More on Pennsylvania

The rest of what we have written about Pennsylvania. Every figure is quoted from Pennsylvania’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.

Free and low-cost divorce help in Pennsylvania

There is no public defender for a divorce in Pennsylvania, 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 statePennsylvania
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
  1. The five things to try, in this order
  2. Legal aid in Pennsylvania — Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take.
  3. Worth knowing about Pennsylvania — 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.
  4. What we could not confirm for this state — Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar.
In this subject 5

The five things to try, in this order

Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.

  1. Ask about the filing fee waiver. In Pennsylvania it is called Petition to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (Petition for Leave to File In Forma Pauperis, with a Financial Affidavit). Form Form 1.1 (Petition) and Form 1.2 (Financial Affidavit) per York County’s local practice; statewide, referred to as ‘PA divorce Form 2’ by some secondary sources — exact statewide AOPC number not independently confirmed. Usable in all family law proceedings per PALawHELP.org; requires disclosing income and expenses.
  2. Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. In proper cases, upon petition, the court may allow a spouse reasonable alimony pendente lite, spousal support, and reasonable counsel fees and expenses; absent a court order, the default is each spouse pays their own fees. (23 Pa. Cons. Stat. sec. 3702 (Alimony pendente lite, counsel fees and expenses))
  3. Check the statewide legal-aid portal. PALawHELP.org lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
  4. Use the court self-help service. Judicial System of Pennsylvania – Representing Yourself: Divorce Proceedings. Standardized statewide court forms for divorce proceedings and information for self-represented litigants, including the In Forma Pauperis form for those who cannot afford filing costs.
  5. Try the bar referral service. Pennsylvania Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service (LRS). Panelist attorneys grant an initial consultation of up to one half-hour for a fee not to exceed $30 (of which $15 is returned to the PBA). No separate modest-means panel confirmed on the pages reviewed; many county bar associations (e.g., Philadelphia, Allegheny) run their own local referral services.

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.

OrganizationWho it coversNotes
Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN)statewide (consortium of independent regional legal aid programs, e.g. Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Legal Aid of Southeastern PA, North Penn Legal Services, Neighborhood Legal Services Association Pittsburgh)Statewide consortium providing civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and families; apply via palegalaid.net/find-legal-help/apply.

Worth knowing about Pennsylvania

  • We could not confirm a specific Pennsylvania law school family law or divorce clinic, so none is listed (several Pennsylvania law schools run clinics close to family law).
The option almost nobody is told about

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 law school family law clinic we could confirm is currently running

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

Sources last checked2 September 2026
Page published2 September 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.