Divorce court fees in 2026: £628 to apply, £62 for a consent order, £321 if contested, worked for a client quote

A client asks at the first call: "what will the court charge me?" It sounds like a small question, but the answer goes into your first quote and your client care letter, and the fee list changes. The fees below are the ones on the page I read, and they are easy to put side by side.

What GOV.UK says

The GOV.UK family court fees page (EX50) lists, among many others:

• £628 to file an application for a divorce, nullity or civil partnership dissolution (fees order 1.2).
• £62 for an application by consent for a financial order (fees order 5.1).
• £321 for an application for a financial order that is not by consent (fees order 5.4).

The page showed that it was last updated on 13 July 2026. It does not give a separate date from which those fees apply, so I cannot tell you the day each figure took effect. It also mentions help with fees and refunds and links to separate guidance, which I did not follow up.

The sums

All three numbers are court fees only. They leave out your own charges, any VAT on them, and other disbursements.

The gap between the two financial order fees is £321 - £62 = £259. The contested fee is £321 / £62 = 5.18 times the consent fee, which is a useful thing to tell a client who is deciding whether to keep talking to the other side.

Putting it in the quote

• Show court fees as a separate line. The client can then see what goes to the court and what goes to you. See what a client care letter should cover for a new matter.
• Say which route you have priced. A quote that assumes a consent order should say so, and say what changes if the financial order becomes contested, with the £259 difference shown.
• Publish what the rules require. If you advertise a divorce service, the price information rules apply to the page; see what to publish under the SRA transparency rules.
• Check the date before every quote. The list is revised from time to time, so a figure copied into a template last year may be wrong today. The page I read was updated in July 2026.

Handling the money

Court fees are disbursements, so they normally come in from the client before you pay them out. If the couple are splitting the cost, agree in writing who pays what and when, and say what happens if one of them does not. A split of £345.00 each only holds if both actually pay it. Where the client is paying everything, the figure to put on the account is the full £690 or £949, not half of it. Whichever way it goes, tell the client at the outset that the figure may change if the fee list is revised before you file.

What I did not read

I did not read the fees order itself on legislation.gov.uk, any fee for a conditional or final order beyond the application, the help with fees eligibility rules, or the fees for appeals, enforcement or service steps. I also did not check whether a fee is refundable if the case settles. The figures are the ones on the GOV.UK page on 19 October 2026; look again on the day you quote.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your firm's team and keep a table of the current court fees, put the right ones into each new divorce quote and flag when the GOV.UK page changes, with a solicitor confirming the quote before it goes to the client.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current EX50 fee list and your own regulatory obligations for each matter.