Divorce Cost Calculator

Complexity drives several cost lines at once, not just attorney hours — court filing fees step up for contested and high-conflict cases, and the child custody evaluation cost only applies once a case with children reaches the contested threshold. A jump from moderate to contested complexity compounds the attorney hour increase with these additional triggered costs, which is why total cost estimates can rise faster than the hours figure alone implies.

No — each of these cost components is calculated independently based on its own toggle, so turning mediation on or off only changes the mediation cost line and has zero effect on whatever property appraisal or business valuation costs your case already has. This reflects that mediation is a dispute-resolution process layered on top of a case's substantive issues, not a substitute for the professional appraisals those issues might still require.

Generally yes, and often substantially so — mediation typically resolves disputes in a fraction of the attorney hours a fully litigated contested case requires, which is why couples who can cooperate enough to mediate effectively tend to spend far less overall even after paying for a mediator's time. The savings shrink the more contentious the underlying issues are, since deeply disputed cases sometimes need to go through litigation regardless of an initial mediation attempt.

A custody evaluation, where a neutral professional assesses the family situation to recommend a custody arrangement, is typically only necessary when parents genuinely disagree and a case has moved into contested or high-conflict territory — an uncontested or moderately cooperative divorce with children usually resolves custody through direct negotiation or basic mediation without needing that formal evaluation step. This calculator reflects that by only adding the evaluation cost once both children are involved and the case complexity reaches that contested threshold.