The rest of what we have written about Maine. Every figure is quoted from Maine’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Free and low-cost divorce help in Maine
There is no public defender for a divorce in Maine, 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.
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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 Maine it is called Request for Waiver of Fees. Superior Court cases generally require a $150 fee and District Court divorce cases a $120 fee; both can be waived via this request.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. In appropriate cases, the court may order attorney’s fees and costs paid while an action is pending (including on appeal) or as part of a final judgment. (19-A M.R.S. § 105)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. Pine Tree Legal Assistance Self-Help Tools lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Maine Judicial Branch – Divorce and Family Separation. Divorce process information; notes that free legal advice may be available from a family law attorney, and that filing fees may be waived based on financial circumstances.
- Try the bar referral service. Maine State Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service. $35 administrative/referral fee; referred attorney provides the first half-hour consultation free of additional charge.
Legal aid in Maine
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pine Tree Legal Assistance | statewide | Provides free civil legal aid; self-help tools/form kits for divorce and parental rights. |
University of Maine School of Law Clinics. 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 Maine
- Maine Law’s clinics represent low-income individuals in civil, criminal, juvenile, and family law matters generally, not a dedicated stand-alone ‘family law clinic’ name.
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 Maine divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost