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Two numbers worth knowing before you file
A California divorce costs money two different ways. Hiring counsel is a bill you can see coming. Doing it alone is a bill that arrives late, in pieces, and mostly as money you never knew to ask for. Both calculators below price one of those paths. Neither one is trying to sell you the other.
What hiring an attorney could cost
A retainer is a deposit your attorney bills against, not a flat price. Once the hours consume it, the invoices keep coming. Start with the case type closest to yours, then move the sliders to the numbers your consultation actually gave you.
What counsel quoted you
Southern California family law rates generally run $350 to $750 an hour, against a $7,500 to $15,000 opening retainer. Your quote may sit outside that.
Paid up front and drawn down as the work happens. Most firms ask you to top it back up once it runs low.
How long and how hard
These two sliders move the total more than the hourly rate does. California imposes a six-month waiting period before a judgment can be final, so almost nothing closes faster than that.
Includes the work you never see billed as an event: reviewing the other side's disclosures, drafting correspondence, and the six-minute increments that attach to a phone call.
Each motion carries a $60 court fee under Government Code 70677(a), on top of the attorney hours it consumes.
Line by line
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An estimate for planning, not a quote. Court costs use the 2026 Statewide Civil Fee Schedule: $435 for the petition or the response under Government Code 70670(b) and (d), and $60 per motion under 70677(a). Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco add courthouse construction surcharges. Process server charges, expert and evaluator fees, mediation, and the second party's $435 appearance fee are not included. Not legal or financial advice. Consult a licensed California attorney about your own case.
That number is the reason we are building this
DivvyLaw is priced by the module, so you pay for the step you are standing on rather than the whole case up front.
What doing it without help could cost
Nobody sends you an invoice for this one, which is why it is easy to assume it is free. A contested case in Los Angeles County, run alone, costs you unpaid days at the self-help counter and three kinds of money that California law will not let you recover later. Court filing fees are left out here on purpose: they are the same whether or not you have help, and they are already priced in the calculator above.
Your situation
These two numbers drive everything below them.
Days off work
Los Angeles self-help centers run Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to 12 and 1 to 4, and Friday 8:30 to 12. No evenings, no weekends, so every visit costs a full unpaid day. Hearings and mediation are not counted here, because you attend those either way.
A contested case needs a visit for each of these:
- Petition packet — FL-100, FL-110, FL-105, summons, FAM-020
- First Request for Order packet — FL-300, FL-150, FL-311/FL-341
- Preliminary disclosures — FL-140, FL-141, FL-142, FL-150
- Discovery responses — Or a motion to compel
- Judgment packet — FL-180, FL-341/342/343, FL-192
- Refile cycles — After a clerk rejection
Where the money goes
Three ways a self-represented case bleeds money. Each slider bundles several underlying risks, so set it to what your case looks like rather than trying to price every mistake separately.
Time from separation to a correctly filed Request for Order, plus whatever a clerk rejection or defective service adds. Support runs from a filing date under Family Code 4009, so none of these months come back.
A support number calculated on incomplete income, or a missed Family Code 2104 disclosure deadline. Family Code 3653 only reaches back to the day you file to fix it, so the gap is permanent.
Family Code 2640 reimbursement, Epstein credits, Watts charges, pension joinder, reserving spousal support jurisdiction, and the Family Code 2030 fee contribution most self-represented parties never request.
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Sources & method
Sources for the defaults. Self-help hours and locations, and Request for Order hearing dates running six to eleven weeks out: Los Angeles Superior Court published schedules. Support retroactivity: Family Code 4009 and 3653(a). Notice: Code of Civil Procedure 1005(b), 16 court days plus five calendar days for California mail service. Disclosure deadline: Family Code 2104, 60 days, with sanctions under 2107(c). Fee contribution: Family Code 2030. Court filing fees, process server charges and expert costs are excluded because they land on you either way.
Where the three money figures come from. Each slider bundles several risks, and the defaults are modeled rather than measured: no published dataset exists on clerk rejection rates for self-represented family law filings in Los Angeles County. What is documented is that roughly 70% of California's approximately 200,000 annual divorce petitions involve a self-represented party at filing, rising to 80% by judgment, and that in San Diego's Status Conference Initiative more than 60% of self-represented parties with stalled cases simply did not know how to proceed.
Not legal advice. This is a cost model. Fee schedules and local rules change, and the court clerk's office is the authority on what it will accept.
Most of that total comes from not knowing what to ask for
DivvyLaw will walk you through the filing the way a firm would, so the claims you are entitled to make actually get made.
Why the second number matters
of California divorce petitions involve at least one self-represented party at filing
Judicial Council of California
are self-represented by the time judgment is entered
Judicial Council of California
of self-represented parties with stalled cases simply did not know how to proceed
San Diego Status Conference Initiative
How the calculators work
It never ignores it. A retainer is a deposit billed against, so the fee side is the retainer plus whatever hours run past it. If your case consumes fewer hours than the retainer bought, the retainer is your fee and the overage line sits at zero. If it consumes more, the surplus is invoiced on top and the calculator shows it as a separate band.
The first calculator prices everything you write a check for when you hire counsel, so the $435 first paper fee and the $60 per motion belong in it. The second prices what representing yourself costs you beyond what anyone pays. Filing fees are owed either way, so putting them in that total would inflate it without telling you anything about the choice you are weighing.
They are modeled, not measured. No published dataset exists on clerk rejection rates for self-represented family law filings in Los Angeles County. The structure is anchored in statute: Family Code 4009 runs support from the filing date, Family Code 3653(a) limits modifications back to the modification filing date, and Family Code 2104 sets the 60-day disclosure deadline with sanctions under 2107(c). Those rules are why delay costs permanent money rather than recoverable money.
The $350 to $750 hourly range and the $7,500 to $15,000 retainer range reflect published Southern California family law fee ranges. Your quote may sit outside them. Move the sliders to your actual numbers rather than trusting the defaults.
No. These are cost models built to make two decisions legible. They are not legal advice, not financial advice, and not a prediction about your case.