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 North Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a divorce in North Dakota costs on average $7,200, typically $4,000-$12,000 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $170 to $335 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 | $1,300 | $2,600 | $4,300 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $4,000 | $7,200 | $12,000 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $12,100 | $17,750 | $28,200 | 6-18 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$170 – $335/ hour
Median: $250/hr
3-6 months
For moderate complexity cases
New to how attorney fees work? Read the legal fees guide — hourly, flat, and contingency billing explained.
Researching costs in another area? These free tools from our network may help.
Add this calculator to your own site with a copy-paste snippet — includes an attribution link back to this page.
<iframe
id="legalcostcalc-embed"
src="https://legalcostcalc.co/embed/north-dakota/divorce-cost"
title="North Dakota Divorce Cost Calculator"
width="100%"
height="720"
style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;max-width:768px;"
loading="lazy"
></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px;text-align:center;">
<a href="https://legalcostcalc.co/north-dakota/divorce-cost?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=embed_snippet" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">
Powered by LegalCostCalc
</a>
</p>
<script>
window.addEventListener("message", function (event) {
if (!event.data || event.data.type !== "legalcostcalc:embed-resize") return;
var frame = document.getElementById("legalcostcalc-embed");
if (frame && typeof event.data.height === "number") {
frame.style.height = event.data.height + "px";
}
});
</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 North Dakota. The recorded median total is $7,200, with reported quotes clustering between $4,000 and $12,000. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $700–$2,600, which leaves roughly $4,600–$6,500 of the North Dakota 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 $7,200, the median divorce cost in North Dakota runs 18% below the $8,798 national average across all 50 states and DC.
North Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $1,300–$4,300 at $125–$250/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $4,000–$12,000 at $170–$335/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $12,100–$28,200 at $230–$420/hr over 6-18 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$7,200 is a median, not the middle of the band — $3,200 above the $4,000 floor, $4,800 under the $12,000 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Sorted by median cost, North Dakota is 44th of 51 for a divorce, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $1,350 and 16% below the $8,550 midpoint, with 7 states recording a lower median still.
Oklahoma ($7,300) and Kentucky ($7,150) bracket North Dakota inside a $150 window — narrow enough that 44th is close to arbitrary.
4 tracked states — Tennessee, Montana, Oklahoma, Kentucky among them — record a median within three percent of North Dakota's $7,200. The figure sits in the densest part of the divorce distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
The two measures nearly agree: 42nd of 51 on hourly rate at $250 an hour, 44th on total cost, 2 places apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against North Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | Idaho | $7,550 | +$350 |
| 39 | Louisiana | $7,500 | +$300 |
| 40 | Indiana | $7,450 | +$250 |
| 41 | Tennessee | $7,400 | +$200 |
| 42 | Montana | $7,350 | +$150 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | $7,300 | +$100 |
| 44 | North Dakota | $7,200 | — |
| 45 | Kentucky | $7,150 | −$50 |
| 46 | South Dakota | $6,950 | −$250 |
| 47 | North Carolina | $6,900 | −$300 |
| 48 | Kansas | $6,850 | −$350 |
| 49 | Arkansas | $6,450 | −$750 |
| 50 | South Carolina | $6,450 | −$750 |
Within ten percent of the North Dakota figure there are 9 states above and only 4 below. $100 up or $50 down moves North Dakota a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the divorce field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, Montana, Oklahoma and adding $300 to the $7,200 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Kentucky, South Dakota, North Carolina, Kansas, Arkansas: $750.
$5,700 short of Hawaii ($12,900), $1,150 clear of Alabama ($6,050).
The $7,200 median divided by the $250 median rate implies roughly 29 billable hours. The peer median is 30 hours: North Dakota reaches its total in 1 fewer implied hours, because the rate rather than the workload carries more of it.
North Dakota records a 6.8x gap between its simple and complex divorce medians. Decomposed, that is 4x more billed time and 1.66x a higher rate: 14 hours at $190 becomes 56 hours at $315.
The North Dakota moderate band spans $4,000 to $12,000 — $8,000 — which is $1,550 narrower than the peer-median band of $9,550, so quoted divorce figures cluster more tightly here than in most tracked states. End to end that is 32 hours at $250.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $1,600 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $1,479 a month across the 6-18 months recorded for a complex one.
A third ordering: by implied hours North Dakota is 32nd of 51 at 29 hours, 12 places above its cost rank of 44th on cost — more work behind the same divorce money.
57% up the $4,000–$12,000 band sits the $8,550 table midpoint, buying 34 hours at $250 against the 29 the local divorce median implies — 5 hours apart.
| Measure | North Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $7,200 | 44th |
| Hourly median | $250 | 42nd |
| Implied hours | 29 | 32nd |
| Simple median | $2,600 | 37th |
| Complex median | $17,750 | 44th |
$250 an hour puts North Dakota between North Carolina ($250) and West Virginia ($250) — not the divorce cost pairing.
5 other states record exactly $250 — Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this divorce table.
$7,200 buys 38 hours at $190, 29 at $250, 23 at $315.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Nebraska | $250 |
| 41 | North Carolina | $250 |
| 42 | North Dakota | $250 |
| 43 | West Virginia | $250 |
| 44 | New Mexico | $240 |
Ranked tier by tier, North Dakota slides 7 places downward: 37th at the simple tier, 44th at moderate, 44th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$2,600 is 37th of 51 on a straightforward divorce, under New Mexico ($2,650) and over Missouri ($2,550), $300 under the $2,900 tier midpoint.
$17,750 is 44th of 51 once contested, between Nebraska ($18,050) and Louisiana ($17,650), $4,050 off the $21,800 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $4,300 against a moderate floor of $4,000 — but there is a clear gap of $100 between the moderate ceiling of $12,000 and the complex floor of $12,100. In North Dakota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | North Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,600 | 37th | $2,900 | 14 |
| moderate | $7,200 | 44th | $8,550 | 29 |
| complex | $17,750 | 44th | $21,800 | 56 |
$2,600 puts North Dakota 37th of 51 on straightforward matters, 7 up on its moderate position, and $300 (10%) under the $2,900 tier midpoint.
14 implied hours at $190: 48% of the moderate tier's 29, over 1-3 months.
New Mexico ($2,650) and Missouri ($2,550) bracket it — a $100 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $2,600 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
$17,750 keeps North Dakota at 44th on contested matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $4,050 (19%) under the $21,800 tier midpoint.
56 implied hours at $315: 193% of the moderate tier's 29, over 6-18 months.
Nebraska ($18,050) and Louisiana ($17,650) bracket it — a $400 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $17,750 here, against 4 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Idaho | $2,650 |
| 36 | New Mexico | $2,650 |
| 37 | North Dakota | $2,600 |
| 38 | Missouri | $2,550 |
| 39 | Kansas | $2,500 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | South Dakota | $18,450 |
| 43 | Nebraska | $18,050 |
| 44 | North Dakota | $17,750 |
| 45 | Louisiana | $17,650 |
| 46 | North Carolina | $17,650 |
$7,200 ranks a divorce 2nd of 8 in North Dakota, under Criminal Defense, over DUI / DWI. At 84% of Criminal Defense ($8,550).
The state does not rank uniformly. North Dakota is 24th of 51 for Personal Injury but 45th for DUI / DWI, a 21-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 44th on divorce says little about what the other lines cost.
North Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 8% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 23% below its own midpoint — a 15-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in North Dakota is 5.3x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
0 of 8 matter types rank North Dakota in the upper third, 5 in the lower, 3 between; divorce is 44th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 14th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,550 | $24,250 | 34 | 39th | −16% | Montana |
| Divorce | $2,600 | $7,200 | $17,750 | 29 | 44th | −16% | Oklahoma |
| DUI / DWI | $2,900 | $5,800 | $15,250 | 25 | 45th | −22% | Alabama |
| Immigration | $1,650 | $4,350 | $8,900 | 19 | 34th | −8% | Florida |
| Personal Injury | $1,350 | $4,050 | $12,100 | — | 24th | −22% | Kansas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,200 | $3,100 | $4,300 | 15 | 35th | −14% | Indiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $750 | $1,950 | $3,850 | 9 | 31st | −12% | Montana |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $550 | $1,600 | $5,200 | 7 | 40th | −23% | Louisiana |
Simple tier. $2,600 ÷ $190 = about 14 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,300 a month. The $4,600 step to the moderate tier is 15 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $7,200 to $17,750 is a $10,550 step, mostly work: 27 more hours at $250 is $6,750, while moving to $315 across 56 hours adds $3,640. Work carries 65%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Kentucky ($7,150) is $50 light, Oklahoma ($7,300) is $100 heavy — but the $8,550 table midpoint is out by $1,350, 14x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $4,000 is 16 hours at $250; $12,000 is 48. 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 North Dakota's own recorded figures, $17,750 buys 6.8 matters at the $2,600 simple median — or, counted in time, 56 implied hours against 14, a factor of 4 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the North Dakotacourt'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.