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 New Hampshire, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a divorce in New Hampshire costs on average $10,350, typically $5,750-$17,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $235 to $470 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 | $3,800 | $6,300 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $5,750 | $10,350 | $17,200 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $18,650 | $27,400 | $43,600 | 6-18 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$235 – $470/ hour
Median: $350/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 New Hampshire. The recorded median total is $10,350, with reported quotes clustering between $5,750 and $17,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $700–$2,600, which leaves roughly $7,750–$9,650 of the New Hampshire 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 $10,350, the median divorce cost in New Hampshire runs 18% above the $8,798 national average across all 50 states and DC.
New Hampshire carries 3 rows — simple, $1,900–$6,300 at $175–$350/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $5,750–$17,200 at $235–$470/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $18,650–$43,600 at $320–$585/hr over 6-18 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$10,350 is a median, not the middle of the band — $4,600 above the $5,750 floor, $6,850 under the $17,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
New Hampshire ranks 10th of 51 tracked states for a divorce, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $8,550 midpoint is $1,800 — 21% — and only 9 states record a higher median.
Colorado ($10,450) and Delaware ($10,200) bracket New Hampshire inside a $250 window — narrow enough that 10th is close to arbitrary.
8 tracked states — Alaska, California, Maryland, Colorado among them — record a median within three percent of New Hampshire's $10,350. The figure sits in the densest part of the divorce distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
New Hampshire ranks 7th of 51 on hourly rate at $350 an hour and 10th on total cost — 3 places apart, enough that the rate is a slightly optimistic guide to the total.
| Rank | State | Median | Against New Hampshire |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Virginia | $11,050 | +$700 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | $10,700 | +$350 |
| 6 | Alaska | $10,650 | +$300 |
| 7 | California | $10,600 | +$250 |
| 8 | Maryland | $10,550 | +$200 |
| 9 | Colorado | $10,450 | +$100 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | $10,350 | — |
| 11 | Delaware | $10,200 | −$150 |
| 12 | New York | $10,100 | −$250 |
| 13 | Vermont | $10,100 | −$250 |
| 14 | New Jersey | $10,050 | −$300 |
| 15 | Connecticut | $10,000 | −$350 |
| 16 | District of Columbia | $9,700 | −$650 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 11 below New Hampshire against 6 above. $100 up or $150 down moves New Hampshire a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 10th position is propped up by a thin divorce field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Massachusetts, Alaska, California, Maryland, Colorado and adding $350 to the $10,350 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Delaware, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut: $350.
$2,550 short of Hawaii ($12,900), $4,300 clear of Alabama ($6,050).
The $10,350 median divided by the $350 median rate implies roughly 30 billable hours. That rounds to the same 30 hours as the peer median, so on workload New Hampshire is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The 7.2x step from the simple to the complex tier breaks down as 4.4x the hours against 1.66x the rate — 14 hours at $265 becomes 62 hours at $440. Hours dominate, but the rate contribution is large enough to notice.
In dollars the New Hampshire moderate band is wide: $5,750 to $17,200, a $11,450 range, $1,900 wider than the peer-median band of $9,550. End to end that is 33 hours at $350.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $2,300 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $2,283 a month across the 6-18 months recorded for a complex one.
By implied hours New Hampshire falls to 28th of 51 at 30 hours, 18 places below its 10th on cost — the divorce total arriving on less recorded work.
24% up the $5,750–$17,200 band sits the $8,550 table midpoint, buying 24 hours at $350 against the 30 the local divorce median implies — 6 hours apart.
| Measure | New Hampshire | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $10,350 | 10th |
| Hourly median | $350 | 7th |
| Implied hours | 30 | 28th |
| Simple median | $3,800 | 2nd |
| Complex median | $27,400 | 4th |
$350 an hour puts New Hampshire between Connecticut ($350) and Rhode Island ($350) — not the divorce cost pairing.
California, Connecticut, Rhode Island record the same $350: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$10,350 buys 39 hours at $265, 30 at $350, 24 at $440.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | California | $350 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $350 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $350 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $350 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | $345 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 2nd at the simple tier, 10th at moderate, 4th at complex of 51 — so New Hampshire keeps roughly the same relative position whether the divorce is straightforward or contested.
$3,800 is 2nd of 51 on a straightforward divorce, under California ($3,800) and over Washington ($3,800), $900 over the $2,900 tier midpoint.
$27,400 is 4th of 51 once contested, between Washington ($27,500) and New Jersey ($27,350), $5,600 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 $5,750 — but there is a clear gap of $1,450 between the moderate ceiling of $17,200 and the complex floor of $18,650. In New Hampshire the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | New Hampshire | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $3,800 | 2nd | $2,900 | 14 |
| moderate | $10,350 | 10th | $8,550 | 30 |
| complex | $27,400 | 4th | $21,800 | 62 |
$3,800 puts New Hampshire 2nd of 51 on straightforward matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $900 (31%) over the $2,900 tier midpoint.
14 implied hours at $265: 47% of the moderate tier's 30, over 1-3 months.
California ($3,800) and Washington ($3,800) bracket it — a $0 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $3,800 here, against 8 at the moderate row.
$27,400 puts New Hampshire 4th of 51 on contested matters, 6 up on its moderate position, and $5,600 (26%) over the $21,800 tier midpoint.
62 implied hours at $440: 207% of the moderate tier's 30, over 6-18 months.
Washington ($27,500) and New Jersey ($27,350) bracket it — a $150 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $27,400 here, against 8 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $3,800 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | $3,800 |
| 3 | Washington | $3,800 |
| 4 | Hawaii | $3,750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Maryland | $27,650 |
| 3 | Washington | $27,500 |
| 4 | New Hampshire | $27,400 |
| 5 | New Jersey | $27,350 |
| 6 | Rhode Island | $26,900 |
$10,350 ranks a divorce 2nd of 8 in New Hampshire, under Criminal Defense, over DUI / DWI. At 83% of Criminal Defense ($12,450).
Across practice areas New Hampshire ranges from 2nd of 51 for Estate Planning / Probate to 12th for Bankruptcy — a 10-place spread, with its 10th on divorce inside it.
New Hampshire is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 29% above its own midpoint while Real Estate Closing runs 12% above its own midpoint — a 17-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in New Hampshire is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
Every one of the 8 matter types tracked for New Hampshire places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 10th on divorce is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 82th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,900 | $12,450 | $32,250 | 36 | 3rd | +22% | Rhode Island |
| Divorce | $3,800 | $10,350 | $27,400 | 30 | 10th | +21% | Colorado |
| DUI / DWI | $4,200 | $8,600 | $19,550 | 27 | 11th | +15% | District of Columbia |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,150 | $13,300 | 19 | 6th | +29% | Washington |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,900 | $17,650 | — | 4th | +13% | Illinois |
| Bankruptcy | $1,600 | $4,050 | $5,550 | 14 | 12th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,550 | $7,550 | 8 | 2nd | +23% | Hawaii |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,500 | $5,750 | 9 | 10th | +12% | District of Columbia |
Simple tier. $3,800 ÷ $265 = about 14 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,900 a month. The $6,550 step to the moderate tier is 16 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $10,350 to $27,400 is a $17,050 step, mostly work: 32 more hours at $350 is $11,200, while moving to $440 across 62 hours adds $5,580. Work carries 67%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Delaware ($10,200) is $150 light, Colorado ($10,450) is $100 heavy — but the $8,550 table midpoint is out by $1,800, 12x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $5,750 is 16 hours at $350; $17,200 is 49. 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 New Hampshire's own recorded figures, $27,400 buys 7.2 matters at the $3,800 simple median — or, counted in time, 62 implied hours against 14, a factor of 4.4 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the New Hampshirecourt'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.