There is no single statewide price for ending a marriage in Ohio, which is why ohio divorce filing fees by county is the question every filer should ask first: the fee is set county by county, and the same case can cost twice as much to file in one county as in the next. This guide gives you a complete filing fee table for the five counties whose fees were verified from official county sources, says plainly how much of Ohio that table does and does not cover, explains the difference between a divorce filing and a dissolution filing and why that difference changes the cost, and walks through the other cost components, from service of process to mediation to attorney fees, that sit on top of the filing fee.
Ohio Divorce Filing Fees by County: The Verified Table
The table below covers five counties: Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Summit, and Montgomery. Those are the counties whose dissolution and divorce filing fees were verified from official county sources for the calculator this article supports. Ohio has 88 counties. The other 83 counties are deliberately not listed with fees here, because their fees were not verified from an official source and no fee has been invented or estimated for them. If your county is not in the table, the section below the table explains exactly how to get its real fee.
| County | Dissolution, no children | Dissolution, with children | Divorce, no children | Divorce, with children |
| Franklin | $225 | $225 | $275 | $275 |
| Cuyahoga | $150 | $200 | $200 | $300 |
| Hamilton | $325 | $375 | $325 | $375 |
| Summit | $370 | $400 | $370 | $420 |
| Montgomery | $300 | $400 | $375 | $475 |
Read the table with three cautions. First, fees are set by each county’s court of common pleas and its clerk of courts, and they change, so confirm the current amount with your clerk before filing even if your county is listed. Second, Franklin County’s figures are the filing deposit, described as security for costs, set by that court’s Local Rule 2, and the same deposit applies with or without children because the court’s separating-parents seminar fee is already included in it. Third, Montgomery County’s clerk adds a 3% convenience fee to e-filed cases, which is not included in the table amounts. Across the five verified counties, filing fees run from $150, for a Cuyahoga County dissolution without children, to $475, for a Montgomery County divorce with children.
Divorce vs. Dissolution: Why the Filing Is Different
Ohio offers two different filings to end a marriage, and the table’s two pairs of columns exist because they are genuinely different procedures. In a dissolution, both spouses agree on everything and petition the court together with a complete agreement already worked out. There is one joint filing, no one is served with papers, and the court’s role is to review the agreement the spouses bring to it. In a divorce, one spouse files and the other spouse must be formally served, whether the case then proceeds by agreement, by default when the other spouse does not respond, or as a contested fight over the terms.
That procedural difference explains the usual price pattern. A dissolution is typically the cheapest route in a county because both spouses file together and no service of process is needed. In Franklin County, for example, the dissolution filing fee is $225, with or without children, and that deposit is the only court charge in the calculator’s worked example for a Franklin dissolution with no minor children: the total court cost is $225.00. A divorce filing in the same county starts at $275 before anything else is added.
Children change the fee in most, but not all, of the verified counties. Cuyahoga charges $150 for a dissolution without children and $200 with children, and $200 for a divorce without children against $300 with children. Hamilton, Summit, and Montgomery likewise charge more when minor children are involved. Franklin is the exception in this table, holding its deposit at $225 for dissolution and $275 for divorce regardless of children, because the parenting-seminar cost other counties may charge around the case is already inside its deposit. Cases with minor children also carry required steps beyond the fee itself, including a mandatory parenting seminar for both parents in the counties that require one.
Worked Examples from the Table
Example 1: a Franklin County dissolution, no children. The filing deposit is $225. Both spouses file together, so there is no service cost. The calculator’s total is $225.00 in court fees, the simplest and cheapest complete example in this guide.
Example 2: an uncontested Franklin County divorce, no children, with sheriff service. The divorce filing deposit is $275. In a divorce, unlike a dissolution, the other spouse must be formally served. In Franklin County the sheriff charges $30 for personal service inside the county, so the total is $275 plus $30, which is $305.00. The same service outside the county is $75 on the figures in the calculator, which would make the total $350.00, and certified mail through the clerk is usually cheaper than either sheriff option.
Example 3: a Cuyahoga County divorce with minor children. The filing fee from the table is $300 before any add-ons. That is the starting figure only: service, any parenting-class cost charged separately by that court, and certified copies, which Cuyahoga prices at $1.00 per page, would be added on top for a filer’s actual total. You can total your own combination, county by county and item by item, with our Ohio divorce cost calculator, which uses these same verified county fees and leaves unverified counties for you to enter from your own clerk.
The Other Cost Components, Explained Qualitatively
Service of process
Service is the formal delivery of divorce papers to the other spouse, and it applies to divorce filings, not dissolutions. The verified example in the calculator is Franklin County’s sheriff pricing: $30 for personal service inside the county and $75 outside it. Certified mail through the clerk is usually cheaper, and a private process server usually costs more. The expensive failure mode is a spouse who cannot be found: service by publication in a newspaper costs far more than sheriff or certified-mail service. No statewide service price is stated here, because service is priced locally and by method.
Parenting classes
When minor children are involved, courts require a separating-parents seminar. How it is charged varies by county, which is exactly why there is no single figure in this guide. Franklin County’s $22 seminar fee is already included in its filing deposit, so a Franklin filer adds nothing for it. Other counties set their own class fees and may charge them separately, per parent. Check your own court’s current requirement rather than assuming either treatment.
Mediation
Mediation sits between agreement and litigation: a neutral third party helps the spouses settle disputed issues before a judge decides them. This guide states no mediation price, because none was verified for the counties in the table and mediation arrangements vary widely. The cost logic, however, is consistent: every issue settled in mediation is an issue that does not have to be litigated through motions and hearings, and disagreement, not the filing fee, is what makes a case expensive.
Attorney fees
Attorney fees are separate from every figure in the table, and they are the component this guide most deliberately refuses to put an invented number on. The calculator states the honest version: in a contested case, attorney fees often run to several thousand dollars per spouse, alongside extra motion filings, custody evaluations, and court-reporter costs. An uncontested case, or a dissolution where the agreement is already complete, involves far less attorney time if a lawyer is used at all. Any precise attorney quote for your case can only come from an Ohio family-law attorney who has heard your facts.
Copies and small charges
Certified copies of the final decree are a small but real cost, because banks, schools, and name-change processes ask for them. The one verified price in the calculator is Cuyahoga County’s $1.00 per page. Budgeting a little extra for postage, extra copies, and any later filing your county adds is prudent even in the simplest case.
If Your County Is Not in the Table
- Accept that the table covers 5 of Ohio’s 88 counties. The absence of your county is a verification limit, not an oversight to fill with a guess.
- Go to your Clerk of Courts’ official site. Search for your county’s clerk of courts filing fees for domestic relations, or call the clerk’s domestic relations desk and ask for the current dissolution and divorce filing fees, with and without children.
- Ask what the fee includes. Franklin’s deposit includes its parenting-seminar fee; another county’s headline fee may not. Ask about e-filing add-ons too, as Montgomery’s 3% e-filing convenience fee shows.
- Enter the real fee in the calculator. The calculator accepts a fee you enter for any other county and then adds only the optional costs you choose.
- Ask about a fee waiver if you cannot afford the fee. Every Ohio court can consider a poverty affidavit, or fee waiver, for a filer who cannot afford the deposit. Ask the clerk about the form before you file.
For general information about Ohio’s courts, the Supreme Court of Ohio is the statewide court’s official site. It does not set your county’s filing fee — that remains your county court’s figure — but it is the authoritative starting point for how Ohio’s court system is organized.
Common Filing-Fee Mistakes
- Quoting a statewide fee that does not exist. Ohio has no single filing fee. Any source that gives one number for the whole state is smoothing over the county differences in the table above.
- Copying another county’s fee. A Cuyahoga dissolution without children is $150; the same filing in Summit County is $370. Your county’s fee is the only one that matters.
- Treating the filing fee as the total cost. Service, parenting classes, copies, mediation, and attorney time all sit outside it, and in a contested case they dwarf it.
- Assuming children never change the fee, or always do. Four of the five verified counties charge more with children; Franklin does not, for a stated reason. Check your county’s actual schedule.
- Filing a divorce when a dissolution fits. If both spouses genuinely agree on everything, the joint dissolution filing is usually cheaper and needs no service. Filing the other way adds cost with no benefit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to file for divorce in Ohio?
It depends on your county, the filing type, and whether minor children are involved. In the five counties verified for this guide, filing fees run from $150 for a Cuyahoga County dissolution without children to $475 for a Montgomery County divorce with children. The other 83 counties set their own fees through their courts of common pleas and clerks of courts, and those fees were not verified here, so check with your own clerk for the current amount.
What are the dissolution filing fees by county?
Among the five verified counties: Franklin $225 with or without children, Cuyahoga $150 without children and $200 with, Hamilton $325 without children and $375 with, Summit $370 without children and $400 with, and Montgomery $300 without children and $400 with. The full table, including divorce fees, is in the verified table section above.
What is the Franklin County dissolution filing fee?
$225. Franklin County’s figure is the filing deposit, or security for costs, set by the court’s Local Rule 2, and it is the same with or without children because the court’s $22 separating-parents seminar fee is already included in the deposit. The Franklin divorce deposit is $275.
Why does a contested divorce cost so much more if the filing fee is the same?
Because the filing fee was never the expensive part. A contested case adds attorney fees for both spouses, extra motion filings, mediation, and sometimes custody evaluations or court-reporter costs. A total for a contested case can only honestly be shown as the known court-cost floor, which is what the calculator does, rather than as a prediction.
Can the filing fee be waived?
It can be considered. Every Ohio court can review a poverty affidavit, or fee waiver, for a filer who cannot afford the deposit. Ask the Clerk of Courts’ domestic relations desk about the form before filing.
Which county do I file in?
You file in the county where you or your spouse lives. If that county is one of the five in the table, its verified fee is there. If not, get the fee from your Clerk of Courts and enter it in the calculator rather than borrowing a neighboring county’s figure.
The Bottom Line
Ohio divorce filing fees by county are a local fact, not a state fact. For the five verified counties, expect $150 to $475 depending on county, filing type, and children: Franklin $225 for dissolution and $275 for divorce, Cuyahoga $150 to $300, Hamilton $325 to $375, Summit $370 to $420, and Montgomery $300 to $475. A dissolution, filed jointly with a complete agreement and no service cost, is usually the cheapest complete path. Everything beyond the filing fee — service, parenting classes, copies, mediation, and above all attorney time in a contested case — is where the real total is decided. Verify your county’s current fee with its clerk, add only the components your case actually involves, and treat any source that quotes one Ohio fee, or a fee for a county it never verified, with suspicion.
This article is general information about Ohio court filing fees and is not legal advice. Filing fees for the five listed counties were verified from official county sources for the calculator this article supports; fees change, so confirm the current amount with your Clerk of Courts before filing. For advice about your situation, consult an Ohio family-law attorney or your county’s legal aid office.
