This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.
2026 cost estimates for divorce in Maryland, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a divorce in Maryland costs on average $10,550, typically $5,850-$17,600 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $230 to $460 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 3-6 months to resolve. Common related costs include court filing fee ($100-$400) and service of process ($50-$100).
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $1,900 | $3,750 | $6,300 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,850 | $10,550 | $17,600 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $18,850 | $27,650 | $44,000 | 6-18 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$230 – $460/ hour
Median: $345/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>Divorce costs form around two variables that compound each other: how much the spouses disagree on, and how many separate issues (property division, child custody, child support, alimony) are in dispute. An uncontested divorce with no minor children and no real estate can resolve with a single court filing fee and a document-preparation charge. Once custody or asset division is contested, cost accumulates from discovery (formal document exchange), mediation sessions billed hourly, and — in the most complex cases — expert witnesses such as forensic accountants (business or investment valuation) and custody evaluators.
Attorney billing in divorce is typically hourly rather than flat-fee, because the number of court appearances and negotiation rounds is not knowable in advance. A retainer is paid upfront and drawn down as the attorney bills time; complex cases often require replenishing the retainer more than once. Court filing fees and mediation fees are set by the state or county and apply regardless of which attorney is hired.
Take a moderate-complexity divorce matter in Maryland. The recorded median total is $10,550, with reported quotes clustering between $5,850 and $17,600. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $700–$2,600, which leaves roughly $7,950–$9,850 of the Maryland median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes. One further recorded fee is not itemised above and is not in that total.
At $10,550, the median divorce cost in Maryland runs 20% above the $8,798 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Maryland carries 3 rows — simple, $1,900–$6,300 at $175–$345/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,850–$17,600 at $230–$460/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $18,850–$44,000 at $315–$575/hr over 6-18 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$10,550 is a median, not the middle of the band — $4,700 above the $5,850 floor, $7,050 under the $17,600 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Maryland ranks 8th of 51 tracked states for a divorce, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $8,550 midpoint is $2,000 — 23% — and only 7 states record a higher median.
California ($10,600) and Colorado ($10,450) bracket Maryland inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 8th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Massachusetts, Alaska, California, Colorado among them — record a median within three percent of Maryland's $10,550. The figure sits in the densest part of the divorce distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Rate and total sit 2 places apart — 10th of 51 at $345 an hour against 8th on the divorce total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Maryland |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Washington | $11,450 | +$900 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | $11,400 | +$850 |
| 4 | Virginia | $11,050 | +$500 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | $10,700 | +$150 |
| 6 | Alaska | $10,650 | +$100 |
| 7 | California | $10,600 | +$50 |
| 8 | Maryland | $10,550 | — |
| 9 | Colorado | $10,450 | −$100 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | $10,350 | −$200 |
| 11 | Delaware | $10,200 | −$350 |
| 12 | New York | $10,100 | −$450 |
| 13 | Vermont | $10,100 | −$450 |
| 14 | New Jersey | $10,050 | −$500 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below Maryland against 6 above. $50 up or $100 down moves Maryland a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 8th position is propped up by a thin divorce field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Rhode Island, Virginia, Massachusetts, Alaska, California and adding $850 to the $10,550 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Colorado, New Hampshire, Delaware, New York, Vermont: $450.
$2,350 short of Hawaii ($12,900), $4,500 clear of Alabama ($6,050).
The $10,550 median divided by the $345 median rate implies roughly 31 billable hours. The peer median is 30 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Maryland figure than behind the typical state's.
The 7.4x step from the simple to the complex tier breaks down as 4.6x the hours against 1.65x the rate — 14 hours at $260 becomes 64 hours at $430. Hours dominate, but the rate contribution is large enough to notice.
In dollars the Maryland moderate band is wide: $5,850 to $17,600, a $11,750 range, $2,200 wider than the peer-median band of $9,550. End to end that is 34 hours at $345.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $2,344 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $2,304 a month across the 6-18 months recorded for a complex one.
By implied hours Maryland falls to 18th of 51 at 31 hours, 10 places below its 8th on cost — the divorce total arriving on less recorded work.
23% up the $5,850–$17,600 band sits the $8,550 table midpoint, buying 25 hours at $345 against the 31 the local divorce median implies — 6 hours apart.
| Measure | Maryland | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $10,550 | 8th |
| Hourly median | $345 | 10th |
| Implied hours | 31 | 18th |
| Simple median | $3,750 | 5th |
| Complex median | $27,650 | 2nd |
$345 an hour puts Maryland between District of Columbia ($345) and Massachusetts ($345) — not the divorce cost pairing.
District of Columbia, Massachusetts record the same $345: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$10,550 buys 41 hours at $260, 31 at $345, 25 at $430.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Rhode Island | $350 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | $345 |
| 10 | Maryland | $345 |
| 11 | Massachusetts | $345 |
| 12 | Alaska | $340 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 5th at the simple tier, 8th at moderate, 2nd at complex of 51 — so Maryland keeps roughly the same relative position whether the divorce is straightforward or contested.
$3,750 is 5th of 51 on a straightforward divorce, under Hawaii ($3,750) and over Massachusetts ($3,700), $850 over the $2,900 tier midpoint.
$27,650 is 2nd of 51 once contested, between Hawaii ($30,200) and Washington ($27,500), $5,850 off the $21,800 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $6,300 against a moderate floor of $5,850 — but there is a clear gap of $1,250 between the moderate ceiling of $17,600 and the complex floor of $18,850. In Maryland the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Maryland | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,750 | 5th | $2,900 | 14 |
| moderate | $10,550 | 8th | $8,550 | 31 |
| complex | $27,650 | 2nd | $21,800 | 64 |
$3,750 puts Maryland 5th of 51 on straightforward matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $850 (29%) over the $2,900 tier midpoint.
14 implied hours at $260: 45% of the moderate tier's 31, over 1-3 months.
Hawaii ($3,750) and Massachusetts ($3,700) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $3,750 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$27,650 puts Maryland 2nd of 51 on contested matters, 6 up on its moderate position, and $5,850 (27%) over the $21,800 tier midpoint.
64 implied hours at $430: 206% of the moderate tier's 31, over 6-18 months.
Hawaii ($30,200) and Washington ($27,500) bracket it — a $2,700 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $27,650 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Washington | $3,800 |
| 4 | Hawaii | $3,750 |
| 5 | Maryland | $3,750 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | $3,700 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $3,600 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $30,200 |
| 2 | Maryland | $27,650 |
| 3 | Washington | $27,500 |
| 4 | New Hampshire | $27,400 |
Against the other matter types tracked in Maryland, a divorce carries the largest median of the 8 at $10,550 — ahead of Criminal Defense, the next line down.
Across practice areas Maryland ranges from 8th of 51 for Divorce to 21st for Criminal Defense — a 13-place spread, with its 8th on divorce inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "Maryland is expensive" or "Maryland is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Maryland is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
4 of 7 matter types rank Maryland in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; divorce is 8th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 86th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,750 | $10,550 | $27,650 | 31 | 8th | +23% | California |
| Criminal Defense | $3,650 | $10,500 | $33,450 | 30 | 21st | +3% | Minnesota |
| DUI / DWI | $4,000 | $8,250 | $18,500 | 26 | 15th | +11% | Arizona |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $6,000 | $17,300 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Immigration | $2,350 | $5,350 | $13,850 | 17 | 17th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,800 | $6,050 | 13 | 16th | +6% | Wisconsin |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,300 | $5,350 | 8 | 19th | +3% | Vermont |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,100 | $7,400 | 7 | 20th | +1% | Virginia |
Simple tier. $3,750 ÷ $260 = about 14 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,875 a month. The $6,800 step to the moderate tier is 17 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $10,550 to $27,650 is a $17,100 step, mostly work: 33 more hours at $345 is $11,385, while moving to $430 across 64 hours adds $5,440. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Colorado ($10,450) is $100 light, California ($10,600) is $50 heavy — but the $8,550 table midpoint is out by $2,000, 20x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,850 is 17 hours at $345; $17,600 is 51. Over the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate divorce, that is 4 to 11 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At Maryland's own recorded figures, $27,650 buys 7.4 matters at the $3,750 simple median — or, counted in time, 64 implied hours against 14, a factor of 4.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Marylandcourt's own schedule; billing models are covered in the legal fees guide.
This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.