The Rhode Island Divorce Kit
See a different stateRhode Island
Rhode Island hands you the forms for free. What it doesn’t explain is that there are two entirely different no-fault grounds with two different form pairs and two different waiting periods, that your first court date only becomes your actual divorce hearing if you and your spouse agree on everything, or that you’re still legally married after that hearing until a second document clears a wait the statute measures in months. That’s this.
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 grounds, the two tracks, and what each requires
Rhode Island has a fork almost nobody explains up front: two separate no-fault grounds — irreconcilable differences and living separate and apart for more than three years — each with its own pair of court forms and its own waiting period, on top of a second fork between the court’s “nominal” track (uncontested) and the contested track. The grounds and the track are independent of each other, and both change what happens.
Residency. R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-12 requires one spouse to have been a domiciled inhabitant of Rhode Island, residing here continuously, for at least one year before filing — unless the defendant meets that same one-year test and is actually served, in which case the plaintiff’s own residency requirement is considered satisfied.
Irreconcilable differences
R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-3.1
No fault, and no minimum separation period required. Evidence of specific misconduct is generally inadmissible under this ground.
What this ground carries:
- The FC-45 / FC-44 form pair.
- A three-month wait before the Final Judgment can be entered.
Living separate and apart for more than three years
R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-3
A second, distinct no-fault ground. It doesn’t require the other spouse’s cooperation, since separation is a fact that can be proved with a corroborating witness even if they default.
What this ground requires and carries:
- The spouses have lived completely separate and apart, continuously, for more than 3 years.
- The FC-96 / FC-62 form pair.
- A much shorter 20-day wait before the Final Judgment can be entered.
Fault grounds
R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-2
Adultery, extreme cruelty, willful desertion, habitual drunkenness or drug use, neglect to provide, or other gross misbehavior. This requires proving specific acts, which is the opposite burden of a no-fault filing, and realistically pairs with a contested case.
What this ground carries:
- The same FC-45 / FC-44 pair and three-month wait as irreconcilable differences.
The second fork: nominal or contested. Where both spouses agree on every single term — property, support, custody — by the first court date, the case aims for the nominal (uncontested) track, and can be heard that day. Where the other spouse will answer and engage but the terms aren’t fully agreed, Rhode Island still sets the nominal date first; if the case still isn’t fully agreed when it arrives, the judge converts it to the contested track — a case management conference, then a pretrial conference, then trial if it’s still unresolved. A case can settle and drop back to a nominal hearing at any point. A genuinely contested case runs that full track from the start: slower, but still entirely doable without a lawyer if you’re organized about it.
Cost. Filing and service run to roughly $200. Where that isn’t affordable, FC-51 is the In Forma Pauperis motion, and it needs proof of income attached.
2 · Every form Rhode Island publishes for a divorce
The complete list, not a shortlist — because which forms are needed depends on facts only you and, if you need one, your lawyer can weigh. Every form here is free from the Rhode Island Judiciary, with the revision date printed in each form’s footer, the same one the clerk checks. The Route column says which ground a form belongs to; the nominal-or-contested track doesn’t change the form list.
The Cusp is not a law firm and cannot tell you which forms are right for your case. Everything here is general information about how Rhode Island handles divorce, and every form below is published free by Rhode Island itself — you do not have to buy anything from anyone to get them. If your situation is not straightforward, a consultation with a Rhode Island family lawyer costs far less than fixing a filing that went wrong.
| Form | What it is | Route | Rev. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FC-56 | Complaint for Divorce or Divorce From Bed and Board — notarized | All grounds | 07/23 | Download |
| FC-75 | Cover Sheet — required with any case-initiating filing | All grounds | 04/23 | Download |
| FC-5 | Statement of Assets, Liabilities, Income, and Expenses (DR-6) — notarized | All grounds | 09/23 | Download |
| FC-48 | Affidavit — for your corroborating witness statement or other supporting facts | All grounds | 07/23 | Download |
| FC-52 | Affidavit of Non-Military Service — notarized, bring to your hearing | All grounds | 07/23 | Download |
| LangNotice | Language Assistance Notice — served together with your summons and complaint | All grounds | — | Download |
| FC-45 | Decision Pending Entry of Final Judgment | Irreconcilable differences and fault grounds | 03/25 | Download |
| FC-44 | Final Judgment | Irreconcilable differences and fault grounds | 03/25 | Download |
| FC-96 | Decision Pending Entry of Final Judgment — Living Separate and Apart | Living separate and apart — § 15-5-3 | 03/25 | Download |
| FC-62 | Final Judgment — Living Separate and Apart | Living separate and apart — § 15-5-3 | 03/25 | Download |
| FC-59 | Statement Listing Children — file two copies | All grounds — minor children | 07/23 | Download |
| FC-78 | Family Child Support Guideline Worksheet — required even when support is agreed | All grounds — minor children | 07/23 | Download |
| FC-51 | Motion, Affidavit, and Order to Proceed In Forma Pauperis — attach proof of income | All grounds — where the fee is unaffordable | 05/26 | Download |
Every one of these is free. Download fresh each time — clerks check the revision line, and saved copies go stale. The summons itself is generated by the clerk when you file, not something you fill out yourself. Full catalog: courts.ri.gov/Pages/forms.aspx.
3 · Getting the forms and filling them in
Nobody explains this part, so here it is. Every Rhode Island Family Court form is free, most are fillable on screen, and self-represented filing is normal here — the clerk’s office is built to expect it, even though clerks can’t give you legal advice.
You may e-file, but you do not have to Your choice
- Portal
- eFileRI
- Paper
- Still accepted — you can file over the counter.
- What it costs
- No portal fee published.
- Account
- Only if the self-represented litigant elects to e-file, in which case Rule 3(b) requires executing a Usage Agreement. No registration cost is published in the rule.
- With a fee waiver
- Discretionary. Article X Rule 9(b) permits a court to "waive any fees contemplated by these rules upon motion made to the respective court." The rules do not state that an approved indigency waiver automatically covers e-filing fees.
- Worth knowing
- Rhode Island's Article X carves out self-represented litigants and incarcerated individuals from a mandate that otherwise reaches "all parties." A pro se divorce filer in Family Court may use eFileRI voluntarily by signing a Usage Agreement, or file conventionally. The judiciary publishes a separate 'Fees – eFileRI' schedule document. 'Fees – eFileRI' schedule document.
Step one — download them free
All Rhode Island Judiciary forms live here, at no cost:
Don’t reuse a saved copy or one a friend sent you. These forms get revised on their own schedules — the fee-waiver form was revised as recently as May 2026, the Decision Pending and Final Judgment forms in March 2025 — and the revision line (e.g. “FC-56 (revised July 2023)”) is printed in the footer of every page. Clerks check it.
Step two — fill them in on screen
Rhode Island’s Family Court forms are genuine fillable PDFs (AcroForm fields) — open them in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, or any modern browser, type directly into the fields, then print and sign. Use the exact same legal name on every document.
Step three — notarize almost everything, including the complaint itself
This is the part that catches people coming from another state’s process. In most states the petition itself is just signed. In Rhode Island, the Complaint for Divorce (FC-56) has its own notary block — you sign it in front of a notary, not at your kitchen table the night before. So do the Affidavit (FC-48), the Affidavit of Non-Military Service (FC-52), and the DR-6 Financial Statement (FC-5).
Rhode Island’s Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-30.1-12.1) permits remote online notarization for these documents — you appear by video, show government-issued ID, and the notary applies their electronic seal. National RON services and many Rhode Island banks and credit unions offer this, typically for $0–$25 per document.
People treat FC-56 like an ordinary pleading, sign it at home, and mail it in — and it comes back. The complaint itself needs a notary’s jurat, filled in by the notary, not by you. And because there are two entirely different Decision Pending / Final Judgment form pairs — FC-45/FC-44 for irreconcilable differences or fault, FC-96/FC-62 for living separate and apart — filing the wrong pair for your stated grounds is the second most common way this stalls out.
Step four — file at the right courthouse, and understand the “nominal date”
Rhode Island abolished county government in 1846, but the Family Court still organizes where you file by county, per R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-13: you file where you, the plaintiff, live — unless your case is based on the defendant’s residence, in which case it goes to Providence County or wherever the defendant lives.
| Courthouse | County | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Murray Judicial Complex | Newport | 45 Washington Square, Newport, RI 02840 · (401) 841-8340 |
| Noel Judicial Complex | Kent | 222 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI 02886 · (401) 822-6725 |
| McGrath Judicial Complex | Washington | 4800 Tower Hill Road, Wakefield, RI 02879 · (401) 782-4111 |
| Garrahy Judicial Complex | Providence/Bristol | One Dorrance Plaza, Providence, RI 02903 · (401) 458-3200 |
Filing at the clerk’s office gets your case a docket number and a first court date — the “nominal date.” There’s also a self-guided electronic tool, Guide and File, for the two post-hearing forms described in Section 5.
The divorce is only heard as an actual divorce on that first date if you and your spouse agree on every term, or your spouse defaults. If you show up still disagreeing on something, the judge moves the case to the contested track — a case management conference, then a pretrial conference, then trial if it still isn’t resolved — and you can settle and drop back to a nominal hearing at any point along the way.
4 · Your deadlines, calculated
Rhode Island’s post-hearing clock is unusual: your hearing date isn’t your divorce date. Put in your dates below and pick your ground, and we’ll turn the statute into actual dates on your calendar — then add them to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook in one click.
5 · The order it actually happens in
6 · The rejection-proofing checklist
This is the part that’s genuinely worth paying for. These are the specific things that get Rhode Island filings bounced or stalled — every one of them costs weeks.
Signing and notarizing
Under an irreconcilable differences ground, R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-3.1(b) makes evidence of specific misconduct improper and inadmissible, except in narrow circumstances. Choose a fault ground instead — adultery, extreme cruelty, desertion — and you’ve taken on the opposite burden: you now must prove specific acts. Most people don’t need a fault ground at all; use one only for a specific reason (insurance, immigration, or a religious requirement), and expect it to run on the contested track.
Forms people forget
Timing
Filing the wrong form pair for your grounds. FC-45/FC-44 and FC-96/FC-62 aren’t interchangeable — one assumes a three-month wait, the other a twenty-day wait, and submitting the wrong pair creates a mismatch the clerk has to send back. Missing the 180-day window. Once your waiting period expires, you have 180 days to file the Final Judgment the simple way. Miss it, and R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 15-5-23(a) and 15-5-3(d) both require it be entered only in open court, by motion or written consent — an extra step you can avoid entirely by just not letting the paperwork sit.
7 · The DR-6 Financial Statement — what it requires
FC-5, filed by the plaintiff with the complaint and by the defendant with their answer. It’s marked confidential and runs nine pages: income, expenses, assets, and liabilities, all itemized.
The form specifically asks you to attach a completed Schedule C from your latest tax return for self-employment income, and a completed Schedule A (built into page 9 of the form) for rental income. Leaving these off is a common reason a DR-6 gets flagged as incomplete.
8 · What this costs
Rhode Island has no county government, and the Family Court’s filing fee is set once, statewide, by R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-29-19 — it’s the same whether you file in Newport, Kent, Washington, or Providence/Bristol. The only thing that changes by location is which courthouse handles your case.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Filing fee, entry of complaint (statewide, R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-29-19) | $120.00 |
| Judiciary technology surcharge (R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-15-11, capped by statute) | up to $25.00 |
| Sheriff or constable service of process, per person (statutory cap, § 9-29-9) | up to $70.00 |
| Notary or remote online notarization, per document (several documents need one) | $0–$25 |
| Typical all-in, doing it yourselves | $120–$240 |
File FC-51, the Motion, Affidavit, and Order to Proceed In Forma Pauperis, with documentation of your income attached — a check stub, an award letter, or similar proof, per Family Court Administrative Order 2012-04. It can waive the filing fee, service of process fees, and transcript costs together.
What members report paying for a lawyer
This part isn’t from any court record — it’s illustrative, member-reported data from Cusp users who hired an attorney in Rhode Island, shown so you have a rough sense of the alternative. Treat it as a demo range, not a quote.
| Scenario | Member-reported range |
|---|---|
| Flat fee, fully uncontested / nominal track | $750–$1,800 |
| Retainer, cooperative but not fully agreed | $2,500–$5,000 |
| Retainer, contested with children or real property | $5,000–$15,000+ |
What this is. A guide to Rhode Island’s own process, built from the Rhode Island General Laws (Title 15, chapter 15-5 — including §§ 15-5-2, 15-5-3, 15-5-3.1, 15-5-12, 15-5-13, and 15-5-23; and Title 9, chapter 9-29, §§ 9-29-9 and 9-29-19), the Family Court Rules of Domestic Relations Procedure, and the official FC-series forms and self-help materials published by the Rhode Island Judiciary at courts.ri.gov and by Rhode Island Legal Services at helprilaw.org. The forms themselves are free and this kit links you to them 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 Rhode Island requires of each path. If your case involves a contested custody dispute, a business, hidden assets, domestic violence, or a spouse with a lawyer, talk to an attorney. Court clerks are not permitted to give legal advice, even about which form to use. The member-reported attorney costs above are illustrative demo figures from Cusp users, not a quote, an average, or an official statistic.
Confirm current numbers with the clerk. Filing fees, the technology surcharge, and service fees are periodically adjusted by the legislature or the Judiciary. Where this kit could not verify an exact figure, form, or local practice with confidence — including the “Providence parenting video” step, and the precise dollar amount of the technology surcharge — it says so, or points you to the clerk’s office rather than guessing.
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