What an uncontested divorce costs, and how long it takes

The court fees

These are set by the court and are the same across New York:

Worth knowing that the Note of Issue and the RJI carry a combined fee when they go in together. Counties can add small charges for certified copies, so treat $335 as the floor rather than the final figure.

You can do this yourself, and sometimes you should

The New York court system publishes a free uncontested divorce packet, the forms, and instructions for completing them. We would rather tell you that than have you find out afterwards.

If you have no property to divide, no children, no retirement accounts and a spouse who will sign, an uncontested divorce is genuinely a paperwork exercise. Plenty of people complete one without a lawyer, and there is nothing wrong with doing so.

When a lawyer earns the fee

Two situations, and they are not the ones people expect.

When there is something to divide. A house, a pension, a 401(k), a business, a debt in one name that both of you have been paying. Agreement about who gets what is not the same as an agreement drafted so it actually works, and the parts that are hardest to fix later are the ones involving retirement accounts and real property.

When the paperwork keeps coming back. This is the underrated one. Most delay in an uncontested divorce is not conflict. It is a filing rejected by the clerk over something procedural, corrected, resubmitted, and rejected again, each round costing weeks. That is the part a lawyer removes.

The six months is not a waiting period

The most common misunderstanding in this area. Under DRL § 170(7)the no-fault ground requires the marriage to have been irretrievably broken for at least six months. That is a statement about the period before you file, not a clock that starts once the papers go in.

If things have been over for a year, that requirement is already satisfied on the day you walk in.

What actually drives the timeline

We are not going to print a number of weeks here, because the two things that decide it are outside anyone’s control:

• Whether your spouse signs and returns the papers. The single biggest factor by a distance. A cooperative spouse who signs the affidavit promptly and an uncooperative one who has to be formally served and given the statutory time to respond are different cases, on very different schedules.
• Court processing. Papers are reviewed before a judgment is signed, and that queue is not something a lawyer can accelerate by asking.

What we can tell you is where your matter is and what is holding it up, which is a different and more useful thing than a number promised at the start.

What turns an uncontested divorce contested

Rarely an argument. Usually a discovery, a retirement account nobody had valued, a debt only one of you knew about, a house worth considerably more than either of you assumed. The agreement is the place to get this right, because amending it afterwards is harder and more expensive than drafting it carefully once.

The five things New York requires you to have resolved before a judgment can be granted are set out on our uncontested divorce page, along with the residency rules and why one lawyer cannot act for both of you.

Questions people ask

What are the court fees for an uncontested divorce in New York?

A minimum of $335. That is $210 for the index number that starts the case, and $125 for the Note of Issue and Request for Judicial Intervention filed together. Those go to the court, not to a lawyer, and they are payable whether or not you hire one.

Can I just do it myself?

Yes, and we would rather say so. The New York court system publishes a free uncontested divorce packet with the forms and instructions. If you have no property, no children, no retirement accounts and a spouse who will sign, it is genuinely a paperwork exercise.

So when is a lawyer worth paying for?

When there is something to divide, a house, a pension, a 401(k), a business, or when your spouse is cooperative in principle but slow to sign. Most of what goes wrong is not disagreement. It is paperwork rejected by the clerk, and the delay that causes.

Is there a six-month waiting period?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The six months in DRL 170(7) is a statement that the marriage has been irretrievably broken for at least that long before you file. It is not a waiting period that starts once the papers go in.

How long does an uncontested divorce actually take?

It depends on two things nobody can promise: whether your spouse signs and returns the papers promptly, and how quickly the court processes them. A cooperative spouse is the single biggest factor. Anyone who quotes you a firm number is guessing.

What makes an uncontested divorce become contested?

Usually something discovered rather than something argued, a retirement account nobody had valued, a debt in one name, a house worth more than assumed. It is why the agreement is worth getting right at the start rather than amending it later.

We have children but we already agree. Is that still uncontested?

It can be. Where custody, visitation and support are genuinely settled between you, the divorce can proceed as uncontested, but the terms still have to satisfy the court, particularly on child support. Tell us the arrangement and we will tell you plainly whether it fits.

Related

Sources

NYS Unified Court System — Uncontested Divorce Packet instructions ·NY Courts — Uncontested Divorce Overview ·NY Domestic Relations Law § 170
Court fees verified August 23, 2026 against the court system’s own packet instructions. Fees change; check before relying on the figure. This page does not predict how long any particular divorce will take, because that depends on facts it cannot know.