Last updated: October 18, 2026 | By Jason Kohlmeyer, Minnesota family lawyer since 2000

The first question almost everyone asks me is some version of what is this going to cost. The honest answer is that it depends less on which lawyer you hire and more on how many things you and your spouse still disagree about. A couple who has already worked out the house, the kids and the money is paying for paperwork. A couple fighting over all three is paying for discovery, motions, experts and possibly a trial.

This estimator asks fourteen yes-or-no questions about those disagreements, takes a rough number for each income, and builds a per-person cost range from the court filing fee, attorney time and any experts your case would need. It takes about 90 seconds and does not ask for your name or email.

How this estimate is built

Every divorce starts with the same floor: the filing fee, a parenting class if you have children, and five to eight hours of attorney time to draft the agreement and decree, file it and walk it through the court. At $400 an hour, which is a typical rate for an experienced family lawyer in southern Minnesota, that floor is a few thousand dollars.

Every disagreement adds hours on top of that floor. A fight over physical custody and parenting time adds the most, because it means affidavits, a custody evaluator and often several hearings. Spousal maintenance is next, because it turns on each spouse’s income, expenses and earning capacity, and all of that has to be proven. Hidden assets, a business or farm to value, and non-marital property claims each add their own expert and their own hours. Refusing mediation adds hours too, because every issue that would have settled across a table instead has to be argued in front of a judge.

The estimator shows you that math line by line. It also shows two numbers most calculators skip: what your current cooperation is already saving you compared with a couple who fights every issue, and how much more you would save by settling the issues that are still open. If you want to see what a trial would add, there is a button for that. Most contested Minnesota divorces still settle before trial, but the number is worth knowing.

What actually drives the cost of a Minnesota divorce

After 26 years of doing this, the pattern is consistent. Income matters a little, because higher incomes mean more accounts, more documents and more to argue about. Assets matter somewhat, because a business or a farm has to be valued before it can be divided. But the single biggest driver is conflict. Two spouses with modest incomes who cannot agree on parenting time will spend more than two spouses with high incomes who can. Agreement is the only real discount in family law, and it is available to everyone.

The second biggest driver is whether both people are willing to sit down with a mediator. Minnesota courts expect it, and in my experience it resolves most cases that would otherwise drift toward trial. If your spouse refuses, or if there is a history of domestic abuse that makes mediation inappropriate, the estimator accounts for that.

What the estimate does not include

This is one spouse’s cost. Your spouse pays their own lawyer. The estimate also leaves out appeals, post-decree motions in the years after the divorce, tax consequences of the property division, and the cost of actually refinancing a house or splitting a retirement account beyond the court order itself. It assumes a one to two day trial if your case goes that far. Unusually complex trials run longer and cost more. Court filing fees vary slightly by county.

Treat the number as a planning range, not a quote. When you are ready for a real number for your own case, that is a conversation, and it is one my office is happy to have.

Related guides and tools

For the full picture of how a Minnesota divorce works, from filing to the final decree, read my Minnesota Divorce Guide, and in particular the section on how much a divorce costs in Minnesota. If children are involved, the Minnesota Child Support Calculator gives you a basic support estimate in under a minute, and the Child Custody and Parenting Time Guide explains legal custody, physical custody and parenting time schedules. For the money questions, see the Property Division Guide and the Spousal Maintenance Guide.

This page is general information about Minnesota law, not legal advice, and using the estimator does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. For advice about your own situation, talk to a Minnesota family law attorney.