314.00 (Madison).
To file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (the Illinois Supreme Court’s statewide standardized forms are titled “Petition for Divorce” and “Petition for Divorce with Children”) in the Circuit Court.
705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1) (Schedule 1 filing fee); 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(b)(1) (Schedule 1 appearance fee). Source note on the statute: P.A. 103-4, eff. 5-31-23; 103-379, eff. 7-28-23; 103-605, eff. 7-1-24; 104-120, eff. 1-1-26; 104-468, eff. 7-1-26.
Schedule dated
The statute’s own source note prints the amending public acts and their effective dates, the most recent being P.A. 104-468, eff. 7-1-26. No single ‘effective date’ is printed for the fee schedule as such.
The date printed on the official source. Where a state prints no date, we say so rather than implying the figure is current.
Worth knowing before you file. Illinois charges the responding spouse a second, near-equal fee: 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(b)(1) authorizes an APPEARANCE fee of up to $235 in Cook and up to $196 elsewhere on top of the petitioner’s filing fee, and dissolution cases are expressly in Schedule 1 for appearances. In Madison County that is $314.00 + $189.00 = $503.00 in clerk fees for a two-participant divorce. The other surprise is that a granted fee waiver reaches beyond the courthouse: it forces any Illinois sheriff to serve the papers for free and excuses the otherwise-mandatory parenting class fee.
Where the money goes
Illinois publishes the component breakdown in the statute itself, which is unusual and is reproduced above. It does not publish a single statewide dollar figure, because 705 ILCS 105/27.1b only sets ceilings and each county board sets the actual amount.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| SCHEDULE 1 filing fee for a complaint, petition or other pleading initiating a civil action (dissolution cases fall in Schedule 1)The statute sets a CEILING, not a price; the actual amount is fixed by county board ordinance or resolution. That dissolution cases sit in Schedule 1 is confirmed by a county board resolution reproduced in the Madison County Circuit Clerk’s fee book, which lists “DISSOLUTION (DC) and (DN) cases” under the heading “(705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1)) SCHEDULE 1.” 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1) | not to exceed $371.00 (county of 3,000,000+) / not to exceed $321.00 (all other counties) |
| Statutory sub-allocation of the Schedule 1 filing fee – clerk’s retained shareRetained by the clerk, with Supreme Court approval, for court automation, court document storage and administrative purposes. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1)(A) | not to exceed $55.00 (county of 3,000,000+) / not to exceed $45.00 (all other counties) |
| Statutory sub-allocation – remitted to the State TreasurerSplit as: up to $10 to the Mandatory Arbitration Fund; $2 to the Access to Justice Fund; $5 to the Guardianship and Advocacy Fund; $9 to the Supreme Court Special Purposes Fund. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1)(B) | up to $26.00 |
| Statutory sub-allocation – remitted to the County TreasurerThis is the portion “specified by ordinance or resolution passed by the county board” – the part that actually differs between the 102 counties. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1)(C) | not to exceed $290.00 (county of 3,000,000+) / not to exceed $250.00 (all other counties) |
| Appearance fee paid by the responding spouse (Schedule 1)A separate, second fee. Madison County’s confirmed figure is $189.00; dissolution cases are expressly listed under Schedule 1 for appearances too. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(b)(1) | not to exceed $235.00 (county of 3,000,000+) / not to exceed $196.00 (all other counties) |
How it changes by county
Genuinely county-set, but within tight statutory ceilings and with only TWO population tiers, not a graduated schedule. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(a)(1) sets one ceiling for counties of 3,000,000 or more (Cook is the only such county) and a single different ceiling for “any other county,” and provides that “the amount of a fee shall be determined by ordinance or resolution of the county board.” So the maximum spread on a dissolution filing fee across all 102 counties is $321 (non-Cook ceiling) to $371 (Cook ceiling), with counties free to charge less. Kane and Will Counties may add a further fee of up to $30 per party at first filing under 705 ILCS 105/27.1b(b-5) and § 5-1101.3 of the Counties Code.
The floor everywhere in Illinois
No fixed statewide amount, but a statutory ceiling every county sits under: $316 for a Schedule 1 civil filing in counties under 3 million, $366 in Cook County. Kane County's $454 for a dissolution with children exceeds the base cap because it adds locally authorized components on top of the statutory filing fee.
Since the Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act took effect on July 1, 2019, Illinois runs a hybrid: the General Assembly sets the CEILING and each county board sets the actual price. 705 ILCS 105/27.1b tells county boards to adopt filing fees by ordinance or resolution and caps them at three tiers. For counties under 3,000,000 people the maximums are $316 (Schedule 1), $266 (Schedule 2) and $89 (Schedule 3); Cook County, being over 3,000,000, has higher caps of $366, $357 and $265. The Illinois Supreme Court assigns each case category to a schedule, and dissolution of marriage — both DC (with children) and DN (no children) — sits in Schedule 1, the top tier, alongside chancery, foreclosure and law. Layered on top, and included in the published totals, are separate statutory add-ons each county levies: the court automation fee (705 ILCS 105/27.3a), document storage fee (705 ILCS 105/27.3c), law library fee (55 ILCS 5/5-39001), court security fee (55 ILCS 5/5-1103), county court fee (55 ILCS 5/5-1101) and the Access to Justice fund (705 ILCS 105/27.3g). The result: dissolution costs $306 in Champaign and $454 in Kane.
| County | What you pay to file | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Cook | $388 | Cook County Sheriff: $60 per service per defendant if the summons is e-filed, $95 if filed in person or by mail. A $10 mileage fee is included. |
| DuPage | $350 | Not listed in the Prothonotary-equivalent fee book; the DuPage County Sheriff publishes civil process fees separately |
| Lake | $334 | Not published on the fee schedule |
| Will | $364 | Not published on the simplified fee schedule |
| Kane | $364 without children; $454 with children | Not published on the fee schedule |
| McHenry | $314 | Not published on the fee schedule |
| Winnebago | $342 | Not published on the fee list |
| St. Clair | $316 | Not itemized for divorce service on the Fee Book's civil pages |
| Madison | $314 to file; $503 for the couple all in | Not published on the divorce information page |
| Champaign | $306 | Not published on the civil fee schedule |
| Sangamon | $326 | Not published on the fee schedule |
| McLean | $332 | Not published on the fee schedule |
| Bureau | $326 | Not itemized for dissolution |
| Randolph | $306 | Not published on the fee schedule page |
| Woodford | $312 | Not published on the filing fees page |
| Clinton | $306 | Not itemized for dissolution service |
The spread: Across the 16 Illinois counties we confirmed, the cheapest is $306 — a three-way tie between Champaign, Randolph and Clinton. The most expensive is Kane County at $454 for a dissolution with children ($364 without). Cook County is $388, the highest among the big-population counties, and Cook is also the only one whose statutory ceiling is higher because it has more than 3,000,000 residents.
What makes up each of these numbers
- Cook — Schedule 1 new-case filing fee. The Clerk's Domestic Relations Division guide states 'The regular fee for filing all cases in the Division is $388.00.' The responding spouse pays a separate $250 Schedule 1 appearance fee. Alias summons (re-service) $6. source
- DuPage — New-case filing fee for DC (with children age 18 or younger or a disabled child) and DN (without minor children) alike. Respondent's appearance fee $225. Filing Fee Book revised 1/12/2026, fees effective April 28, 2026. source
- Lake — Schedule 1 new-case filing fee for both DC and DN. Appearance fee $209. Fee schedule effective 10/1/2025. source
- Will — Court filing fee by case type, simplified schedule dated 07/17/2026. Dissolution With Children and Dissolution Without Children are both $364. source
- Kane — 16th Judicial Circuit fee schedule effective 7/12/2026. DC (dissolution with children) $454, DN (dissolution without children) $364. Appearance/answer $239. Kane separately charges a $90 Kids Divorce Educational Program fee under General Order 16-17 — this is why the with-children number is $90 higher. source
- McHenry — New-case filing fee for DC and DN alike; appearance fee $189. Fee schedule revised 01-01-2023. source
- Winnebago — 17th Judicial Circuit civil filing fee list effective July 20, 2026. DC and DN both $342; appearance $217. source
- St. Clair — The Fee Book spells out the mechanics: 'Clerks of the Courts Act Schedule 1 – Fee is $316.00,' and Schedule 1 expressly includes 'Dissolution with Children (DC) cases' and 'Dissolution without Children (DN) cases.' Civil appearance fee Schedule 1 is $189. Fee Book revised October 01, 2025. source
- Madison — The Circuit Clerk states it directly: 'The fee to file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (Civil Union) is $314.00. The other party in the case will have to pay an answer fee of $189.00 for a total of $503.00.' source
- Champaign — Civil fee schedule effective January 1, 2025. Dissolution of Marriage with Children and No Children are both $306. Entry of Appearance/Answer fee $181. source
- Sangamon — Fee schedule updated 05/29/2024. Dissolution with children and without children both $326 (Schedule 1); appearance $201. Change of venue in a dissolution $40. source
- McLean — Best-itemized in Illinois. Civil fee schedule effective October 1, 2025: filing fee $332 for DC, DN and FA; appearance $207. The schedule notes 'Filing/Appearance fees include Law Library fee $10.00 & Neutral Site Custody Exchange fee $8.00.' The county code (Article I, Clerk of the Circuit Court Fees and Assessments) shows the money splitting into the Court Automation Fund, Court Document Storage Fund, Circuit Clerk Operation and Administrative Fund, and the county treasurer. source
- Bureau — Small rural county, and its schedule is the clearest explanation of the statute anywhere: 'SCHEDULE 1 (705 ILCS 105.27.1b(a)(1)) … FILING FEE DUE $326.00' with 'DISSOLUTION (DN) & (DC) cases' listed among the Schedule 1 categories. Appearance fee $201. Effective 1/1/2022. source
- Randolph — Rural southern Illinois county. Circuit Clerk fee schedule: Dissolution filing fee $306, appearance fee $181. source
- Woodford — Small central Illinois county. DC (dissolution with children) $312 and DN (dissolution without children) $312; appearance fee $187. source
- Clinton — Fee schedule effective July 1, 2019 with case-category changes effective January 1, 2022. DC – Dissolution with Children petition $306, answer $181; DN – Dissolution without Children petition $306, answer $181. This schedule also lists the statutory authority for every component: circuit clerk fee (705 ILCS 105/27.1a), county court fee (55 ILCS 5/5-1101), court automation fee (705 ILCS 105/27.3a), law library fee (55 ILCS 5/5-39001), court security fee (55 ILCS 5/5-1103), document storage fee (705 ILCS 105/27.3c) and Access to Justice fund (705 ILCS 105/27.3g). source
What catches people out
- Your spouse gets a bill too. Illinois charges the responding party a separate APPEARANCE fee, and it is not small: $250 in Cook, $239 in Kane, $225 in DuPage, $217 in Winnebago, $209 in Lake, $207 in McLean, $189 in McHenry and St. Clair. Madison County spells out the real household cost: $314 to file plus $189 to answer equals $503.
- In most Illinois counties children do NOT change the filing fee — but Kane County is the exception, and it is honest about why. Kane charges $454 with children versus $364 without, because a $90 Kids Divorce Educational Program fee is folded in.
- Cook County's sheriff charges $60 per defendant if you e-file the summons but $95 if you walk it in or mail it. Filing on paper in Cook costs you an extra $35 for no benefit.
- The filing fee is not the whole bill even in a county that only lists one number. Law library, court automation, document storage, court security and Access to Justice assessments are baked in — McLean County is unusual in telling you so ($10 law library, $8 neutral site custody exchange).
- Fee schedules in Illinois change often and mid-year. Of the counties we checked, Will's took effect 7/17/2026, Kane's 7/12/2026, Winnebago's 7/20/2026, DuPage's 4/28/2026 and Lake's 10/1/2025. A figure from even last year may be stale.
- A Joint Simplified Dissolution can save time but not filing fees — the filing fee is the same Schedule 1 amount. What it saves is the second appearance fee and months of process, if you qualify (short marriage, no children, low income and property).
What we could not confirm
- We could not pull Peoria County's fee schedule — the PDF the county posts is an image scan with no readable text, so we left it out rather than guess. If you are filing in Peoria, call the Circuit Clerk. We also could not find published sheriff service fees for most Illinois counties; only Cook publishes its numbers plainly. Assume roughly $30 to $95 per person served and ask your county sheriff's civil process division.
16 counties confirmed against the clerk’s own published schedule. Fee schedules change without notice — call before you drive over.
The published range
$0.00 – $371.00 (statutory ceilings: up to $371.00 in Cook, up to $321.00 elsewhere) across the counties we were able to confirm from official sources.
| County | Published fee | Schedule dated |
|---|---|---|
| Madison | $314.00 filing fee for DC and DN (dissolution) cases; $189.00 appearance fee | July 1, 2019 per the county board resolution reproduced in the fee book (“the effective date of Circuit Court Clerk fees shall be July 1, 2019 as provided by Public Act 100-0987 and Madison County Board Ordinance 2019-05 adopted on May 15, 2019”); the fee book file itself is dated 12-2-25official source |
| Cook | The clerk publishes no divorce filing fee we could read. Call the office. | no date printed |
| DuPage | The clerk publishes no divorce filing fee we could read. Call the office. | no date printed |
| Lake | The clerk publishes no divorce filing fee we could read. Call the office. | no date printed |
| Peoria | $331.00 (Dissolution of Marriage). Peoria prints both case codes on one line at one price — DC with children, DN without — so children do not change the filing fee. Sheriff service $40.00 plus a $5.00 return and $1.00 a mile, within Peoria County. Certified mailing $12.00, posting $9.00. | Effective November 1, 2022official source |
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.
What it costs to file it electronically
- Portal fee
- No mandatory statewide e-filing fee. The AOIC's official flyer states that two providers charge nothing extra: 'Odyssey and i2File do not charge extra fees for using their services.' The judiciary's EFSP list shows Odyssey eFileIL, Odyssey Guide & File, 1 eFile, FileTime and i2File as free (i2File free 'if the Circuit Clerk is subscribed to i2File.net'); other EFSPs charge.
This sits on top of the filing fee above, and a percentage surcharge on a few hundred dollars is not small. Whether you have to e-file at all is on the Illinois kit.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Service of process by sheriff, per respondentMadison County’s fee book carries a “MADISON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE CIVIL PROCESS SERVICE FEES” table priced per municipality (e.g. Alton $62, Madison $64, Maryville $54), plus mileage. Critically, the Illinois Supreme Court’s own divorce instructions state that “If the Sheriff is in Illinois, the Sheriff must honor the waiver” – i.e. an Order for Waiver of Court Fees eliminates the sheriff’s fee anywhere in the state. | County-set; confirmed example Madison County $54.00 – $64.00 depending on the township of service |
| Parenting/parent-education class, if requiredMANDATORY with minor children. The Illinois Supreme Court’s own statewide instructions (form DV-I 102.3, “How To Get a Divorce with Children”, rev. 11/24) state: “The law requires that parents complete a class about parenting and divorce when they have minor children.” The same page says “There is normally a fee for the class. If you have an Order for Waiver of Court Fees you do not have to pay the fee.” No dollar amount is published statewide – filers are told to “Ask the Circuit Clerk for the name and contact information for the court approved class” – so the amount is reported as null rather than estimated. | not published |
| Court-ordered mediationThe Supreme Court’s divorce-with-children instructions warn that the judge “may order mediation or other things to be done before the case can be ended,” but publish no price. Mediation programs are established by local circuit rule, so no statewide amount exists. | not published |
| E-filing or credit-card surchargeE-filing is mandatory in Illinois civil cases and the Supreme Court instructions route all filers to it, but no e-filing fee or card surcharge is published in 705 ILCS 105/27.1b or in the Supreme Court’s materials. Any charge is levied by the litigant’s chosen eFileIL service provider, not by the court, so it is left null. | 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.
Illinois 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: Receipt of any of the listed public benefits – SSI (not Social Security), SNAP/Food Stamps, AABD, TANF, or a General Assistance Program / Transitional Assistance / State Children and Family Assistance – qualifies the applicant for a FULL fee waiver automatically: the form instructs such applicants to “Skip section 4 and section 5 … You qualify for a full fee waiver. (735 ILCS 5/5-105(a)(2)(i), (b)(1)).” Applicants without those benefits complete a financial section reporting monthly and 12-month gross income, assets including real estate, and expenses; the specific income cut-off is set by 735 ILCS 5/5-105, which was not read directly.
- What it covers: Court fees and assessments under 735 ILCS 5/5-105 and 5/5-105.5. In addition, the Illinois Supreme Court’s divorce instructions state that an Order for Waiver of Court Fees also removes the sheriff’s service fee (“If the Sheriff is in Illinois, the Sheriff must honor the waiver”) and the parenting-class fee (“If you have an Order for Waiver of Court Fees you do not have to pay the fee”).
- What to ask for: ATJ 601.9, Application For Waiver of Court Fees (revision code (08/25) printed in the page footer) – “approved by the Illinois Supreme Court and … required to be used in all Illinois Circuit Courts.” Companion forms: ATJ 601.9 Instructions and Order.
- How it works: Application for Waiver of Court Fees, filed with the Circuit Clerk; the judge rules on it by an Order on Application for Waiver of Court Fees.
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- Cook, DuPage and Lake County dissolution filing fees could not be confirmed and are reported as null. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County publishes no filing-fee schedule on its website (its own Civil Division page tells filers to “pick up a schedule of filing fees at the Customer Service Counter in the Civil Division in Room 601”); lakecountyil.gov returns an HTTP 403 Cloudflare challenge on every path; and dupagecircuitclerk.gov serves the same catch-all homepage for /fees and /fee-schedule and is additionally flagged on-page as a test environment. Madison County is supplied instead as a verified real-county example.
- The statutory income cut-off in 735 ILCS 5/5-105 for applicants who do not receive public benefits was not read directly and is not quoted.
- No dollar amount is published statewide for the mandatory parenting class or for court-ordered mediation.
- No e-filing fee or card surcharge is published by the courts.
- Sources we could not read: https://www.lakecountyil.gov/199/Circuit-Court-Clerk (and /DocumentCenter, /2226/Fee-Schedule) – HTTP 403 with a Cloudflare “Just a moment…” managed JavaScript challenge. Not bypassed, as instructed.; https://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/county-government/departments-a-i/circuit-clerk – HTTP 403.; https://www.ilcourthelp.gov/ – HTTP 403.; https://dupagecircuitclerk.gov/18thJudicial/fees – returns HTTP 200 but serves the site homepage, which carries the banner “Attention ! This is Test site.” Not treated as a usable source.
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Everything above is a real limit on what Illinois’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.
Self-reported · not sourced
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 Illinois 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
Illinois attorneys, mediators, CDFAs and therapists, credentials checked against the state’s own records. Nobody paid to be there.
Sources last checked20 August 2026
Page published20 August 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.