Divorce in New Hampshire: what to expect
What a divorce in New Hampshire actually involves: how property is divided, how long you must have lived there, what you have to prove, how long it takes, and what the court is deciding about the children. New Hampshire is an equitable distribution state. The court divides marital property fairly, which is not the same as equally, and the difference is where the argument happens.
See a different stateNew Hampshire
Every line below is taken from the statute or the court, and the citation is next to it so you can check us. It is still not advice about your case. The same statute produces very different outcomes on different facts, and the parts that decide your outcome — the length of the marriage, who earned what, whose name is on what — are not on this page because we do not know them. Use this to know what questions to ask, not to predict an answer.
New Hampshire at a glance
Every row is cited. Where a row says we could not confirm it, that is exactly what it means — we went looking and would not guess.
| Question | The answer in this state | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Property division | equitable distribution | RSA 458:16-a, II |
| How it works in practice | The court may order an equitable division of all property belonging to either or both spouses, regardless of whose name it is in or when it was acquired. The statute presumes that an equal (50/50) division is equitable unless the court finds, after considering listed factors (length of marriage, age/health/earning capacity, contributions, fault, premarital or gifted/inherited property, etc.), that an equal division would not be appropriate. | RSA 458:16-a, II |
| Residency requirement | Jurisdiction exists if (I) both parties are domiciled in NH when the action commences (no minimum time), or (II) plaintiff is domiciled in NH and defendant is served in-state, or (III) plaintiff has been domiciled in NH for 1 year preceding filing | RSA 458:5 |
| Waiting period | No statutory post-filing waiting period found | — |
| The no-fault ground | Irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage, decreed irrespective of fault | RSA 458:7-a |
| Filing fee | $250 (no minor children) / $252 (with minor children) | NH Circuit Court Filing Fees schedule, Family Division, ‘Original Entry of All Marital Matters’ (eff. 12/28/2021) |
| Alimony | Called ‘alimony’ (term alimony, plus reimbursement alimony). Term alimony requires that the payee lack sufficient income/property for reasonable needs (considering the marital lifestyle) and that the payor can meet their own needs while paying; the amount is the lesser of the payee’s reasonable need or 23 percent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes, and the maximum duration is 50 percent of the length of the marriage unless the parties agree otherwise or justice requires an adjustment. | RSA 458:19-a |
| Custody standard | Best interest of the child, with 13 statutory factors | RSA 461-A:6 |
| Any parenting-time presumption | As of a 2024 amendment effective Jan. 1, 2025, if the court concludes approximately equal parenting time is not in the child’s best interest, it must make findings supporting that conclusion — effectively a presumption toward equal parenting time | RSA 461-A:6 |
Grounds: what you have to say happened
The no-fault ground in New Hampshire is: Irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage, decreed irrespective of fault. RSA 458:7-a
Fault grounds still exist here. They are rarely worth using and they make a case longer and more expensive, but they exist, and in some states they can affect property or alimony:
- adultery
- extreme cruelty
- abandonment
- other traditional fault grounds under RSA 458:7
What is unusual about New Hampshire
The things that surprise people who assumed their state works like the one they read about.
- New Hampshire’s residency rule has no minimum time requirement if both spouses currently live in NH — one of the more permissive rules nationally.
- Effective Jan. 1 2025, NH shifted toward a presumption of approximately equal parenting time (RSA 461-A:6, I-a) — a genuinely recent and significant change.
How long you were married. Almost every alimony statute in the country turns on it, and most have unwritten thresholds judges apply. Whose name is on what. It matters far less than people expect in a community property state and far more than people expect for a house bought before the marriage. Whether either of you brought money in. Separate property stays separate until it is mixed with marital money, and then the argument is about how thoroughly. The questions that decide it are here.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from New Hampshire statutes and court sources, each linked in the table. Re-read line by line against the statutes on 3 September 2026; every row above was confirmed or corrected at the official source that day. Statutes change, and several states have changed theirs recently. Tell us if we have one wrong.
Keep reading
- The New Hampshire divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Legal help in New Hampshire you can afford
- Who gets what — the questions that decide it
- What a New Hampshire divorce costs
- What two households cost
- What people wish they had known