The rest of what we have written about Indiana. Every figure is quoted from Indiana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Free and low-cost divorce help in Indiana
There is no public defender for a divorce in Indiana, or anywhere else — the right to a free lawyer is a criminal-case right, and a divorce is a civil case. What exists instead is on this page, with the link to each one. Start with the fee waiver and the question of whether your spouse can be made to pay your legal fees, because those two are the ones people never think to ask about.
See a different stateIndiana
The five things to try, in this order
Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.
- Ask about the filing fee waiver. In Indiana it is called Filing Fee Waiver (Family Filing Fee Waiver for family law cases). Asks the court to waive a filing fee (standard new civil case filing fee cited as $157); a separate ‘Family Filing Fee Waiver’ form/instructions exist for family law cases.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. The court may periodically order a party to pay a reasonable amount for the cost to the other party of maintaining or defending a dissolution proceeding, including attorney’s fees. (Ind. Code § 31-15-10-1)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. Indiana Legal Help lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Indiana Judicial Branch Self-Service Legal Center. Court forms, form packets, and links to Indiana Legal Help for divorce (with/without children when spouses agree).
- Try the bar referral service. Indianapolis Bar Association (IndyBar) Family Law Modest Means Program. The Indiana State Bar Association itself states it ‘cannot provide legal advice or referrals’; IndyBar’s modest-means program requires referral via a pro bono agency, judicial officer, clerk, bailiff, or attorney, with pre-screening for eligibility.
Legal aid in Indiana
Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take. Being turned down by one is not the end of it — the threshold, the caseload and the priorities differ by program and by month.
| Organization | Who it covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Indiana Legal Services, Inc. | statewide | Indiana Legal Help (indianalegalhelp.org) is the public-facing self-help/legal-info site associated with legal aid. |
Indiana University Maurer School of Law – Community Legal Clinic. Clinics are free, supervised by faculty, and the students have far more time for your case than a stretched legal aid lawyer does. They take few cases and they follow the academic year, so the answer depends heavily on when you ask.
Worth knowing about Indiana
- Maurer’s Community Legal Clinic focuses specifically on family law cases including divorce, paternity, guardianship, and custody; phone 812-855-5912.
Limited scope representation. You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself. It costs a fraction of full representation and it puts a lawyer in the two or three moments that actually change the outcome. How it works, and where it is permitted.
What we could not confirm for this state
Listed rather than filled in. Every one of these is something we went looking for and could not stand behind.
- a single statewide fee-waiver form number, which in many states does not exist because each court uses its own
If you know one of these and we have it wrong or missing, tell us and we will check it and credit the correction.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar. Legal aid funding and eligibility change, sometimes mid-year. Always check the link before relying on anything here. Corrections welcome.
Keep reading
- The national picture — fee waivers, unbundling, fee awards
- The Indiana divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost