Many people worry about the fees associated with getting a divorce. Splitting your life from your spouse’s will have some financial ramifications, and you might be worried that getting the divorce will also cost money. On this page, I will discuss the court fees that you can expect if you want to file for divorce in Connecticut. Understanding the fees associated with divorce can help you determine if you are ready to file.
Court Fees
To initiate a custody application or a divorce, you have to pay $360 to the court. Also consider that there is a Marshal fee to serve divorce papers to somebody. This fee for the Marshal could be $60 to $80. If you are the one serving divorce papers in your divorce, you will have to pay the Marshal fee.
Also consider that the court will often typically put a lien on the marital home if there is one. This happens in the divorce just to protect from creditors. You put a lien on the house for what is called lis pendens. This prevents one person from encumbering it with any additional debt or selling it. Or if that person gets into an accident, hurts somebody, or they have creditors that they owe money to that aren’t related to you, you get ahead of those creditors in line in terms of the priority of getting paid in the divorce. So, it locks down the property at that particular point in time. It stops anybody from transferring it or taking on any additional debt or any subsequent lien holders that may come along. That puts you in a better position. The lien can run anywhere from $150 to $200. Those are really the court-related fees for initiating a divorce action.
However, also consider another fee throughout the divorce: a fee for a deposition. Depositions are not always necessary in divorce, so you many not deal with this fee. However, if you’re going to have a deposition, there are costs for the stenographer. But once you pay your initial fees to the court, that’s really it from the court side of things in terms of what the divorce will cost.
Getting Help
While there will likely be other fees related to your divorce, these are the fees associated with the court. For more information on divorce and fees, you can contact our office. We can help you determine how to proceed with your divorce and how to plan financially for this event.