What a Virginia divorce actually costs to file.
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 stateVirginia
It costs $83.00 – $94.00 to file for divorce in Virginia, depending on which circuit court you file in. The Commonwealth’s own published schedule prints $89.00 for a divorce; only 4 of the 120 circuit courts charge the $83.00 floor, and 31 charge $94.00. 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. Sheriff service is $12.00 per respondent and is optional. No with/without-children difference. § 17.1-275(A)(18) exempts divorce from the $10 catch-all per-paper filing fee up to and including entry of the decree, and no fee is charged for a responsive pleading or counterclaim in a divorce. Watch the naming trap: in the calculator’s own list the city of Richmond is ‘Richmond Circuit’ ($94.00) and the rural county is ‘Richmond County Circuit’ ($85.00). There is no ‘Richmond City Circuit’, and the calculator answers $83.00 — the bare statewide core — to any court name it does not recognize, including a blank one, so a mistyped court silently returns the cheapest figure in the state.
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes
- How it changes by county — A $83 statewide core plus four locally adopted assessments.
- If you cannot afford to file — That is not the same as a guarantee — clerks can charge for things they do not put on a web page — but there is no extra charge we can point you at.
- 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 5
Where the money goes
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- Where the money goes
- How it changes by county — A $83 statewide core plus four locally adopted assessments.
- If you cannot afford to file — That is not the same as a guarantee — clerks can charge for things they do not put on a web page — but there is no extra charge we can point you at.
- 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 5
The official Civil Filing Fee Calculator was queried for the ‘Divorce’ case type in all 120 Virginia circuit courts on 2026-10-06, with no sheriff service and a $0 suit amount, taking every court name from the calculator’s own dropdown. Eight distinct totals came back: $83.00 (4 courts), $85.00 (15), $87.00 (20), $88.00 (3), $89.00 (26), $90.00 (6), $92.00 (15) and $94.00 (31). More courts charge $94.00 than any other figure, so $83.00 is the floor rather than the norm.
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Clerk FeeCharged in every circuit court. | $50.00 |
| Court Technology Fund, apportioned out of the $60 statutory clerk’s feeCharged in every circuit court. | $10.00 |
| Legal Aid FeeCharged in every circuit court. | $9.00 |
| Technology Trust FundCharged in every circuit court. | $8.00 |
| Writ TaxCharged in every circuit court. | $5.00 |
| Indigent Defense FundCharged in every circuit court. | $1.00 |
| Law Library FeeLocally adopted — this is the part that varies. | $0.00 – $4.00 |
| Courthouse Maintenance FeeLocally adopted — this is the part that varies. | $0.00 – $2.00 |
| Courthouse Construction FeeCapped at $3.00, and charged only where the amount in controversy is more than $500.00. A divorce has no amount in controversy, so in practice this line is $0.00 on a divorce. | $0.00 |
| Paper Submission feeLocally adopted — this is the part that varies. | $0.00 – $5.00 |
How it changes by county
An $83 statutory core plus four locally adopted assessments.
The published range
$83.00 – $94.00 depending on the circuit court, confirmed across all 120 circuit courts. The twelve below are a sample spanning the floor and the ceiling; the full distribution for every court is in the table underneath them.
| County | Published fee | Schedule dated |
|---|---|---|
| Amherst | $83.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Essex | $83.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Northumberland | $83.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Roanoke County | $83.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Fairfax | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Arlington | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Alexandria | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Norfolk | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Henrico | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Richmond County | $85.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Lynchburg | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
| Winchester | $94.00 | no date printedofficial source |
All 120 circuit courts
Every court in the Commonwealth, queried in Virginia’s own Circuit Court Fee Calculator on 6 October 2026 for the Divorce case type, with no sheriff service and a $0 suit amount. Court names were taken from the calculator’s own list, not typed — the tool returns $83.00 to any name it does not recognize, including a blank one, and says nothing. More courts charge $94.00 than any other figure. The four at $83.00 are the only ones charging the bare statutory core with no locally adopted assessment.
| Total | How many | Courts |
|---|---|---|
| $83.00 | 4 courts | Amherst, Essex, Northumberland, Roanoke County |
| $85.00 | 15 courts | Buena Vista, Campbell, Charles City, Charlottesville, Clarke, Gloucester, Goochland, King George, Madison, Mathews, Northampton, Page, Richmond County, Rockbridge, Surry |
| $87.00 | 20 courts | Accomack, Appomattox, Botetourt, Caroline, Charlotte, Colonial Heights, Henry, Highland, Louisa, Martinsville, New Kent, Nottoway, Orange, Patrick, Pulaski, Radford, Sussex, Washington, Westmoreland, Wythe |
| $88.00 | 3 courts | Lancaster, Lee, Russell |
| $89.00 | 26 courts | Alleghany, Amelia, Bland, Buckingham, Carroll, Culpeper, Cumberland, Danville, Fluvanna, Franklin, Halifax, Hanover, Hopewell, Isle of Wight, Loudoun, Lunenburg, Montgomery, Nelson, Newport News, Prince William, Rappahannock, Smyth, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Suffolk, Virginia Beach |
| $90.00 | 6 courts | Albemarle, James City County/Williamsburg, King William, King and Queen, Middlesex, Salem |
| $92.00 | 15 courts | Brunswick, Chesapeake, Chesterfield, Dickenson, Dinwiddie, Fauquier, Giles, Greensville, Petersburg, Prince Edward, Southampton, Staunton, Tazewell, Waynesboro, York |
| $94.00 | 31 courts | Alexandria, Arlington, Augusta, Bath, Bedford, Bristol, Buchanan, Craig, Fairfax, Floyd, Frederick, Fredericksburg, Grayson, Greene, Hampton, Henrico, Lynchburg, Mecklenburg, Norfolk, Pittsylvania, Portsmouth, Powhatan, Prince George, Richmond, Roanoke City, Rockingham, Scott, Shenandoah, Warren, Winchester, Wise |
Localities adopt and drop these assessments by ordinance and the schedule carries a revision date rather than an effective date per court. Confirm with your clerk before you write the check.
If you cannot afford to file
Two charges on top, depending on how you pay and how you file
Paying by card. Va. Code § 17.1-275(A)(27) directs the clerk to collect a convenience fee from anyone paying by credit or debit card. It may not exceed 4 percent of the amount paid or a flat $2.00 per transaction, and the clerk sets which. On an $83.00 – $94.00 filing fee, 4 percent is $3.32 – $3.76. It is account code 407 on the state’s schedule. Paying by cash, check or money order avoids it.
Filing on paper. Va. Code § 17.1-258.3 lets a circuit court that runs an e-filing system charge an additional $5.00 for a civil case filed on paper — account code 426, the Paper Submission fee line in the table above. It is the courts that have e-filing which may charge it, and a self-represented divorce filer in Virginia files on paper. Whether you can e-file at all is on the Virginia kit.
We previously said Virginia published neither charge. That was wrong, and it is recorded at thecusp.app/corrections.
More people qualify than apply. If this section applies to you it is the most useful thing on this page.
Virginia 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: Fees and costs.
- What to ask for: CC-1421 for a no-fault divorce; CC-1414 otherwise
- How it works: In forma pauperis petition under Va. Code § 17.1-606. Virginia publishes a divorce-specific form, CC-1421, “Petition for Proceeding in a No-Fault Divorce Without Payment of Fees or Costs”, for a divorce under § 20-91(A)(9). The general civil form, CC-1414, cites both § 17.1-606 and § 16.1-69.48:4 and covers a divorce on any other ground.
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 Virginia 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
Virginia 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 Virginia. Every figure is quoted from Virginia’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Common questions about filing costs in Virginia
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 Virginia?
$83 – $94 to open the case. What the court actually publishes is $83.00 – $94.00 depending on the circuit court. Every figure on this page is traced to Virginia’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 Virginia county?
No. Virginia sets a base fee and individual counties add their own charges on top, so the total depends on where you file. The published range is $83 – $94. All 120 circuit courts were queried on 2026-10-06: 31 charge $94.00, 26 charge $89.00, and only four charge the $83.00 floor.
Is the filing fee the whole cost of a divorce in Virginia?
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 Virginia?
There is a process for asking the court to waive or defer it, and this page sets out what Virginia requires. You do not have to have decided anything, or have a lawyer, to ask.
How current is this Virginia 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.