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 South Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a divorce in South Dakota costs on average $6,950, typically $3,850-$11,600 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $160 to $320 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 | $1,200 | $2,400 | $4,000 | 1-3 months |
| Moderate | $3,850 | $6,950 | $11,600 | 3-6 months |
| Complex | $12,600 | $18,450 | $29,400 | 6-18 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$160 – $320/ hour
Median: $240/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 South Dakota. The recorded median total is $6,950, with reported quotes clustering between $3,850 and $11,600. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $700–$2,600, which leaves roughly $4,350–$6,250 of the South 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 $6,950, the median divorce cost in South Dakota runs 21% below the $8,798 national average across all 50 states and DC.
South Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $1,200–$4,000 at $120–$240/hr over 1-3 months; moderate, $3,850–$11,600 at $160–$320/hr over 3-6 months; complex, $12,600–$29,400 at $220–$400/hr over 6-18 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$6,950 is a median, not the middle of the band — $3,100 above the $3,850 floor, $4,650 under the $11,600 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 51.
Sorted by median cost, South Dakota is 46th of 51 for a divorce, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $1,600 and 19% below the $8,550 midpoint, with 5 states recording a lower median still.
Kentucky ($7,150) and North Carolina ($6,900) bracket South Dakota inside a $250 window — narrow enough that 46th is close to arbitrary.
Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas record medians within three percent of South Dakota's $6,950. A divorce quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
Ranked by hourly rate instead of by total, South Dakota does not move: 46th on both measures, at $240 an hour. Rate and total are telling the same story here.
| Rank | State | Median | Against South Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Indiana | $7,450 | +$500 |
| 41 | Tennessee | $7,400 | +$450 |
| 42 | Montana | $7,350 | +$400 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | $7,300 | +$350 |
| 44 | North Dakota | $7,200 | +$250 |
| 45 | Kentucky | $7,150 | +$200 |
| 46 | South Dakota | $6,950 | — |
| 47 | North Carolina | $6,900 | −$50 |
| 48 | Kansas | $6,850 | −$100 |
| 49 | Arkansas | $6,450 | −$500 |
| 50 | South Carolina | $6,450 | −$500 |
| 51 | Alabama | $6,050 | −$900 |
Within ten percent of the South Dakota figure there are 8 states above and only 4 below. $200 up or $50 down moves South 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 Tennessee, Montana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kentucky and adding $450 to the $6,950 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under North Carolina, Kansas, Arkansas, South Carolina, Alabama: $900.
$5,950 short of Hawaii ($12,900), $900 clear of Alabama ($6,050).
The $6,950 median divided by the $240 median rate implies roughly 29 billable hours. The peer median is 30 hours: South Dakota reaches its total in 1 fewer implied hours, because the rate rather than the workload carries more of it.
The 7.7x step from the simple to the complex tier breaks down as 4.8x the hours against 1.67x the rate — 13 hours at $180 becomes 62 hours at $300. Hours dominate, but the rate contribution is large enough to notice.
The South Dakota moderate band spans $3,850 to $11,600 — $7,750 — which is $1,800 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 $240.
Per month of elapsed time the two tiers are close: about $1,544 a month across the 3-6 months recorded for a moderate matter, and $1,538 a month across the 6-18 months recorded for a complex one.
A third ordering: by implied hours South Dakota is 31st of 51 at 29 hours, 15 places above its cost rank of 46th on cost — more work behind the same divorce money.
61% up the $3,850–$11,600 band sits the $8,550 table midpoint, buying 36 hours at $240 against the 29 the local divorce median implies — 7 hours apart.
| Measure | South Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $6,950 | 46th |
| Hourly median | $240 | 46th |
| Implied hours | 29 | 31st |
| Simple median | $2,400 | 47th |
| Complex median | $18,450 | 42nd |
$240 an hour puts South Dakota between South Carolina ($240) and Louisiana ($235) — not the divorce cost pairing.
New Mexico, South Carolina record the same $240: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$6,950 buys 39 hours at $180, 29 at $240, 23 at $300.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | New Mexico | $240 |
| 45 | South Carolina | $240 |
| 46 | South Dakota | $240 |
| 47 | Louisiana | $235 |
| 48 | Oklahoma | $225 |
South Dakota moves up the table as complexity rises: 47th at the simple tier, 46th at moderate, 42nd at complex, a 5-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$2,400 is 47th of 51 on a straightforward divorce, under Indiana ($2,400) and over Kentucky ($2,300), $500 under the $2,900 tier midpoint.
$18,450 is 42nd of 51 once contested, between Tennessee ($18,550) and Nebraska ($18,050), $3,350 off the $21,800 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $4,000 against a moderate floor of $3,850 — but there is a clear gap of $1,000 between the moderate ceiling of $11,600 and the complex floor of $12,600. In South Dakota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | South Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,400 | 47th | $2,900 | 13 |
| moderate | $6,950 | 46th | $8,550 | 29 |
| complex | $18,450 | 42nd | $21,800 | 62 |
$2,400 drops South Dakota to 47th of 51 on straightforward matters, 1 below its moderate position and $500 (17%) under the $2,900 tier midpoint.
13 implied hours at $180: 45% of the moderate tier's 29, over 1-3 months.
Indiana ($2,400) and Kentucky ($2,300) bracket it — a $100 window.
3 states sit within three percent of the $2,400 here, against 3 at the moderate row.
$18,450 puts South Dakota 42nd of 51 on contested matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $3,350 (15%) under the $21,800 tier midpoint.
62 implied hours at $300: 214% of the moderate tier's 29, over 6-18 months.
Tennessee ($18,550) and Nebraska ($18,050) bracket it — a $500 window.
4 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $18,450, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | West Virginia | $2,450 |
| 46 | Indiana | $2,400 |
| 47 | South Dakota | $2,400 |
| 48 | Kentucky | $2,300 |
| 49 | Alabama | $2,250 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Indiana | $18,550 |
| 41 | Tennessee | $18,550 |
| 42 | South Dakota | $18,450 |
| 43 | Nebraska | $18,050 |
| 44 | North Dakota | $17,750 |
$6,950 ranks a divorce 2nd of 8 in South Dakota, under Criminal Defense, over DUI / DWI. At 91% of Criminal Defense ($7,650).
Across practice areas South Dakota ranges from 40th of 51 for Real Estate Closing to 47th for Criminal Defense — a 7-place spread, with its 46th on divorce inside it.
South Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 17% below its own midpoint while Personal Injury runs 30% below its own midpoint — a 13-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in South Dakota is 4.9x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
All 7 tracked matter types place South Dakota in the lower third of their tables, the divorce figure included.
In percentile terms it sits at the 10th percentile of the 51 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $2,750 | $7,650 | $24,000 | 32 | 47th | −25% | Oklahoma |
| Divorce | $2,400 | $6,950 | $18,450 | 29 | 46th | −19% | Kentucky |
| DUI / DWI | $2,950 | $6,000 | $13,050 | 27 | 43rd | −19% | West Virginia |
| Immigration | $1,450 | $3,950 | $8,100 | 18 | 42nd | −17% | South Carolina |
| Personal Injury | $1,150 | $3,650 | $11,550 | — | — | −30% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,300 | $2,550 | $3,650 | 13 | 44th | −29% | Louisiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $800 | $1,700 | $3,800 | 9 | 40th | −24% | Kansas |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $500 | $1,550 | $4,950 | 7 | 41st | −25% | North Dakota |
Simple tier. $2,400 ÷ $180 = about 13 hours, spread over 1-3 months at roughly $1,200 a month. The $4,550 step to the moderate tier is 16 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $6,950 to $18,450 is a $11,500 step, mostly work: 33 more hours at $240 is $7,920, while moving to $300 across 62 hours adds $3,720. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. North Carolina ($6,900) is $50 light, Kentucky ($7,150) is $200 heavy — but the $8,550 table midpoint is out by $1,600, 8x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $3,850 is 16 hours at $240; $11,600 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 South Dakota's own recorded figures, $18,450 buys 7.7 matters at the $2,400 simple median — or, counted in time, 62 implied hours against 13, a factor of 4.8 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the South 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.