Every published court, service and mediation fee, with the statute or schedule behind it. Send a confidential message — we'll reply by email or phone.
Filing a divorce in South Carolina costs $150 at the clerk of court. What comes after that — service, motions, mediation, a guardian ad litem, attorney time — depends entirely on your case. Here is every published cost, with the court or statute it comes from.
Filing a divorce in South Carolina costs $150 at the clerk of court — $100 under S.C. Code § 8-21-310(C)(1) plus a $50 add-on under § 14-1-204(B)(1), as of August 25, 2026. Costs above that, including service, motions, mediation and attorney time, depend on your case. Hall & Means explains each of them for clients across Charleston, SC.
The $150 filing fee is identical in every South Carolina county. The Judicial Department’s fee schedule lists it for “Divorce, Annulment, and Separate Support and Maintenances Actions,” and it is a two-statute stack: § 8-21-310(C)(1) has clerks collect one hundred dollars for a first complaint or petition, and § 14-1-204(B)(1) adds a further fee equal to fifty dollars. The spouse who files pays it unless a waiver applies; under § 8-21-310(D) no fee may be charged to a defendant or respondent for filing an answer, return, or other papers.
| Court cost | Amount | Rule or statute |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce, annulment, or separate support and maintenance filing fee | $150 | §§ 8-21-310(C)(1), 14-1-204(B)(1) |
| Answer or return by the responding spouse | No fee | § 8-21-310(D) |
| Motion fee, family court | $25 | § 8-21-320 |
| Motion for temporary relief, Rule 21, SCRFC — one fee however much relief it requests | $25 | Motion Fee List B.15 |
| Rule to show cause — child support, and spousal support | No fee, and no later motion fees | Motion Fee List C.5, C.6 |
| Rule to show cause — court-ordered custody or visitation | $25 | Motion Fee List B.16 |
| Motion to appoint a guardian ad litem (no fee on the court’s own motion) | $25 | Motion Fee List B.17 |
| Clerk’s official certificate under the seal of the court | $10 | § 8-21-310(C)(8) |
| Sheriff — initial service of a summons and complaint | $15 | § 23-19-10(d) |
| Sheriff — each attempted service after the first, no more than two | $5 | § 23-19-10(d) |
| Sheriff — statutory maximum total, summons and complaint | $25 | § 23-19-10(d) |
| Sheriff — subpoena, initial service and maximum total | $10 / $20 | § 23-19-10(d) |
| Charleston County Sheriff, posted — summons and complaint / subpoena / writs | $15 / $10 / $25 | Charleston County |
All figures read August 25, 2026 on the SC Judicial Department fee schedule, the Motion Fee List, S.C. Code Title 8, Chapter 21, § 14-1-204, § 23-19-10 and the Charleston County Sheriff’s civil-process page. Berkeley publishes no sheriff’s fee table and Dorchester’s page was unreachable to us, so the statewide statute governs there and we state no county amount. Private process servers publish no schedule. The state’s self-represented packet tells filers to bring only cash, a cashier’s check or a money order for the $150 — never a personal check.
Service does not have to go through a sheriff. Rule 4, SCRCP also allows an adult aged 18 or older who is neither a party nor an attorney in the action, certified mail with the return receipt requested and delivery restricted to the addressee, commercial delivery, or an acceptance of service your spouse signs, which can remove the service charge altogether.
The county changes the courthouse, not the statute. South Carolina runs one statewide Family Court, so the $150 filing fee, the $25 motion fee and the sheriff’s fees are set by the same statewide schedule and statutes in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. No primary source publishes a county surcharge for any of the three, and none publishes that there is not one, so we state neither. There is also no family-court e-filing anywhere in the state, so every divorce is filed on paper in all three.
| Charleston County | Berkeley County | Dorchester County | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Judicial circuit | 9th | 9th | 1st |
| Family Court | 100 Broad St, Suite 143, Charleston, SC 29401-2265 | Berkeley County Courthouse, 300-B California Ave, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 | Troy Knight Judicial Complex, 212 Deming Way, Summerville, SC 29483 |
| Phone | (843) 958-4400 | (843) 719-4500 | (843) 832-0360 |
| Office hours | 8:30–5, Mon–Fri | 9:00–5, Mon–Fri | 8:30–5, Mon–Fri |
Read on each county’s own website August 25, 2026. Berkeley opens half an hour later than the other two. Dorchester’s Family Court sits in Summerville, not the county seat — St. George holds circuit court about twenty-five miles away. Berkeley’s courthouse is 300-B California Avenue; plain 300 is the detention center. In Charleston, Suite 143 is Family Court and Suite 106 is common pleas.
Which county hears the case is decided by § 20-3-60, not by where your attorney’s office sits. The action must be tried in the county where the defendant resides when it begins; where the plaintiff resides if the defendant is a nonresident or cannot be found after due diligence; or where the parties last resided together as husband and wife, unless the plaintiff is a nonresident, in which case it must be brought where the defendant resides. Because the three counties adjoin, those prongs routinely point at different counties once a couple separates. It depends on where you and your spouse live, and we confirm it before filing.
Your mailing address does not settle it. North Charleston spans Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley counties, and Summerville spans Dorchester, Berkeley and Charleston. Ladson sits in Berkeley and Charleston counties only, despite a postal area suggesting otherwise — a ZIP code is never a venue fact. Daniel Island is part of the City of Charleston but lies in Berkeley County — so where § 20-3-60 points to Berkeley, that case is heard in Moncks Corner. If your address sits near a county line, your county’s parcel or GIS lookup settles which county it is in before anything is filed. Our county guides cover the local filing mechanics for the Charleston County filing guide, Berkeley County, and Dorchester County.
Mediation is required for contested issues, and a court-appointed mediator charges $200 an hour. ADR Rule 3(a) subjects all contested issues in domestic relations actions filed in family court to court-ordered mediation, with nine listed exceptions. Rule 9(b) sets the appointed rate at $200 per hour, allows no more than one hour of billed preparation for the initial conference, and does not compensate travel time. Costs the mediator advances are reimbursable only up to $150, and a cancellation charge may not exceed $200. Rule 9 was last amended by order dated April 29, 2021.
Two mechanics decide what that means for your budget. Rule 9(c) has the fees and expenses paid in equal shares per party unless you agree or the court orders otherwise, so the rate is split. Rule 9(a) is the exception: if you and your spouse stipulate your own mediator rather than take an appointment, you and the neutral agree on compensation and the $200 cap does not apply.
Mediation figures read August 25, 2026 on SC ADR Rule 9 and Rule 3.
Hourly billing against a retainer is the usual arrangement, and Rule 1.5 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, read August 25, 2026, governs how any fee is set. What a retainer is, and how it is drawn down, depends on the written fee agreement. Rule 1.5(a) requires every fee to be reasonable, and Rule 1.5(f) lets a lawyer treat an advance fee as immediately earned only under a written agreement covering the scope, the total fee, the fact that the money will not sit in trust until earned, your right to end the representation and your possible right to a refund.
Contingency fees are barred here. Rule 1.5(d)(1) prohibits any fee in a domestic relations matter whose payment or amount turns on securing a divorce, or on the amount of alimony, support, or property settlement in lieu of it. The same subsection carves out one exception: a contingency fee for collecting past-due alimony or child support.
At Hall & Means, we schedule a two-hour consultation, and an initial retainer is quoted at that consultation, based on the facts of your case — initial because the final cost depends on how the case unfolds. We publish no number here, because a number set before your facts would not be true for your case. No court, statute or state agency publishes a South Carolina flat fee or typical retainer either.
It can, but the award is discretionary and factor-driven — never automatic. S.C. Code § 20-3-130(H) lets the court, after weighing the financial resources and marital fault of both parties, order one party to pay the other a reasonable amount for attorney’s fees and case costs, including sums incurred before the action began and after judgment. It reaches investigation fees, costs and suit money too, and § 20-3-145 makes a divorce fee award a lien on property owned by the person ordered to pay.
Two South Carolina cases supply the test. Whether to award anything comes from E.D.M. v. T.A.M., 307 S.C. 471, 415 S.E.2d 812 (1992) — each party’s ability to pay their own fees, the beneficial results obtained, both parties’ financial conditions, and the effect on each party’s standard of living. How much comes from Glasscock v. Glasscock, 304 S.C. 158, 403 S.E.2d 313 (1991) — six factors including the difficulty of the case, time devoted, results obtained and customary fees. Plan on paying your own fees and treat an award as a possibility, not a plan.
There is no South Carolina total-cost survey. No court, bar association or state agency publishes what a divorce costs here end to end, so a figure quoted as a state average did not come from one. Two national sources are what everyone is actually citing.
| Figure | What it measures | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| $4,100 | Average total cost, uncontested divorce with lawyers | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $10,600 | Average total, disputed at the start but settled without trial | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $20,400 / $23,300 | Average total, trial on at least one contested issue / on two or more | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $11,300 / $7,000 | Average / median attorneys’ fees, full-scope; 42% paid $5,000 or less | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $4,600 / $3,000 | Average / median total fees, consulting or limited-scope representation | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $925 / $300 | Average / median cost with no lawyer at all, excluding mediation | Martindale-Nolo 2019 survey — national, not South Carolina |
| $305 per hour | Average hourly rate, family lawyer in South Carolina | Clio Legal Trends Report data — U.S.-wide, no edition year stated |
| $300 / $349 per hour | Average hourly rate, all South Carolina lawyers / all U.S. lawyers | Clio Legal Trends Report data — U.S.-wide, no edition year stated |
Survey data, not court statistics, read August 25, 2026. The 2019 Martindale-Nolo Research divorce survey describes itself as responses from readers who had recently divorced and voluntarily gave an email while researching hiring a lawyer — a self-selected national sample, now about seven years old, and not South Carolina-specific. Clio describes its rate data as aggregated, anonymized data from tens of thousands of legal professionals across the U.S., updated annually; the page states no edition year.
Cost tracks the number of contested decisions. Each driver below is tied to a mechanism South Carolina publishes.
| Driver | Mechanism | |
|---|---|---|
| Raises | A contested temporary hearing | One $25 motion covers every standard form of relief; the spending is attorney time building the Rule 21 record. |
| Raises | A guardian ad litem | Appointable under § 63-3-810(A) on a court finding or both parties’ consent. The appointment order sets the method and rate of compensation under § 63-3-850(A); no statute caps it. |
| Raises | Mediation that does not settle | $200 an hour split equally if court-appointed; no rate cap if privately stipulated. |
| Raises | Litigation depth | The national survey deltas above are the only sourced quantification that exists. |
| Raises | Professional analysis of a complex estate | Forensic accountants, valuation professionals and custody evaluators set their own terms; no primary source publishes their rates, so we name the category and never a range. |
| Raises | Fee-shifting exposure | § 20-3-130(H) reaches costs and suit money as well as fees; § 20-3-145 makes an award a lien. |
| Lowers | Genuine agreement before filing | The self-represented path is $150 plus service, where the one-year ground and real agreement both exist. |
| Lowers | A fee waiver or legal-aid representation | In forma pauperis under Rule 3(b)(1), SCRCP, or a legal aid, nonprofit or SC Pro Bono Program attorney under Rule 3(b)(2). |
| Lowers | Enforcing support rather than re-litigating it | A rule to show cause for child or spousal support carries no fee and no later motion fees. |
| Lowers | Limited-scope representation | In the 2019 Martindale-Nolo survey, consulting representation averaged $4,600 against $11,300 full-scope. |
| Lowers | Settling at or before mediation | It limits the additional contested attorney time a case would otherwise run up. |
Yes, and disagreement is what disqualifies you from the least expensive path — not children, and not property. The SC Judicial Department publishes a self-represented divorce packet, SCCA 400P SRL-DIV, revised June 2024, with 18 forms, read August 25, 2026. Its eligibility statement covers people who meet all of the following: filing on the ground of one year of continuous separation without cohabitation; having no marital property or debt or having agreed how to divide it; and having no children and expecting none, or having minor children and having agreed on custody, visitation and child support that meets the minimum requirements set by the South Carolina Child Support Guidelines.
That last line corrects the costliest misconception in this subject. Content saying you cannot use the packet if you have children is wrong, and it pushes eligible parents into paying for representation they may not need. The packet’s own disqualifier is different: if you have lived in separate dwellings for less than a year, or you cannot agree on the issues regarding minor children, marital property and marital debt, it tells you to hire an attorney. Fault grounds are out as well — the packet works only on the one-year separation ground, one of the five grounds for divorce in South Carolina.
A contested case follows a longer path. A temporary hearing under SCRFC Rule 21, as amended effective October 1, 2025, is set no sooner than twenty-one and no later than forty-five days after the request is filed, with the motion served twenty days ahead, the return ten days ahead and written evidence five days ahead. Discovery and court-ordered mediation can follow, and a case that does not settle can go on to pretrial proceedings and trial. Separately, § 20-3-80 bars a reference before two months after filing and a decree before three months — but exempts desertion and one-year separation, where the decree may issue once responsive pleadings are filed or default is adjudged.
How long a contested case runs, we cannot tell you: South Carolina publishes no filing-to-decree average. If you are still choosing a path, start with how to file for divorce in Charleston and preparing financially before you file.
Yes, by either of two routes. The first is a motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis under Rule 3(b)(1), SCRCP, filed with the proposed complaint and an affidavit showing inability to pay — form SCCA 405, with the order at SCCA 405.1. A presumption of inability arises where net household income is at or below the federal poverty guidelines. The second needs no judge’s signature: where a party is represented by an attorney working on behalf of a legal aid society, a legal services or other nonprofit organization, or the South Carolina Pro Bono Program, fees are waived on that attorney’s written certification under Rule 3(b)(2), SCRCP, read August 25, 2026.
A granted waiver reaches past the filing fee. Under ADR Rule 9(d) a party proceeding in forma pauperis is exempt from neutral fees and expenses with no separate application, and the Motion Fee List adds that such a party owes no later motion fees. One deadline is worth knowing: an indigency application for mediation must be filed before the ADR conference is scheduled.
South Carolina courts issue no decree of legal separation, so there is no separate status to file for. What a court can enter is an order of separate maintenance and support, an action within the Family Court’s jurisdiction under § 63-3-530(A)(2). Spouses under such an order remain married and cannot remarry, and the relief itself sits among the forms of alimony at § 20-3-130(B)(5). A negotiated separation agreement is a different instrument, covered on our page about separation agreements in Charleston.
It is no filing-fee discount either. The fee schedule prices “Separate Support and Maintenances Actions” at the same $150 as a divorce, and it carries a consequence people do not expect: under § 20-3-130(A) South Carolina’s conditional adultery bar to alimony cuts off at the earliest of a signed written settlement agreement or entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support. One nuance — the Code does use the words “legal separation” as a category of marital litigation in § 63-3-530(A)(2). What does not exist is a separate legal status a court can grant you.
No. Rule 1.5(d)(1) of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct bars any fee in a domestic relations matter that is contingent on securing a divorce, or on the amount of alimony, support, or property settlement in lieu of it. The rule permits one exception: a contingency fee for collecting past-due alimony or child support.
No. S.C. Code § 8-21-310(D) states that no fee may be charged to a defendant or respondent for filing an answer, return, or other papers in a civil action in a court of record. The $150 filing fee falls on the spouse who files first, unless it is waived. Later motions may carry their own fee under § 8-21-320, depending on the relief requested.
No statute sets a rate or a cap. Under S.C. Code § 63-3-850(A) the family court judge must set the method and rate of compensation in the appointment order, including an initial fee authorization based on the facts of the case. Exceeding that figure requires notice and either the judge’s written approval or both parties’ consent.
No statewide requirement is verifiable from any South Carolina statute or family court rule. A judge may order parenting education under the family court’s general powers, and content citing a statewide mandate relies on provisions that do not support one. Whether a course is ordered in your case is local practice — ask a Charleston family-law attorney.
The decree comes from the county clerk of court. SC DPH Vital Records issues a “Report of Divorce,” a different document, with fees read August 25, 2026: a $12 standard or $17 expedited non-refundable search fee includes one certified copy of the report, additional copies are $3 each, and VitalChek adds $12.85. Its coverage runs July 1962 through December 2023.
The court costs on this page are set by statewide statute and rule. What varies is your case — whether custody is contested, whether the marital estate needs valuation, and how many decisions a judge makes instead of the two of you. Hall & Means concentrates in family law and represents clients across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties from our West Ashley office at 1816 Belgrade Avenue, Ste. 101, Charleston, SC 29407, where you work directly with Mary Ann Hall or Jessica Means.
To request a confidential consultation and talk through what your situation is likely to involve, without obligation, call (843) 377-1341 or send a confidential message. Our page on divorce lawyers in Charleston explains how we work a case from the first filing to the final order.
Last reviewed: August 25, 2026.
This page is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. South Carolina law changes and every case turns on its specific facts. Consult a licensed South Carolina family-law attorney about your situation.
Get in touch
Submit the form and we'll reply within one business day — by email or phone, whichever you prefer. Everything you share is protected by attorney-client privilege from the first message.
Phone
Office
1816 Belgrade Avenue, Ste. 101
Charleston, SC 29407
Hours
Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
