How much does a divorce cost?

It’s one of the first things people want to know, and one of the hardest questions to get a straight answer to. Most of what you find online either quotes a suspiciously low number or won’t give one at all.

Here’s the honest version. Part of the cost is fixed and published, and we can tell you exactly what that is. The rest depends on your circumstances, and the only way to answer sensibly is to understand them first.

What am I actually paying for?

Two separate things, and they cost very different amounts.

Ending the marriage is the simpler one. Since 2022 nobody has to be blamed. You confirm the marriage has broken down, most applications are made online, and the main cost is the court fee.

Sorting out the money is the other. The house, pensions, savings, debts, and what support anyone needs going forward. That’s where the real cost sits. It’s also the part that shapes your finances for years afterwards.

Does getting divorced sort out the money?

No. The divorce ends the marriage. It doesn’t divide anything, and it doesn’t close off future claims between you. Only a financial order from the court does that.

People often don’t find this out until years later, when an ex-partner makes a claim they assumed had long gone.

Timing matters too. Taking the final step in the divorce before the finances are settled can affect what you’re entitled to, particularly around pensions. Worth a conversation before you press the button.

What are the court fees for a divorce?

These go to the court, not to us, and you pay them whether you use a solicitor or do the whole thing yourself. In England and Wales they currently are:

• £628 to apply for a divorce.
• £62 for a consent order, which turns an agreement you’ve reached into something legally binding.
• £321 to apply for a financial order, if you can’t agree and need a judge to decide.
• £426 for a judicial separation, if you want to separate formally without ending the marriage.

If you’re on a low income or receiving certain benefits, Help with Fees can cover some or all of the application fee. You apply on GOV.UK before you make your application.

What affects how much a divorce costs?

Two cases that look identical on paper can cost wildly different amounts. It’s rarely the size of what you own that makes the difference. It’s things like:

• How complicated the finances are. One salary and one house is a different piece of work to a business, several pensions and a property abroad.
• Whether your ex-partner engages. If they don’t reply, someone has to keep chasing. That takes time.
• Who’s on the other side. A constructive solicitor can settle a case in a fraction of the time a difficult one takes. Where the other person has no solicitor at all, it often takes longer still.
• Whether positions shift. Cases that move forward cost less than cases that go round in circles.

Then there’s the part nobody can predict. Most people tell us at the start that their separation is amicable and straightforward. Often it is. Sometimes things change, or someone changes their mind, and what looked simple turns out not to be. That’s nobody’s fault. It’s just how separation goes sometimes.

This is also why we don’t publish a price list. For some areas of law, solicitors have to; family work isn’t one of them. A figure quoted before we know anything about your situation isn’t a quote, and the reassuringly low ones tend to be the least reliable of all.

What we will do is give you a proper estimate once we know what we’re dealing with, and tell you if that changes.

Do you do fixed fees?

For some things, yes. If you’ve reached an agreement at mediation and need a consent order drawn up, that’s often work we can price up front. We’d want to understand the case first, but do ask.

The first appointment is always a fixed fee.

What does the first appointment cost?

£200 plus VAT, so £240. You know the price before you book and there’s no meter running.

In that time you get:

• Dedicated time with an experienced family law solicitor.
• Your legal position, explained in plain terms.
• The options open to you, and what each one involves.
• Realistic expectations about the likely outcome.
• An honest view of how much of it you actually need us for.

Afterwards we’ll explain any further costs and talk through the best way to proceed. If something else would serve you better, including services elsewhere, we’ll say so and point you in the right direction.

Why isn’t the first meeting free?

Plenty of firms offer one, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But a free meeting is usually a conversation about whether you might have a case. It isn’t advice. You tend to come away with a vague sense of your options and nothing you can act on.

You’re not paying us for a sales conversation. You’re paying for advice you can use, from the start.

Won’t getting a solicitor make everything worse?

We hear this a lot. There’s a lingering idea that instructing a solicitor is a declaration of war, that it makes everything more expensive and more bitter, and that we’re all paid to argue.

That isn’t how family law works now.

Most of what we do is help two people reach an agreement they can both live with, as quickly and calmly as possible. Sometimes we do need to be robust, and if your case calls for that we’ll say so and represent you properly. But most cases aren’t battles, and treating them like one helps nobody.

Knowing where you stand, early, is usually what stops a separation turning into a fight.

It tends to be cheaper, too. The expensive cases are rarely the ones where someone took advice at the start. They’re the ones where an agreement got made informally, nobody really understood what it meant, and it fell apart later.

Do I need a solicitor for all of it?

Not necessarily, and we’d rather tell you that than take work you don’t need.

You can apply for the divorce yourself online. Plenty of couples also reach a financial agreement between them, and where that’s working, good. The part worth taking advice on is knowing what you’re agreeing to before you commit, and getting it written up so it holds.

For some people that’s a solicitor at a few key moments: working out where they stand, checking a proposal before they agree to it, and having the agreement drawn up properly at the end. For others, everything else in life is already too much and they want as much of it handled as possible. Both are fine.

Can we use one solicitor between us?

If you’re separating on reasonably good terms, yes. Separating Together is our one couple, one solicitor service, and it’s usually the least expensive route there is.

You work with one solicitor rather than one each, and share the fees. We use the Resolution Together model, developed by Resolution, the national body for family lawyers committed to resolving things constructively. The solicitor advises you both, in the same room. Nothing is kept back from either of you.

The saving isn’t only on legal fees. If a pension needs valuing, or maintenance has to be worked out from both your budgets, that’s one expert between you instead of two.

Most couples who take this route reach an agreement we send to the court for approval, without either of them having to attend a hearing.

It doesn’t suit everyone. It won’t work where there’s a lot of conflict, where there are concerns about domestic abuse or the safety of children, or where one of you isn’t willing to be open about the finances. If that sounds like your situation, the usual route is the right one, and we’ll tell you so.

Do you offer Legal Aid?

No, we do not offer Legal Aid funding for family law work. However, we offer a fixed fee initial consultation for £200 plus VAT, giving you the opportunity to meet with a family law solicitor, discuss your circumstances, receive tailored legal advice, and understand the options available to you.

Following the meeting, we will explain any further costs involved and discuss the most appropriate way to proceed with your matter. We understand the services that are available locally and can refer you to suitable alternate sources of support where appropriate. To arrange an appointment, please contact our Family Law team.

Are cheap online divorces worth it?

For a couple with no children, no property and nothing to divide, they can do the job.

The catch is what they leave out. Most deal only with ending the marriage, not the finances. People assume they’re finished when their financial claims are still wide open. That’s the sort of saving that costs a great deal later.

There’s also a question worth asking of any low-cost service: what exactly is included, and what happens when your situation turns out to be less simple than the website assumed. Fixed-price packages tend to work beautifully right up until something unexpected appears, and then you’re either paying for add-ons or starting again elsewhere.

What’s the difference between a solicitor and an online divorce service?

A fair question, and one worth asking before you commit to either.

Lots of organisations now offer help with divorce. Some are law firms. Many aren’t. Divorce is one of the few areas of law where unqualified people are allowed to offer services, so the title on the website doesn’t always tell you who you’re dealing with.

What you get with a solicitor:

• Someone qualified. Years of training, assessment and supervised practice before they can advise you at all.
• Regulation. We’re authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. That brings rules about how we handle your money, your information and your case, and a regulator who enforces them.
• Ongoing competence. Solicitors have to keep their knowledge current and declare it annually. Family law changes, and keeping up with it is part of the job, not optional.
• Insurance. Every firm must carry professional indemnity insurance. If something goes wrong, you’re protected.
• Legal privilege. What you tell your solicitor is privileged. That protection doesn’t extend to conversations with an unregulated provider.
• Somewhere to go if we fall short. You can complain to us, and if you’re not satisfied, to the Legal Ombudsman. There’s also the SRA’s compensation fund.

None of this means an online service is always the wrong choice. For a straightforward case with nothing to divide, it might be exactly right, and we’d tell you so.

But a separation is a legal matter. If you needed a tooth out, you wouldn’t look it up and have a go yourself, and you’d want to know the person doing it was properly qualified. It’s worth applying the same care to something that will affect your finances for decades.

The thing to be clear about is what you’re buying. A form-filling service is not legal advice, and it isn’t being presented as such if you read the small print. What it can’t do is tell you whether the deal you’re about to agree to is a good one.

How can I keep the cost down?

• Take advice before you agree anything. An hour at the start usually saves far more later on.
• Gather your paperwork properly, once. Bank statements, payslips, mortgage details, pension statements.
• Tell us what you want us to do. You can keep the scope tight, and we’ll say where that makes sense.
• Pick your battles. Ask whether the thing being argued over is worth what the argument costs.
• Get whatever you agree written up as a consent order. Far cheaper than a dispute in five years’ time.

What if I’m worried about the cost?

Say so. It’s a normal thing to worry about, and we’d much rather talk about it openly than have you put off getting advice because you’re afraid of the bill.

That’s largely what the first appointment is for. You’ll come away knowing what needs dealing with in your situation, the routes realistically open to you, which bits you could handle yourselves, and what it’s likely to involve. Most people find it far less frightening than they expected.

To book, or just to talk it through first, please call us, email us or visit our contact page.

Kate Jackson leads the family law team at Nicholsons and advises regularly on divorce and separation and finances on divorce for clients across Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond. If you’d like to speak to Kate directly, please call 01603 558 713 or email kjackson@nicholsonslaw.com.