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How much does it cost to file for divorce in New Jersey?

New Jersey charges a flat statewide price: $300 to file a Complaint for Divorce in the Superior Court, Family Division, plus a $25 parenting workshop fee when custody or parenting time is in the case. The spouse who answers pays $175 for the first responsive pleading. No county adds its own surcharge.

New Jersey divorce fees at a glance

All four figures come from the New Jersey Judiciary's published court filing fees and its divorce self-help materials: the plaintiff pays $300, the parenting workshop surcharge of $25 attaches whenever a party seeks custody or parenting time, and the defendant's first responsive pleading is $175 — with the same $25 workshop fee if the defendant raises custody or parenting time in the answer. The check for the workshop fee is payable to the Treasurer, State of New Jersey, a detail that trips up filers who make everything payable to the court. Because the schedule is set by the Judiciary for the whole state, a complaint filed in Newark costs exactly what the same complaint costs in Cape May; the only variation in a New Jersey divorce budget comes from service, motion practice and professional help, not from geography. Compare the county-set systems in Pennsylvania divorce costs and New York divorce costs, or the full map on the divorce filing costs hub.

Grounds, residency and the response clock

New Jersey's most-used ground is irreconcilable differences for at least six months (N.J.S.A. 2A:34-2(i)), which requires one spouse to have been a bona fide New Jersey resident for at least one year before filing; the older no-fault ground, 18 months' separation (2A:34-2(d)), carries the same one-year residency rule. Fault grounds — adultery, desertion, extreme cruelty and others — exist alongside them. Once the complaint is filed, the defendant must be served, generally within 60 days, and then has 35 days to file an answer (45 days if served outside New Jersey). Filing also freezes the status quo on insurance: under Court Rule 5:4-2(f), the certification of insurance coverage filed with the complaint locks both spouses' existing policies in place — neither can cancel the other's health coverage or change life insurance beneficiaries while the case is pending. Cases that do not settle go through the Early Settlement Panel and, for financial issues, court-connected economic mediation in which the first two hours of the mediator's time are provided under the Judiciary's programme before hourly charges begin.

How the case runs

1. Prepare the complaint (form CN 10128 packet), summons, Case Information Statement, Confidential Litigant Information Sheet and insurance certification, and file in the Family Division of the county where either spouse lives $300, plus $25 if custody is in issue
2. Serve the defendant through the county sheriff or a process server, generally within 60 days of filing
3. Defendant answers within 35 days of service (45 if served out of state) $175 first pleading
4. Exchange Case Information Statements, complete discovery, and attend the Early Settlement Panel; financial cases are referred to economic mediation
5. Settle and submit the judgment paperwork, or try the case; obtain certified copies of the final judgment of divorce from the Family Division

What divorce really costs beyond the clerk

The Judiciary's $300 is deliberately not the whole story. Sheriff and process-server charges for serving the complaint are set by the county sheriff's own schedule or by the private market, and the Judiciary's fee list does not set them, so this page does not quote a service price. Motion practice adds filing fees as the case goes — temporary support, enforcement and parenting-time motions each carry their own scheduled charges — and a contested case can file several. The parenting workshop fee is small but mandatory when children are involved, and it is charged per party who requests custody or parenting time, not per case. Attorney fees are market-priced and unpublished; in a contested New Jersey divorce they dwarf every figure in the table above. What the official schedule does guarantee is the floor: $300 to open, $175 to answer, $25 a head for the workshop — $500 of court charges for a fully answered case with children, before anyone is served.

Can't afford the fee?

New Jersey's fee waiver application asks the court to waive filing fees based on your income and expenses, supported by a certification of your financial situation. One condition surprises people: if a waiver is granted and you later recover more than $2,000 in the same case, the court can order the waived fees repaid. The Judiciary publishes the waiver packet for all courts on its self-help site. The general pattern is covered in the fee waiver guide.

Sources: New Jersey Courts (Judiciary) — Court Filing Fees schedule and Divorce self-help materials (complaint $300; first responsive pleading $175; parenting workshop $25, payable to the Treasurer, State of New Jersey) · N.J.S.A. 2A:34-2 (grounds; irreconcilable differences; one-year residency) · N.J. Court Rule 5:4-2(f) (insurance certification freeze) · New Jersey Courts — How to File for a Fee Waiver (waiver standards; repayment where recovery exceeds $2,000). Last verified: October 2026 — confirm current figures with the Family Division in your county.