What a Louisiana 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 stateLouisiana
Louisiana does not have one single number. Below is what is actually published, where it comes from, and what it does not cover.
Worth knowing before you file. The choice between the two divorce paths has a direct, published price. An Art. 102 divorce requires a rule to show cause filed after the waiting period, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk prices that rule as a separate line item — ‘$145.00 Rule to Show Cause – Art. 102 – Issuance of one Rule only (does not include Judgment of Divorce)’ — on top of the $240.00 new-suit deposit and the $125.00 Judgment of Divorce. An Art. 103 divorce, which is granted on the petition itself, does not incur that line.
The short version7 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes — Most expensive confirmed for a plain divorce with one service: Jefferson Parish at $500.00 (West Baton Rouge Parish is next at $475.00). Highest confirmed figure overall: $600.00 in Jefferson Parish and Lafayette Parish, for a divorce filed together with a rule and a TRO.
- How it changes by parish — Louisiana uses parishes, not counties, and there is genuinely no statewide divorce filing fee.
- What the filing fee does not cover — The filing fee is usually the smallest predictable number in a divorce.
- If you cannot afford to file — More people qualify than apply.
- What we could not find out
- How we know this — Where nothing is published, we leave it blank.
- What people actually report paying — Here is the other side of it — and a warning about how to read it.
In this subject 7
Where the money goes
The short version7 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes — Most expensive confirmed for a plain divorce with one service: Jefferson Parish at $500.00 (West Baton Rouge Parish is next at $475.00). Highest confirmed figure overall: $600.00 in Jefferson Parish and Lafayette Parish, for a divorce filed together with a rule and a TRO.
- How it changes by parish — Louisiana uses parishes, not counties, and there is genuinely no statewide divorce filing fee.
- What the filing fee does not cover — The filing fee is usually the smallest predictable number in a divorce.
- If you cannot afford to file — More people qualify than apply.
- What we could not find out
- How we know this — Where nothing is published, we leave it blank.
- What people actually report paying — Here is the other side of it — and a warning about how to read it.
In this subject 7
| Parish | What you pay advance deposit | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Orleans Parish | $337.50 | Not published on the fee schedule; sheriff service is arranged and paid separately |
| Jefferson Parish (24th JDC) | $400.00 to $600.00 depending on what you file with the petition | Sheriff service is folded into the tiers above for one service. The clerk warns that many sheriffs' offices require a SEPARATE check for service made out in their parish. |
| East Baton Rouge Parish (19th JDC / Family Court) — cheapest confirmed deposit | $150.00 with no service of process, $240.00 with one service — but budget $380.00 to actually finish, because the divorce judgment is billed separately | $90.00 per additional service of process. Curator appointment, if your spouse cannot be found, is $825.00. |
| Caddo Parish (Shreveport, 1st JDC) | $450.00 | $100.00 for each extra service. Add $100.00 if the suit contains a rule to show cause or a TRO. Service through the Secretary of State is $150.00. Sheriff service fees are additional to the clerk deposit. |
| Calcasieu Parish (Lake Charles, 14th JDC) | $400.00 | Each additional service $100.00. Service through the Secretary of State $50.00 each. |
| Lafayette Parish (15th JDC) | $400.00 to $600.00 | Each additional service $100.00. Service through the Secretary of State adds $50.00 per service. |
| St. Tammany Parish (22nd JDC) | $250.00 for a plain divorce; $460.00 if you add a rule; $540.00 with a rule and TRO | Included for one service in the $250.00 divorce deposit; additional services are billed separately |
| Tangipahoa Parish (21st JDC) | $200.00 with no service; $250.00 with one service; $300.00 with a rule; $350.00 with a rule and TRO | Listed separately at the bottom of the parish fee page; sheriff service is on top of the clerk deposit |
| Lafourche Parish (17th JDC) | $275.00 with no rules or TROs; $375.00 with a rule or with a TRO only; $425.00 with a rule and TRO | Each additional service $75.00 — the cheapest additional-service charge confirmed in the state |
| Rapides Parish (Alexandria, 9th JDC) | $400.00 | Each additional service $100.00; service through the Secretary of State $100.00 |
| West Baton Rouge Parish (18th JDC) — second most expensive plain divorce confirmed | $475.00 | Additional defendants $125.00 per service; each service through the Secretary of State adds $50.00 |
| Plaquemines Parish (25th JDC) — small rural parish | $350.00 with one service; $250.00 with no service | Additional defendants or services $100.00 each |
The spread: Cheapest confirmed advance deposit: East Baton Rouge Parish at $150.00 with no service of process, or $240.00 with one service — though EBR then bills the divorce judgment separately, so the realistic all-in is about $380.00. The cheapest realistic start-to-finish deposit is Tangipahoa at $200.00 with no service or $250.00 with service. Most expensive confirmed for a plain divorce with one service: Jefferson Parish at $500.00 (West Baton Rouge Parish is next at $475.00). Highest confirmed figure overall: $600.00 in Jefferson Parish and Lafayette Parish, for a divorce filed together with a rule and a TRO. So a plain divorce costs about two and a half times as much one parish over — $200.00 in Tangipahoa against $475.00 in West Baton Rouge. The $600.00 figure is not the same case: it includes a rule and a TRO, which is why it is listed separately rather than used for the comparison.
What makes up each of these numbers
- Orleans Parish — Domestic relations petition (Divorce) — $337.50, of which $337.50 is the clerk's charge and $0.00 is the judicial building surcharge that ordinary civil petitions pay. An ordinary civil petition costs $514.50 by comparison, so divorce is deliberately cheaper here. Each subsequent domestic rule EXCEPT a rule for divorce costs $47.00. Partition of community property is a separate $338.00 petition. source
- Jefferson Parish (24th JDC) — Divorce with acceptance of service and no rules, TROs or restraining orders $400.00. Divorce with one service and no rules or TROs $500.00. Divorce with a rule $600.00. Divorce with a rule and a TRO or restraining order $600.00. Minute entries, required for each rule or motion set, are $5.00 each. source
- East Baton Rouge Parish (19th JDC / Family Court) — cheapest confirmed deposit — Family new filing deposit $150.00 without service, $240.00 with one service. Inside that: Family Expense fund $35.00, Judges' Supplemental Compensation $30.50, State Fiscal $10.00, Pro Bono Fund $3.00, Initialization Fee $20.00, Judicial College Fee $0.50. Then, separately: Judgment of Divorce $125.00, Certificate of Divorce $15.00, issuance of a TRO, rule or citation $90.00 each, and a Rule to Show Cause under Civil Code art. 102 (one rule only, and it expressly does not include the judgment of divorce) $145.00. source
- Caddo Parish (Shreveport, 1st JDC) — All New Domestic Suits with one service — and the schedule specifically notes this INCLUDES the deposit for the judgment, which is unusual and worth having in writing. Inside it are $150.00 of state-mandated fees: court reporter $75.00, judicial expense fund $15.00, judges' compensation fund $31.50, pro bono project $6.00, battered women fund $10.00, Louisiana Supreme Court fee $10.00, judicial college fund $2.50. source
- Calcasieu Parish (Lake Charles, 14th JDC) — Advance deposit, which includes one service. source
- Lafayette Parish (15th JDC) — Divorce $400.00. Divorce with a rule or a TRO $500.00. Divorce with a rule AND a TRO $600.00. The advance cost includes one service. source
- St. Tammany Parish (22nd JDC) — Divorce with acceptance of service and no rules, TROs or restraining orders $250.00; with one service also $250.00. Add a rule $210.00. Set a hearing officer conference $150.00. Add a TRO or restraining order $80.00. Every figure on the schedule is labeled an ESTIMATE. State pass-throughs include a parish council fee of $25.00 for new suits, another $25.00 any time a matter is set for hearing, judicial expense fund $15.00, Southeast Louisiana Legal Service fee $10.00, judicial college fee $0.50. source
- Tangipahoa Parish (21st JDC) — Published as a four-tier divorce table. The clerk states up front that exact fees are determined at time of billing and the table is published only as a guide to help estimate cost. source
- Lafourche Parish (17th JDC) — Divorce deposits include one service. State pass-throughs the clerk must collect on new suits: 17th JDC Court Fund $10.00, Judges Supplemental Compensation Fund $29.50, Judicial College Fund $0.50, Supreme Court Reporting Fee $1.50. source
- Rapides Parish (Alexandria, 9th JDC) — All new civil suits with one service $400.00, which is the category a divorce petition falls into. All rules with service $300.00. Most additional filings requiring service $300.00. source
- West Baton Rouge Parish (18th JDC) — second most expensive plain divorce confirmed — The Advance Deposit Remittance Schedule prices a Petition for Divorce at $475.00, against $350.00 for an ordinary original petition with one service. A petition with a TRO or a rule is also $475.00. source
- Plaquemines Parish (25th JDC) — small rural parish — New suit advance deposit. The clerk notes that with few exceptions, new suit and domestic suit costs include one service. source
What catches people out
- This is a DEPOSIT, not a price. It is an estimate. Every parish that explains itself says the same thing — Tangipahoa says exact fees are determined at time of billing, Rapides and East Baton Rouge both warn that when costs exhaust the original deposit the clerk may refuse to file anything further, and St. Tammany says flatly that if the deposit is depleted, nothing gets filed and the clerk takes no action until you put in more money. Expect a second bill.
- In several parishes the final Judgment of Divorce is a separate charge. East Baton Rouge bills $125.00 for the judgment and another $15.00 for the Certificate of Divorce, neither included in the $150–$240 you paid to open the case. Caddo goes the other way and says its $450.00 domestic deposit already includes the judgment. Ask which kind of parish you are in.
- The Article 102 route — filing first, then waiting out the separation period, then filing a rule to show cause — costs extra because that rule is its own filing. East Baton Rouge charges $145.00 for the Art. 102 rule, and says in the schedule that it does NOT include the judgment of divorce. Filing under Article 103, after the waiting period has already passed, avoids that second charge.
- Rules and TROs are what actually drive the price. A bare divorce in Lafayette is $400.00; add a rule and a TRO and it is $600.00. In Tangipahoa it goes from $200.00 to $350.00. If you need immediate custody, support or a restraining order, budget for the top tier.
- Sheriff service is a separate payment, and often a separate CHECK. Jefferson Parish warns that many sheriffs' offices require their own check made out in their parish. West Baton Rouge notes that the clerk also collects for sheriffs, judges, parish boards and curators, and that none of those amounts are published on the site.
- If you cannot find your spouse, the court appoints a curator to represent them and you pay for it. East Baton Rouge lists that at $825.00 — more than three times the $240.00 deposit with one service, and more than twice the $380.00 it realistically takes to finish there.
- Orleans Parish is different from every other parish: its schedule says the amount is NOT a deposit but a non-refundable filing fee. You will not get change back.
What we could not confirm
- Ouachita Parish (Monroe), Livingston Parish and Ascension Parish all maintain clerk websites but do not publish a readable civil deposit schedule — Livingston explains that advance deposits are required but never says how much. St. Landry Parish's court costs page would not load. For any of these four, phone the Clerk of Court's civil department for a figure before you go.
12 parishes confirmed against the clerk’s own published schedule. Fee schedules change without notice — call before you drive over.
Louisiana has no statewide component breakdown. The itemization above is the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s published breakdown of what its Family Court advance deposit includes, plus its separately priced Art. 102 rule and Judgment of Divorce lines. Orleans and Jefferson publish lump-sum advance deposits rather than a per-fund breakdown; Jefferson names the funds involved (Judges’ Supplemental Compensation Fund, Judicial Expense Fund, Building Fund, Stenographers, Legal Assistance Program, Supreme Court Reporting System, Domestic Early Intervention Triage, Sheriff service) without stating each amount.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Family Expense Fund (EBR Family Court, included in the new-suit deposit)Listed on the EBR schedule under ‘INITIAL ADVANCE DEPOSIT FOR FAMILY FILINGS INCLUDES PAYMENT TO’. La. R.S. 13:996.3 | $35.00 |
| Judges’ Supplemental Compensation Fund (EBR)The Orleans memo shows this same fund rising by $1.00 per civil filing effective July 1, 2026, under La. R.S. 13:10.3. La. R.S. 13:10.3 | $30.50 |
| State Fiscal (EBR) La. R.S. 13:1414 | $10.00 |
| Pro Bono Fund (EBR) La. R.S. 13:1000(B) | $3.00 |
| Initialization Fee (EBR) La. R.S. 13:841(A)(1) | $20.00 |
| Judicial College Fee (EBR) La. R.S. 13:841.3 | $0.50 |
| Rule to Show Cause — Art. 102, issuance of one Rule only (EBR Family Court). Printed note: ‘does not include Judgment of Divorce’This line is the reason an Art. 102 divorce costs more than an Art. 103 divorce in EBR Parish. La. C.C. art. 102 | $145.00 |
| Judgment of Divorce (EBR Family Court)Separately priced from an ordinary family judgment, which the same schedule lists at $85.00 ‘Excludes Judgment of Divorce’. La. R.S. 13:841 | $125.00 |
How it changes by parish
Louisiana uses parishes, not counties, and there is genuinely no statewide divorce filing fee. Each Clerk of Court sets an advance deposit under La. R.S. 13:841 and related statutes, and the amounts differ by more than 3x across the three largest parishes. In East Baton Rouge Parish divorce is filed in a dedicated parish Family Court with its own, much lower, schedule; elsewhere it is filed in the district court on the civil/domestic side.
The published range
$150.00 to $600.00 across the three parishes verified across the parishes we were able to confirm from official sources.
| Parish | Published fee | Schedule dated |
|---|---|---|
| Orleans Parish | $337.50 (Domestic Relations Petition (Divorce)); a Petition for Partition of Community Property (Domestic) is a separate $338.00 | July 1, 2026 (printed on the memo; memo dated June 15, 2026)official source |
| East Baton Rouge Parish | $150.00 new family suit without service of process; $240.00 with one service of process. Add $145.00 for an Art. 102 Rule to Show Cause and $125.00 for the Judgment of Divorce. | The document prints ‘Rev. 7/3/24’ (Suit Accounting Form #17). No separate effective date is printed.official source |
| Jefferson Parish | $400.00 (with acceptance of service and no rules, TROs or Restraining Orders); $500.00 (with 1 service and no rules/TROs); $600.00 (with a Rule); $600.00 (with a Rule and TRO or Restraining Order) | no date printedofficial 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.
Nothing extra to e-file
We looked for a portal fee and a card surcharge in Louisiana 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 Louisiana kit.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sheriff service of process, per additional respondent — Jefferson ParishThe Jefferson divorce deposits ‘include one service.’ The clerk also warns: ‘Many sheriffs’ offices require a separate check for service to be made in their parish,’ and publishes an out-of-parish sheriff service and mileage cost list at https://www.jpclerkofcourt.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/OUT-OF-PARISH-SERVICE-FEES-AS-OF-1-17-2024.pdf La. R.S. 13:841 (clerk schedule) | $90.00 per service; subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum also $90.00 |
| Sheriff service of process, each additional — East Baton Rouge Family CourtEBR charges $100.00 for each additional service on the ordinary civil (19th JDC) side but $90.00 on the family side. La. R.S. 13:841 (clerk schedule) | $90.00 (also $90.00 for issuance of a TRO, Rule, or Citation, each) |
| 24th JDC Domestic Early Intervention Triage (Domestic Commissioners) fee — Jefferson ParishThe clerk states this was ‘modified per Court Order’ effective November 15, 2016; order posted at https://www.jpclerkofcourt.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Domestic-Order-11-15-2016.pdf La. R.S. 13:1000.12; 24th JDC Local Rules for Domestic Court 35.4 | $15.00 on certain domestic filings |
| Fax filing feeIn addition to applicable filing and other costs. Jefferson states the clerk ‘accepts credit cards in all areas with the exception of fees for expungements and birth/death certificates’ but publishes no credit-card surcharge amount. La. R.S. 13:841 (clerk schedules) | $5.00 per filing (Jefferson); $5.00 (East Baton Rouge) |
| Certificate of Divorce (the vital-records certificate issued after judgment)Jefferson figure at https://www.jpclerkofcourt.us/fees/ La. R.S. 40:57 & La. R.S. 40:58 (cited on the EBR schedule) | $18.00 (Jefferson); $15.00 (East Baton Rouge) |
| Partition of community property (separate petition)Dividing community property is a separately priced filing in both parishes, not part of the divorce deposit. La. R.S. 13:841 (clerk schedules) | $338.00 (Orleans); $325.00 (Jefferson, ‘Petition for Partition’) |
| Court-ordered mediationNo mediation fee is published on any of the three parish clerk schedules examined. Not confirmed — see gaps. | not published |
| Mandatory parent-education classNo parent-education requirement or fee is published on any of the three parish clerk schedules examined. Not confirmed — see gaps. | 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.
Louisiana 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 statute uses the standard ‘unable to pay the costs of court because of poverty and lack of means’ and states no income figure or percentage of the federal poverty guidelines. A separate advance-cost schedule in art. 5181(B) applies only to incarcerated felony litigants.
- What it covers: Per La. C.C.P. art. 5185, ‘All services required by law of a sheriff, clerk of court, court reporter, notary, or other public officer’ in the proceeding — including filing of pleadings and exhibits, issuance of certificates, certification of copies, issuance and service of subpoenas and process, transcribing testimony, and preparing the record on appeal — plus compulsory attendance of up to six witnesses without payment of their fees and mileage.
- What to ask for: No statewide form was located on an official source; the statute requires an application plus the two affidavits described above.
- How it works: Application to proceed in forma pauperis. The applicant applies to the court in the first pleading, or later by ex parte written motion, annexing (1) the applicant’s own affidavit of inability to pay because of ‘poverty and lack of means,’ with any supporting documentation, and (2) the affidavit of a third person other than the applicant’s attorney who knows the applicant and the applicant’s financial condition. The court then grants the application, denies it with written reasons, or sets a contradictory hearing.
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- No statewide Louisiana divorce filing fee exists, so no single verified headline figure is possible — this is a real feature of the system, not a research failure.
- Could not retrieve the text of La. R.S. 13:841 itself; the parish clerks cite it as their authority but the statute text was not fetched, so the statutory maximums behind each parish figure are unverified.
- No parish schedule examined publishes a parent-education class requirement or fee, and no statewide Louisiana parent-education requirement was confirmed from an official source. Reported as unconfirmed rather than assumed.
- No court-ordered-mediation fee is published on any of the three parish schedules.
- No credit-card or e-filing surcharge amount is published; Jefferson states only that credit cards are accepted in most areas.
- No printed effective date appears on the Jefferson Parish fee page; the East Baton Rouge schedule prints only a revision date (‘Rev. 7/3/24’), which is not stated to be an effective date.
- We could not reach the Orleans Parish Civil District Court site at orleanscdc.com; the same office’s schedule was obtained from orleanscivilclerk.com instead.
- Sources we could not read: https://www.orleanscdc.com/ — TLS failure: ‘SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate’ (incomplete certificate chain). Not a CAPTCHA or bot block. Equivalent official data obtained from https://www.; https://legis.la.gov/Legis/LawSearch.aspx — the Louisiana Code full-text search requires an ASP.NET form POST and could not be queried directly; individual articles were reached by document ID instead.
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Everything above is a real limit on what Louisiana’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 Louisiana 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
Louisiana 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 Louisiana. Every figure is quoted from Louisiana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Common questions about filing costs in Louisiana
Short answers to what people ask most about this number. Everything here is drawn from the same sources as the figures above.
How much does it cost to file for divorce in Louisiana?
There is no statewide figure. Verified parish advance deposits for a divorce filing: East Baton Rouge Family Court $150.00 (no service) / $240.00 (one service); Orleans Parish $337.50; Jefferson Parish $400.00 (acceptance of service, no rules) / $500.00 (one service) / $600.00 (with a rule, or rule plus TRO). Every figure on this page is traced to Louisiana’s own statute or its courts’ published fee schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Is the divorce filing fee the same in every Louisiana county?
No. In Louisiana the fee is set locally, county by county. Across the counties we checked it ran $240 – $500 for a plain divorce with one service, from East Baton Rouge Parish to Jefferson Parish, on an advance deposit basis. East Baton Rouge's $150.00 is a family new suit with no service of process at all, and $600.00 is what Jefferson and Lafayette ask when a rule and a TRO are filed with the petition. That is a real spread, not a rounding difference, so the county you file in matters.
Is the filing fee the whole cost of a divorce in Louisiana?
No, and it is the small number. The filing fee is what it costs to open the case. Serving the papers, any required parenting class, copies and certifications, an attorney if you use one, and the cost of running two households instead of one are all separate — and together they are many times larger. The sections above set out what this figure does and does not buy.
What if I cannot afford the filing fee in Louisiana?
There is a process for asking the court to waive or defer it, and this page sets out what Louisiana requires. You do not have to have decided anything, or have a lawyer, to ask.
How current is this Louisiana figure, and where does it come from?
It is quoted from the court’s own published schedule or the statute that sets it, with the date it was last checked shown on the page. Where a figure could not be confirmed from an official source, this site says so rather than estimating — and where a number could only be reached by arithmetic rather than read off a published schedule, it is left out rather than presented as published. That rule is why some rows here say “not published” instead of carrying a tidy figure, and it is the whole basis on which these pages can be reproduced. The full fifty-state comparison is at thecusp.app/divorce-costs/, free to reproduce under the license published there.
Choosing an agent for a divorce sale is a different problem from choosing one for an ordinary sale: who the agent is allowed to talk to, who has to sign, what happens when one of you will not, and the three separate conflicts of interest that come up when one spouse found the agent first. How to choose a real estate agent for a divorce sale sets out what to ask, and how to check a credential yourself — no divorce credential is official with the National Association of Realtors.
The Cusp receives a referral fee from agents it vets and trains to handle divorce clients.