The Louisiana Divorce Kit
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Louisiana doesn’t run on the same rulebook as the other 49 states — it’s the only civil-law jurisdiction in the country, and its divorce statutes read differently because of it. There’s no single statewide portal, no single statewide form set, and “county” isn’t even the right word here. This kit tells you exactly what’s real, what’s parish-by-parish, and what the Civil Code actually says — not what a blog says it says.
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 Civil Code articles, and what each requires
Every other state kit in this library starts with “which form track.” Louisiana starts with the Civil Code. Two articles govern a no-fault divorce here — Article 102 and Article 103 — and they are not interchangeable tracks for the same thing. One requires you to file first and then wait; the other requires the waiting to have already happened before you file. It is the single most consequential fork in the whole process, and the difference between them is set out in full below.
Domicile first. Code Civ. Pro. Art. 10(A)(7) requires at least one spouse to be domiciled in Louisiana at the time of filing. There is no fixed number-of-months requirement the way Florida or Connecticut have one — domicile is about where a person actually lives with the intent to stay, not a waiting period.
Covenant marriages are excluded from both. Articles 102 and 103 both explicitly exclude covenant marriage, which a small minority of Louisiana couples elect at the time of the license. Dissolving one generally requires stricter grounds — adultery, a felony sentence, abuse, a longer separation, or completed reconciliation counseling — and mandatory counseling steps. The parish clerk can confirm whether a marriage was designated “covenant” on the license. The forms and timeline in this kit are not built for that track.
Article 102 — file first, then the period runs
La. Civ. Code art. 102; separation periods at art. 103.1
The petition is filed before the spouses have lived apart for the required period. One spouse files, or both file jointly. The other spouse is then served, or signs an Acceptance of Service and Waiver of Citation, and the statutory period runs from that date — not from the day the spouses actually moved apart, and not from the day of filing. When the period has run, a Rule to Show Cause is filed and the divorce is granted on that rule.
Article 102 requires all of these:
- At least one spouse domiciled in Louisiana when the petition is filed.
- A marriage that is not a covenant marriage.
- The spouses live separate and apart continuously, without reconciling, for 180 days where there are no minor children of the marriage, or 365 days where there are — counted from the date of service or of the filed waiver.
- A Rule to Show Cause filed after that period has run.
What it entails: two filings rather than one — the petition now, the rule later. A notarized Acceptance of Service and Waiver starts the clock immediately and avoids the sheriff’s service fee. There is no statewide fill-in template for the Rule to Show Cause; it varies by parish.
Article 103(1) — the period has already run
La. Civ. Code art. 103(1); separation periods at art. 103.1
The same number of days, counted before the petition is filed rather than after. Article 103 is for a divorce where the ground already exists on the day the petition goes in, and under 103(1) that ground is a separation that has already run its full course. There is no additional statutory wait built into this article the way there is with Article 102, and no second filing: the case finishes on the original petition.
Article 103(1) requires all of these:
- At least one spouse domiciled in Louisiana when the petition is filed.
- A marriage that is not a covenant marriage.
- The spouses have already lived in completely separate residences, continuously and without reconciling, for 180 days where there are no minor children of the marriage, or 365 days where there are — measured as of the day the petition is filed.
What it entails: one filing. Louisiana’s guided online interview at docs.lajudicial.gov covers exactly this track and assembles the petition step by step.
Article 103(2)–(5) — fault grounds
La. Civ. Code art. 103(2)–(5)
The other half of Article 103. There is no waiting period at all on these grounds — but the specific ground has to be pleaded, and if it is disputed, proved. That is exactly where these cases get contested.
Any one of these is a ground:
- The other spouse committed adultery — art. 103(2).
- The other spouse was convicted of a felony and sentenced to death or imprisonment at hard labor — art. 103(3).
- The other spouse physically or sexually abused the applicant spouse or a child of one of the spouses during the marriage — art. 103(4).
- A protective order or injunction was issued against the other spouse to protect the applicant spouse or a child from abuse — art. 103(5).
What it entails: the paperwork is uneven. The abuse and protective-order ground under 103(5) has a real statewide fill-in form, SRL 1035. Adultery and felony conviction under 103(2) and 103(3) have no generic statewide fill-in petition — those grounds are evidence-heavy, and most self-represented-litigant resources point to an attorney for exactly that reason.
Reading the fork. The practical difference between the two articles is when the days are counted. Article 102 starts the clock at service or at the filed waiver, and requires a second filing — the Rule to Show Cause — to finish. Article 103(1) requires the identical number of days to have already elapsed before the petition is filed, and finishes on that petition. Article 103(2)–(5) requires no days at all, and instead requires a fault ground to be pleaded and, if contested, proved. The number of days is the same in both no-fault articles: 180 with no minor children of the marriage, 365 with them.
2 · Every divorce form Louisiana publishes statewide — and where it stops being statewide
Here is the honest version most sites will not give you: Louisiana has no single statewide family-law form set the way Florida or Connecticut does. Many parishes have their own locally-approved divorce forms, and local rules can require that those be used. What follows is real — it is published by the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Commission specifically for use in parishes that do not have their own locally-approved forms — but it is a fallback, not a guarantee of what any particular parish wants. It is the complete set, not a shortlist, with the article each form belongs to in the Route column. These forms carry no published revision date, so there is no revision column to check.
| Form | What it is | Route | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRL 102 (no children) | Self-Represented Petition — Article 102, No Minor Children | Article 102 | Open |
| SRL 102 (w/ children) | Self-Represented Petition — Article 102, With Minor Children | Article 102 | Open |
| — | Rule to Show Cause — filed later, once the separation period has run. Template varies by parish; the clerk’s self-help desk or an attorney is where it comes from | Article 102 | see clerk / attorney |
| SRL 103 (no children) | Self-Represented Petition — Article 103(1), Already Separated, No Minor Children | Article 103(1) | Open |
| SRL 103 (w/ children) | Self-Represented Petition — Article 103(1), Already Separated, With Minor Children | Article 103(1) | Open |
| Guided tool | docs.lajudicial.gov guided interview — assembles the Article 103(1) petition step by step | Article 103(1) | Open |
| SRL 1035 | Self-Represented Petition — Article 103(5) Divorce (abuse / protective order ground) | Article 103(5) | Open |
| — | Adultery or felony-conviction petitions under Article 103(2) and 103(3) — no generic statewide form; most self-represented resources recommend an attorney for these grounds | Article 103(2)–(3) | see clerk / attorney |
| SRL Waiver | Acceptance of Service and Waiver of Citation | All routes — where the other spouse will sign | Open |
These are the statewide fallback, not necessarily your parish’s forms. Confirm with your parish clerk before relying on them — see Section 3. Verified live links, published by the LSBA Access to Justice Commission
3 · Getting the forms and filing them — parish by parish
This is the part that genuinely works differently here. There’s no myflcourtaccess.com or jud.ct.gov single front door. Here’s what actually exists.
You may e-file, but you do not have to Your choice
- Portal
- No single statewide trial-court portal. Trial-court e-filing is run by each parish clerk of court (many through the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority statewide portal / eClerks LA). The Louisiana Supreme Court runs a separate appellate system.
- Paper
- Still accepted — you can file over the counter.
- What it costs
- No portal fee published.
- Account
- Varies by parish clerk. The Louisiana Supreme Court's own e-filing system is closed to pro se filers: 'Only members in good standing of the Louisiana State Bar Association are eligible to become registered users of E-Filing at this time.'tered users of E-Filing at thi
- Worth knowing
- Louisiana readers need the parish-level framing. A pro se divorce filer files with the clerk of court in the parish of filing; whether e-filing is even offered depends on that clerk's system, and art. 253 makes electronic transmission permissive ('may'). The January 1, 2026 change constrains HOW attorneys file (in-person paper or electronic) rather than forcing all attorneys onto e-filing. The Supreme Court's cdx.lasc.org system is appellate-only and attorney-only.
Step one — check your parish first, before you download anything
Call or check the website of the Clerk of Court for the parish where you’ll file (see Section 5 for which parish that is) and ask two things: do they have their own approved divorce petition forms, and do they have a self-help or self-represented litigant desk. Many parishes — Orleans, Jefferson, and East Baton Rouge among them — have Family Court or District Court self-help resources.
The Louisiana State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Commission publishes fillable self-represented-litigant (SRL) petitions for Article 102 and Article 103 divorces, plus a guided online interview tool. They say explicitly this is “for use in parishes without locally-approved forms.” That’s the honest scope — treat it as your fallback, not your default: lsba.org — Find Legal Help / Forms.
Step two — or use the guided interview, if you’re on the already-separated track
For couples who’ve already lived apart the full 180/365 days (the Article 103(1) path), Louisiana’s self-represented-litigant portal has a free step-by-step guided interview that assembles your petition: docs.lajudicial.gov — Self-Represented Litigant Divorce Interview. It doesn’t cover Article 102 (not-yet-separated) or fault-ground filings — those still need the PDF petitions below, or an attorney.
Step three — fill them in, sign them, get them notarized
Louisiana divorce petitions are verified — signed under oath — which in practice means signed before a notary. Louisiana has a large population of practicing notaries (it’s a distinct, prestigious credential here, closer to its civil-law roots), so in-person notarization is usually easy to find at a bank, UPS Store, or attorney’s office. Louisiana also permits remote online notarization for sworn documents; the same national services used in other states are generally valid here too. As always: sign in the notary’s actual presence, never in advance.
Step four — file it, and don’t assume there’s one e-filing system
Louisiana has no single statewide e-filing portal. Instead, parishes contract with one of several private e-filing systems — you may encounter eFileLA, Tybera, Clerk Connect, or others depending on the parish — or the clerk may only accept paper at the counter. Check your specific parish clerk’s website for which applies before you assume you can file from home.
Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art. 3941 requires you to file where either spouse is domiciled, or in the parish of your last matrimonial domicile — and says this venue rule cannot be waived. A divorce judgment from the wrong parish is, in the Code’s own words, an “absolute nullity.” Confirm venue before you file, not after.
4 · Your deadlines, calculated
Louisiana’s clock doesn’t start where you’d guess. Under Article 102, the separation period runs from the date your spouse was served (or signed a written waiver) — not from the date you filed, and not from the date you actually moved out. Under Article 103(1), it’s the opposite: the period has to have already run before you file. Enter what applies to you and we’ll turn the Civil Code into actual dates — then add them to your calendar in one click.
5 · The order it actually happens in
6 · Louisiana’s trap: community property doesn’t split itself, and the clock isn’t where you think it is
This is the part unique to Louisiana that catches almost everyone. Two separate things are going on, and confusing them is the single most expensive mistake in this whole process.
Trap one — the Article 102 clock starts at service, not at moving out
People assume the “180 days” or “365 days” starts counting the day they moved into a separate home. Under Article 102, it doesn’t — the Civil Code is explicit that the period runs “from the service of the petition, or from the execution of written waiver of the service.” You can move out today and still not have the clock start for months, if you delay filing and serving. The fastest way to start the clock is to file and serve immediately after separating — not to wait and see how things go.
If you’ve already been separated the full 180/365 days before you ever file, Article 103(1) lets you file for divorce with no additional statutory wait — the hard part (the waiting) is already behind you. Filing under Article 102 when you actually qualify for 103(1) means volunteering for months of delay you didn’t need. Get this backwards and you cost yourself real time.
Trap two — the divorce judgment does not divide your property
Louisiana is a community property state — officially, the “legal regime of community of acquets and gains” (Civil Code Art. 2334), not “marital property” or “equitable distribution” like most of the country. But the judgment that ends your marriage and the process that divides your community assets and debts are two entirely separate legal proceedings. Under R.S. 9:2801, either spouse has to affirmatively bring a partition action (or you sign a notarial partition agreement) — the court doesn’t do this automatically just because you got divorced. Until it’s done, you and your ex simply co-own everything that was community property, indefinitely.
Civil Code Art. 159: a judgment of divorce terminates the community property regime retroactively to the date you filed the petition — not the date of the judgment, and not the date you separated. Practically, that means income and debts after your filing date are generally yours alone, even though the divorce itself might not be final for months. And once the community ends, claims for reimbursement and accounting between spouses prescribe (expire) in three years — “we’ll sort out the house later” can quietly cost you the right to ask for it at all.
7 · The Detailed Descriptive List — what a property partition actually requires
This isn’t part of the divorce petition — it only applies once you or your spouse files a motion to partition community property under R.S. 9:2801. But it’s worth knowing what’s coming, since it’s the closest thing Louisiana has to Florida’s or Connecticut’s financial disclosure.
Once a motion is filed, each spouse has 45 days to file a sworn Detailed Descriptive List of every community asset and liability, its fair market value, and its location. Then each side has 60 days from the last-filed list to “traverse” (dispute) or “concur in” the other side’s list. Miss the 45-day deadline and the other side can ask the court to treat their own list as the final word — with no chance for you to dispute it.
8 · What this costs
There’s no statewide filing fee in Louisiana — every parish clerk sets its own. Here’s what three of the largest actually charge, pulled directly from their own published fee schedules.
| Parish | Court | Divorce filing fee |
|---|---|---|
| Orleans | Civil District Court | $337.50 flat, effective 7/1/2026 |
| Jefferson | 24th JDC | $400–$600 depending on service/rules requested |
| East Baton Rouge | 19th JDC | $150–$240 advance deposit + ~$145 Rule to Show Cause, ~$125 judgment |
These are advance deposits or base fees, not always a hard cap — clerks can bill additional costs as the case proceeds (extra service, extra rules, copies). Confirm the current number with your own parish before you budget around it.
If you use an attorney instead Illustrative demo data
Louisiana’s civil-law structure — separate community-property partitions, parish-specific procedure, verified pleadings — is a real reason people here retain counsel more often than in some other states, especially once property is involved. The ranges below are illustrative, member-reported figures for demonstration purposes only — not a verified market survey — and should not be treated as a quote.
| Scope | Reported range |
|---|---|
| Uncontested, no property to partition | $900 – $2,000 |
| Uncontested, with a community property partition | $2,000 – $5,000 |
| Contested custody or disputed assets | $5,000 – $15,000+ |
File an In Forma Pauperis affidavit (Code Civ. Pro. arts. 5181–5188) with the clerk — Louisiana’s fee-waiver mechanism. There’s no fixed statewide income cutoff; the standard is that paying costs would deprive you or your family of things you need, and the clerk or judge decides. The Louisiana Supreme Court publishes a model affidavit that most parishes accept.
9 · The rejection-and-delay-proofing checklist
These are the specific Louisiana-law mistakes that cost people months — most of them invisible until they’ve already happened.
Louisiana courts have consistently required genuinely separate households for the separation grounds to count — sleeping in a different bedroom of the same house, or an occasional trial reconciliation, generally doesn’t satisfy Article 102 or 103(1), and a reconciliation attempt can restart the clock entirely. If your situation is ambiguous (shared housing for financial reasons, brief attempts to work it out), talk to an attorney before you rely on a specific date.
What this is. A guide to Louisiana’s own process, built from the Louisiana Civil Code (Articles 10, 102, 103, 103.1, 159, 2334, 3941), Louisiana Revised Statutes (R.S. 9:306, R.S. 9:2801, Code Civ. Pro. arts. 5181–5188), the official parish fee schedules of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court, the Jefferson Parish (24th JDC) Clerk of Court, and the East Baton Rouge Parish (19th JDC) Clerk of Court, and the self-represented-litigant forms published by the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Commission. This kit links to those sources 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 Louisiana law requires of each path, as best it can be verified from official sources. Attorney cost figures in Section 8 are illustrative, member-reported demo data, not a market survey or a quote.
Where Louisiana is genuinely different from a “50-state form kit.” Louisiana has no single statewide e-filing portal, no single statewide family-law form catalog, and no guarantee that the statewide SRL fallback forms in Section 2 are the ones your specific parish wants — many parishes have their own locally-approved forms, and local practice varies more here than almost anywhere else in the country. Where this kit could not verify an exact figure, form, or requirement for your specific parish with confidence, it says “check with your parish clerk of court” instead of guessing. If your case involves contested custody, a business, real estate, a covenant marriage, or a fault ground like adultery or felony conviction, talk to a Louisiana-licensed attorney — the community-property partition process alone is reason enough for many people to.
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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.