What a Vermont 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 stateVermont
It costs $295.00 to file for divorce in Vermont — or $90.00 if you file with a stipulation for a final order and one or both of you is a Vermont resident. 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. Vermont is the rare state that discounts agreement: filing with a court-acceptable stipulation drops the divorce fee from $295 to $90 when at least one spouse is a Vermont resident — a 69% cut — but the discount is conditional, because if the case later becomes contested ‘the difference between the full fee and the reduced fee must be paid to the court before it issues a final order’ (32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2)). Note also that paying by card through e-filing costs 2.89%, more than the 2.39% charged at the counter (4 V.S.A. § 1109(f)).
The short version7 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes — Vermont publishes no earmark/component split of the divorce filing fee itself, and none has been invented.
- Does it change by county? — The Vermont Superior Court is a single unified statewide court that sits in county-based units; the divorce fee is fixed by statute (32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2)) and published once for the whole Family Division.
- 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 — Vermont publishes no earmark/component split of the divorce filing fee itself, and none has been invented.
- Does it change by county? — The Vermont Superior Court is a single unified statewide court that sits in county-based units; the divorce fee is fixed by statute (32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2)) and published once for the whole Family Division.
- 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
These are Vermont’s published FEE TIERS, not a breakdown of a single fee into earmarked parts. Vermont publishes no earmark/component split of the divorce filing fee itself, and none has been invented.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Filing for entry of divorce, annulment, or dissolution of civil union or legal separation — WITHOUT a stipulationDefault/contested rate. 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2) | $295.00 |
| WITH a stipulation, and one or both parties are Vermont residentsThe judiciary defines a stipulation as ‘a condition or a requirement in an agreement’ that ‘must be acceptable to the court.’ 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2) | $90.00 |
| WITH a stipulation, but NEITHER party is a Vermont resident 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2) | $180.00 |
| Balance due if a stipulated case later becomes contestedPublished verbatim: ‘If the case becomes contested, the difference between the full fee and the reduced fee must be paid to the court before it issues a final order.’ No dollar figure is stated because it depends on which tier was originally paid. 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2) | difference between the full fee and the reduced fee |
Does it change by county?
No — the fee is the same everywhere in Vermont
The Vermont Superior Court is a single unified statewide court that sits in county-based units; the divorce fee is fixed by statute (32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2)) and published once for the whole Family Division. The Judiciary states ‘The Vermont Legislature sets most of the fees charged for services provided by the Judiciary.’ No county-level variation is published.
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 where “not published” appears most often.
No portal fee, but a higher card rate to e-file
Vermont publishes no separate portal or per-document e-filing fee. It does publish a card surcharge, and e-filing carries the higher of the two rates — 2.89% through electronic filing against 2.39% online or over the counter, both in the table below. Paying by check, money order or cash carries no surcharge at all. That is not a guarantee about everything a clerk may charge, but it is what the Judiciary publishes. Whether you have to e-file at all is on the Vermont kit.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Credit-card convenience fee — online or over-the-counter paymentsConfirmed twice on the same official page: in the Miscellaneous Fees table and in the ‘How to Pay the Filing Fee’ narrative (‘There is a 2.39% convenience fee to pay by credit card’). 4 V.S.A. § 1109(f) | 2.39% of the payment |
| Credit-card convenience fee — electronic filingE-filing carries a higher card rate than paying at the counter. The statute does not set the percentage: 4 V.S.A. § 1109(f) authorises a processing charge ‘in an amount approved by the Court Administrator’, and the two rates are published on the Judiciary’s fee schedule. 4 V.S.A. § 1109(f) | 2.89% of the payment |
| Payment by eCheckListed in the Miscellaneous Fees table with no statute cited. | $1.00 |
| Mail service of pleadings — certified mail, restricted deliveryListed under Family Division Fees; the fee page marks the statute column ‘N/A’ for this item. | $18.50 |
| Mail service of pleadings — first class with acknowledgmentListed under Family Division Fees; statute column marked ‘N/A’. | $3.00 |
| Sheriff / constable service of process, per respondentSet by statute rather than by the Judiciary, which is why it is not on the court fee page. 32 V.S.A. § 1591(1)(A)(ii) fixes $75.00 ‘upon presentation of each return of service for the service of papers relating to divorce, annulments, separations, or support complaints’. Mileage is charged on top at the rate allowed State employees under the prevailing VSEA contract; the statute names no mileage figure, so none is given here. The Judiciary’s own fee page lists only court-performed mail service ($18.50 / $3.00). 32 V.S.A. § 1591(1)(A)(ii) | $75.00 plus mileage |
| COPE (Coping With Separation and Divorce) parent education programNOT automatically mandatory. The Judiciary states: ‘If you have a minor child or children you MAY BE ORDERED by the court to attend the Coping With Separation and Divorce (COPE) program.’ The Judiciary quotes no price and directs filers to UVM Extension, which runs the program — and UVM Extension does publish one: ‘The cost to attend is $79 per person.’ A separate registration is required for each parent. UVM Extension — COPE | $79.00 per parent |
| Court-ordered family mediationThe Judiciary operates a Family Mediation Program and publishes a roster of family law mediators, but no fee is listed on the statewide fee schedule and none was located on an official source. | not published |
| Motion or petition to modify or vacate a final order for parental rights and responsibilities, parent-child contact, or maintenancePost-judgment. Motions filed by one party at one time are assessed one fee. 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(4) | $120.00 without a stipulation; $35.00 with a stipulation |
| Motion or petition to modify or vacate child supportA motion to ENFORCE an order of child support carries no fee at all. 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(5) | $45.00 without a stipulation; no fee with a stipulation |
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.
Vermont has a way to file without paying up front
This is a normal court procedure, not a favor you have to plead for.
- What it covers: Filing fees AND service costs — Vermont’s waiver expressly reaches service costs, not just the filing fee.
- What to ask for: Application to Waive Filing Fees and Service Costs (Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis)
- How it works: Application to Waive Filing Fees and Service Costs, also called an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis, filed with the case. Official text: ‘Most initial court filings and requests for relief require a filing fee. The court has an Application to Waive Filing Fees and Service Costs … that you can file if you feel you cannot afford the fees.’
What we could not find out
Open questions on this page
- No effective or revised date is printed anywhere on the Vermont Judiciary fee page, so we do not infer one. The statute behind the figures does carry a history: the amendment note under 32 V.S.A. § 1431 ends at 2021, No. 147 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. May 31, 2022, so the section has not been amended since. We are not claiming that is the date the divorce amounts themselves were last set.
- Court-ordered family mediation fee: not published on the statewide fee schedule. The Judiciary operates a Family Mediation Program and publishes a roster of mediators, but no rate.
- No earmark or component breakdown of the divorce filing fee is published. The statute directs the fee to the clerk ‘for the benefit of the State’ and stops there.
- The mileage added to sheriff’s service is set by reference to the prevailing VSEA contract rather than by a figure in the statute, and we have not traced that contract rate to an official source.
We would rather show you a blank than a plausible number. Everything above is a real limit on what Vermont’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 Vermont 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
Vermont 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 Vermont. Every figure is quoted from Vermont’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Common questions about filing costs in Vermont
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 Vermont?
$295 to open the case, or $90 with an accepted stipulation where one or both of you is a Vermont resident ($180 if neither is). What the court publishes is $90.00 – $295.00 across three tiers. Every figure on this page is traced to Vermont’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 Vermont county?
Yes. The Vermont Superior Court is a single statewide court sitting in county-based units, and 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(2) fixes the divorce fee for the whole Family Division, payable to the clerk for the benefit of the State. No county surcharge is published. What changes the figure is not where you file but how: $295 without a stipulation, $90 with an accepted stipulation where one or both of you is a Vermont resident, $180 with a stipulation where neither is.
Is the filing fee the whole cost of a divorce in Vermont?
No, and it is the small number. The filing fee is what it costs to open the case. Serving the papers, any required parenting class, 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 Vermont?
There is a process for asking the court to waive or defer it, and this page sets out what Vermont requires. You do not have to have decided anything, or have a lawyer, to ask.
How current is this Vermont 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 some rows here say “not published” instead of carrying a tidy figure, 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.