What a New Jersey 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 stateNew Jersey
It costs $300.00 to file for divorce in New Jersey. Below is where that money goes, what it does not cover, and what to do if you do not have it.
Worth knowing before you file. Budget the $25 parenting workshop fee for each of you, not just the filer. The statute says so in terms: N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5(b) – ‘Each party shall be required to pay a fee of $25 for registration in the “Parents’ Education Program”.’ It is ordered where custody, visitation or support of a minor child is an issue, not simply because there are children, and the court can exempt a party for good cause. And responding to a New Jersey divorce is not free: the defendant pays $175 just to file an answer/appearance, so an uncontested-in-name divorce with kids can cost the couple up to $525 between them.
The short version7 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes — New Jersey does publish an itemized breakdown on the Judiciary's own Divorce self-help page, split into 'Plaintiff's Fees' and 'Defendant's Fees'.
- Does it change by county? — The complaint fee, defendant's fee and parenting workshop fee are published statewide by the Administrative Office of the Courts and are the same in every county Family Division; all checks are 'made payable to Treasurer, State of NJ'.
- 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 — New Jersey does publish an itemized breakdown on the Judiciary's own Divorce self-help page, split into 'Plaintiff's Fees' and 'Defendant's Fees'.
- Does it change by county? — The complaint fee, defendant's fee and parenting workshop fee are published statewide by the Administrative Office of the Courts and are the same in every county Family Division; all checks are 'made payable to Treasurer, State of NJ'.
- 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
New Jersey publishes this twice over: as a plain list on the Judiciary’s own Divorce self-help page, split into ‘Plaintiff’s Fees’ and ‘Defendant’s Fees’, and as a nine-page consolidated schedule, CN 11112, that gives the statute or rule behind every line. Both are linked below.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Complaint (first paper) in a divorce or civil-union dissolutionCN 11112, page 3: ‘Complaint (first paper) in divorce actions or actions for dissolution of a civil union or domestic partnership (N.J.S.A. 22A:2-12; Rule 1:43) $300.00’. The Judiciary’s Divorce self-help page lists the same figure under ‘Plaintiff’s Fees’ as ‘Complaint Fee $300’. A Notice to the Bar reproduced inside CN 11112 settles what it covers: ‘The $300 filing fee is for the divorce (dissolution) complaint only.’ N.J.S.A. 22A:2-12; R. 1:43 – Judiciary fee schedule CN 11112 | $300.00 |
| Parent Education Registration (plaintiff) – where custody, visitation or support of a minor child is an issueN.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5(b): ‘Each party shall be required to pay a fee of $25 for registration in the “Parents’ Education Program”.’ CN 11112 lists ‘Parent Education Registration (N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.2) $25.00’ among the Family Part fees without restricting it to one side, and the Notice to the Bar inside it says that on top of the $300 complaint fee ‘an additional $25 may be required for the parent education fee’. The Judiciary’s Divorce page prints it once, under ‘Defendant’s Fees’. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5(b); fee schedule CN 11112 | $25.00 |
| First Responsive Pleading (defendant’s answer/appearance)CN 11112, page 3: ‘First Responsive Pleading (Dissolution) (N.J.S.A. 22A:2-12; Rule 1:43) $175.00’. Paid by the responding spouse, not the filer. N.J.S.A. 22A:2-12; R. 1:43 – Judiciary fee schedule CN 11112 | $175.00 |
| Parent Education Registration (defendant) – same trigger, same $25The same statutory fee, charged to the other party. The court does not refer a party to the program at all where a temporary or final restraining order is in effect between them (N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5(e)), and the Judiciary’s Divorce page adds that it is not required where a signed property settlement agreement is filed with the complaint, answer or other first filing. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5 – Judiciary’s Divorce page | $25.00 |
Does it change by county?
No — the fee is the same everywhere in New Jersey
The complaint fee, defendant’s fee and parenting workshop fee are published statewide by the Administrative Office of the Courts and are the same in every county Family Division; all checks are ‘made payable to Treasurer, State of NJ’. The sheriff’s fee for serving the papers is statewide too, and by statute rather than by county policy: N.J.S.A. 22A:4-8 fixes $22.00 for ‘serving summons and complaint in matrimonial actions’, $2.00 for returning the process and mileage at $0.16 a mile, and the county sheriffs publish exactly that – Gloucester County’s schedule does the arithmetic for you as ‘Basic Summons will cost $24 plus mileage’, and Mercer County’s lists ‘Matrimonial Actions $24.00’. What genuinely varies is the mileage, because it is measured to the address where your spouse is served.
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, since 11 October 2026, every row below carries either a published figure or the published rule that governs it.
What it costs to file it electronically
- Portal fee
- Nothing to use JEDS itself, and nothing extra if you pay by ACH transfer from a U.S. bank – that payment screen shows a transaction fee of $0.00. Pay by credit or debit card and the Judiciary adds a non-refundable 3%: its own JEDS guide, ‘Submit a filing fee payment’ (rev. 4/21/2026), reproduces the screen wording, ‘A non-refundable 3% fee is charged for this payment type.’ On the $300.00 complaint fee that is $9.00, so $309.00 by card.
That 3% sits on top of the filing fee above, it is charged on the fee you are paying rather than capped, and it is not refunded if the filing is rejected – the same guide warns that ‘the 3% fee is non-refundable’. Paying by bank transfer, in person or by mail avoids it. Whether you have to e-file at all is on the New Jersey kit.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Service of process by sheriff, first respondentN.J.S.A. 22A:4-8: ‘Serving summons and complaint in matrimonial actions, in addition to mileage, $22.00’, plus $2.00 ‘for returning every writ’ and mileage at $0.16 for every mile actually traveled to and from the courthouse. A second defendant is $20.00 and each one after that $16.00. Statewide, last amended by L.2023, c.255. Two county sheriffs’ own schedules print the same total: Gloucester (‘Basic Summons will cost $24 plus mileage – $22 service fee, $2 return fee’) and Mercer (‘Matrimonial Actions $24.00’). Sheriffs are required to take the fee in advance (N.J.S.A. 22A:4-19). N.J.S.A. 22A:4-8 | $24.00 + mileage |
| Parents’ Education Program, where it appliesThe court orders it in a divorce, nullity or separate-maintenance action ‘where the custody, visitation or support of the minor child is an issue’, and each party attends a separate session and pays $25 (N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5(a), (b)). It must be completed before judgment, the court may exempt a party for good cause, and no referral is made where a restraining order is in effect between the parties. The Judiciary’s Divorce page puts it more simply – ‘if you have minor children’ – and adds that it is not required where a signed property settlement agreement is filed with your first filing. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-12.5 | $25.00 per party |
| Court-ordered economic mediationNo statewide dollar rate exists to quote, because approved mediators bill their own market rate, published beside their name on the court’s roster. The structure is published: under N.J. Ct. R. 1:40-4(b) the parties share the mediator’s fees equally; if they choose a mediator from the court’s roster they may stop after two hours – one hour of preparation and the first session – ‘which shall be at no cost to the parties’; after that the roster rate applies; a mediator chosen off-roster ‘may negotiate a fee and need not provide the first two hours of service free’; and the fee is waived for a party exempt under R. 1:13-2(a). Custody and parenting-time mediation is run by court staff (R. 1:40-5). N.J. Ct. R. 1:40-4(b) | $0.00 first 2 hours |
| Credit or debit card surcharge in JEDSThe Judiciary’s JEDS payment guide shows the payment screen’s own tooltip – ‘A non-refundable 3% fee is charged for this payment type’ – and its worked example charges $1.50 on a $50.00 filing fee and $0.45 on a $15.00 one. The ACH-from-a-U.S.-bank screen in the same guide shows a transaction fee of $0.00. On the $300.00 divorce complaint fee the card surcharge is $9.00. Cash, check or money order over the counter or by mail carries nothing extra. NJ Courts, ‘Submit a filing fee payment’ (rev. 4/21/2026) | 3% by card / $0.00 by ACH |
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.
New Jersey 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: ‘Have income at or below 150 percent of the current poverty level (based on the number of people in the household); AND have no more than $2,500 in liquid assets such as cash or bank accounts.’
- What it covers: ‘Court filing and copy fees’. Note the clawback: ‘If you win more than $2,000 in your court case, you will be required to pay back the filing fee for your case.’ Also note fee waiver applications are generally public records.
- What to ask for: Fee Waiver form, CN 11208 (https://www.njcourts.gov/sites/default/files/forms/11208_filingfeewaiver.pdf)
- How it works: File a Fee Waiver form with the required supporting documents at the same time as the case, in any NJ state court (Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Superior Court or Tax Court). You may apply even if you have a lawyer.
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- Mileage on service. The rate is fixed at $0.16 a mile by statute, but the distance is not, so the mileage part of the sheriff’s $24.00 cannot be stated until the address where your spouse will be served is known.
- What an economic mediator charges after the free first two hours. That rate is the individual mediator’s own and is published beside their name on the court’s roster; there is no statewide figure, and we are not estimating one.
- County practice beyond the statute. We read two of the 21 county sheriffs’ published civil-process schedules (Gloucester and Mercer) and both charge exactly what N.J.S.A. 22A:4-8 sets. The other 19 have not been read, and a county that departed from the statute would be charging more than the law allows it to.
- Which side the Judiciary’s self-help page means. It prints the $25 parent-education fee once, under ‘Defendant’s Fees’. The statute charges each party and the Judiciary’s own fee schedule lists the fee without restricting it to one side, so this page follows the statute; the self-help page’s single listing has not been reconciled with it by the Judiciary.
- Read in full for this page on 11 October 2026: fee schedule CN 11112 (Revised 08/2026); N.J. Ct. R. 1:43, 1:40-4 and 1:40-5; N.J.S.A. 22A:2-12, 22A:4-8, 22A:4-19, 2A:34-12.2, 2A:34-12.3, 2A:34-12.5 and 52:27D-43.24a; the Judiciary’s Divorce, JEDS and fee-waiver pages and its JEDS payment guide; and the Gloucester and Mercer county sheriffs’ fee schedules.
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Four rows on this page used to read ‘not published’ and were wrong to: the sheriff’s fee, the card surcharge, the mediation rule and the schedule’s date were all published and are now quoted above. What is left is a real limit on what New Jersey’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 New Jersey 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
New Jersey 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 New Jersey. Every figure is quoted from New Jersey’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Common questions about filing costs in New Jersey
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 New Jersey?
$300 to open the case. What the court actually publishes is $300.00. Every figure on this page is traced to New Jersey’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 New Jersey county?
Yes. New Jersey sets the filing fee statewide, so the figure is the same whichever county you file in. It is $300.
Is the filing fee the whole cost of a divorce in New Jersey?
No, and it is the small number. The filing fee is what it costs to open the case. Serving the papers ($24.00 plus mileage through the sheriff), the $25 Parents’ Education Program fee for each parent where custody, visitation or child support is at issue, a 3% surcharge if you pay by card in JEDS, 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 New Jersey?
There is a process for asking the court to waive or defer it, and this page sets out what New Jersey requires. You do not have to have decided anything, or have a lawyer, to ask.
How current is this New Jersey 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 a row here says only what New Jersey itself publishes — on this page that is now a figure or a rule for every line — 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.