The rest of what we have written about Missouri. Every figure is quoted from Missouri’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Free and low-cost divorce help in Missouri
There is no public defender for a divorce in Missouri, 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 stateMissouri
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 Missouri it is called Motion and Affidavit in Support of Request to Proceed as a Poor Person (In Forma Pauperis). Statewide Circuit Court form; asks the court to waive court fees and costs due to inability to pay.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. Allows the court to order a party to pay a reasonable amount for the cost to the other party of maintaining or defending a family law action, including reasonable attorney’s fees, after considering all relevant factors including the parties’ financial resources. (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.355)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. Missouri Courts – Represent Yourself / Court Forms lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Missouri Courts Self-Representation / selfrepresent.mo.gov resources. Court-approved forms for people representing themselves in family law matters, including dissolution of marriage.
- Try the bar referral service. The Missouri Bar – LawyerSearch / county Lawyer Referral Services (e.g. St. Louis County Bar Lawyer Referral Service). LawyerSearch is a free statewide directory of lawyers in good standing accepting new clients; separately, some county/circuit bars (e.g. St. Louis County, 314-421-4134) run their own lawyer referral service.
Legal aid in Missouri
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Missouri Legal Services (lsmo.org, network including Legal Aid of Western Missouri, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Legal Services of Southern Missouri, Mid-Missouri Legal Services) | statewide, organized by region | Mid-Missouri Legal Services phone application: 573-442-0116 or 800-568-4931. |
University of Missouri School of Law – Child and Family Justice Clinic (CFJC). 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 Missouri
- Saint Louis University School of Law also runs several legal clinics (Civil Advocacy, Children’s Permanency, etc.) though none confirmed as specifically ‘family law’ in the sources checked.
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 Missouri divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost