How to File for Divorce in New York: Steps, Fees, and Judgment

To file for divorce in New York, you or your spouse must meet a residency requirement, have legal grounds, and submit a summons and supporting forms to the Supreme Court in your county along with a $210 index number fee. An uncontested case runs at least $335 in court fees before copies, service, and notarization. The steps below walk through what to file, how to serve your spouse, and what has to be decided before a judge signs the final judgment.

Residency and Grounds

Before anything else, confirm you qualify to file in New York. One of three residency situations must be true:

Either spouse has lived in New York continuously for at least one year, and you married in New York, lived together as a married couple in New York, or the reason for the divorce arose in New York.
Either spouse has lived in New York continuously for at least two years.
Both spouses are New York residents on the day of filing and the reason for the divorce happened in New York.

The word that trips people up is “continuously.” A gap in residency can restart the clock even if your total time in the state adds up.¹

You also need legal grounds. Most New York divorces use the no-fault ground: the marriage has been irretrievably broken for at least six months. You don’t have to prove wrongdoing, but a no-fault case cannot be finalized until custody, support, and property issues are resolved or submitted to the court.¹

Fault grounds are still available and still occasionally used: cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment for a year or more, imprisonment for three or more consecutive years, and adultery. A divorce can also be granted after at least one year of living apart under a written separation agreement or a court-ordered judgment of separation.² Fault means you carry the burden of proof, which adds time, cost, and conflict. Most people file no-fault.

What You File and Where

A New York divorce begins at the County Clerk’s office in the county where you’re bringing the case. You have two main options: a Summons with Notice, which briefly describes the relief you’re seeking, or a Summons paired with a Verified Complaint, which sets out the facts and grounds in more detail.³

You’ll purchase an index number, which is your case number and must appear on every document you file. Along with the summons, you must file a Notice of Automatic Orders. These orders take effect immediately and restrict both spouses from transferring or hiding assets, changing insurance beneficiaries, taking on unusual debts, or removing children from the state without consent or a court order. Violating them can bring sanctions and cost you credibility with the judge.³

Financial disclosure comes next. The UCS-111 Net Worth Statement details your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Courts treat it as a sworn statement, and the penalties for misrepresentation are severe. Download the current forms from the New York State Unified Court System website rather than relying on older copies.⁴

Filing Fees

The index number costs $210. An uncontested divorce runs at least $335 total in court filing fees. Filing a written separation agreement adds another $35.⁴

These figures don’t include photocopies, notarization, mailing, or a process server. If you can’t afford the fees, file a “poor person’s” application showing financial hardship to ask the court for a waiver.

Serving Your Spouse

Once you’ve filed, your spouse must be personally served. Personal service means someone other than you physically hands the documents to your spouse. That can be a professional process server, a friend over 18, or anyone else who isn’t a party to the case. You then file proof of service with the court.⁴

Your spouse has 20 days to respond if served inside New York, or 30 days if served outside the state. No response within that window opens the door to a default judgment. If your spouse responds and contests any issue, the case moves from the uncontested track to the contested track, which takes considerably longer.⁵

Issues Your Divorce Has to Resolve

Whether you settle with your spouse or let a judge decide, several matters must be addressed before the case can close.

Property Division

New York is an equitable distribution state. Marital property is divided fairly based on the circumstances, not automatically 50/50. Marital property includes most assets and debts acquired during the marriage, regardless of whose name is on the account or title. Property owned before the marriage, received as a gift, or inherited generally stays separate, though it can lose that status if mixed with marital funds.

Judges weigh the length of the marriage, each spouse’s income and earning capacity, contributions to the other spouse’s career or education, and the need to preserve a home for children.

Custody and Parenting Time

If you have children under 18, New York separates custody into two types. Legal custody covers major decisions like medical care, education, and religious upbringing. Physical custody determines where the child lives day to day. Either can be granted jointly or solely to one parent.⁶

The standard is the best interests of the child. Courts look at each parent’s living situation, the child’s routine, each parent’s ability to cooperate, and any history of domestic violence. A parenting plan the parents agree on will generally be approved. If they can’t agree, a judge decides after hearing evidence, and that outcome is far less predictable than one the parents craft themselves.

Child Support

New York calculates child support from combined parental income after taxes and certain deductions, multiplied by a set percentage:

One child: 17%
Two children: 25%
Three children: 29%
Four children: 31%
Five or more children: at least 35%

Each parent’s share of the total is proportional to their income. For 2026, the formula applies automatically to combined parental income up to $193,000; above that, the court has discretion to apply the same percentages or weigh other factors.⁷

Child support in New York continues until the child turns 21, older than in most states. Health insurance, childcare, and educational costs may be added on top of the basic amount.

Spousal Maintenance

Maintenance, sometimes called alimony, may be awarded to the lower-earning spouse during or after the divorce. New York uses statutory formulas for both temporary maintenance while the case is pending and post-divorce maintenance. The formulas consider each spouse’s income, and courts also weigh the length of the marriage, each spouse’s age and health, and contributions as a homemaker. Worksheets on the New York Courts website help estimate the numbers.⁸

One tax point matters here. For any divorce finalized after 2018, maintenance is not tax-deductible for the payer and not taxable income for the recipient. The paying spouse carries the full tax cost, and that should factor into any number you agree to.⁹

Marital Debt

Debt gets divided along with assets, and this is where people make costly assumptions. A divorce judgment can assign a joint credit card or loan to one spouse, but that assignment does not bind the creditor. If your name is on the account and your ex-spouse stops paying, the creditor can still come after you and your credit takes the hit. The reliable protection is to pay off joint debts before the divorce is final or refinance them into one spouse’s name.

Contested Cases: Discovery, Negotiation, Trial

When issues are contested, both sides exchange financial records through discovery: tax returns, bank and investment statements, pay stubs, and business records. Either side can send written questions the other must answer under oath, or schedule depositions where a spouse or witness answers in person before a court reporter.

Full disclosure is not optional. Courts can respond to hidden assets or false disclosures by awarding the concealed asset entirely to the other spouse, ordering the dishonest party to pay attorney fees, holding the person in contempt, or in extreme cases referring the matter for criminal prosecution. Hidden assets discovered after the divorce is final can, in some cases, reopen the case.

Most contested divorces settle before trial through attorney negotiation or mediation, in which a neutral third party helps both sides reach agreement. Mediation is usually faster and less expensive than a trial. If negotiation fails, a Supreme Court judge decides the remaining issues after hearing evidence.

Finalizing the Judgment

The divorce becomes official when a Supreme Court judge signs the Judgment of Divorce. The judgment ends the marriage and incorporates whatever the parties agreed to or the court ordered on property, custody, support, and maintenance. After the judge signs, the judgment has to be filed with the County Clerk’s office and your spouse must be served a copy along with a Notice of Entry.¹⁰

Some counties handle the filing for you; in others you have to file it yourself. Either way, filing with the County Clerk is what makes the terms enforceable. Until then, the divorce isn’t final.

What to Handle Right After the Judgment

A few loose ends have real consequences if you leave them, and knowing about them at filing time helps you plan.

If you want to restore a pre-marriage surname, ask for it in the divorce judgment. The judge can order the restoration as part of the decree, and that decree is the document you’ll use to update your Social Security card, driver’s license, passport, and bank accounts. Skipping the request means filing a separate name-change petition later.

If you were covered under your spouse’s employer health plan, that coverage typically ends when the divorce is finalized. Divorce is a COBRA qualifying event that entitles the former spouse to continue coverage for up to 36 months, but you pay the full premium plus a small administrative fee, so marketplace or employer alternatives are worth pricing early.¹¹

Splitting an employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k) or pension requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO. Without one, the plan administrator won’t release funds to the non-employee spouse, and an early withdrawal triggers taxes and penalties. The QDRO must identify both spouses, specify the dollar amount or percentage, name each plan, and state the time period or number of payments.¹² The plan administrator must approve the order before any money moves. The divorce judgment alone doesn’t transfer retirement funds.

Update beneficiary designations on every account as soon as the judgment is filed. New York has a statute that automatically revokes an ex-spouse as beneficiary on certain accounts after divorce, but that law does not override federal ERISA plans. A 401(k), pension, or federal life insurance policy pays out to whoever is on the plan’s beneficiary form, regardless of what your divorce judgment says.

Property transfers between spouses as part of the divorce are generally tax-free under federal law when the transfer happens within one year of the divorce or is related to it. The receiving spouse takes over the original owner’s tax basis, so the tax is deferred, not eliminated: when you eventually sell, you’ll owe tax based on the original cost, not the value at transfer.¹³

Finally, timing affects your tax return. Your filing status for the whole year is set by your marital status on December 31. If the judgment is signed by year-end, you file as single or, if you qualify, head of household. If you’re still legally married on December 31, you file married jointly or married separately, even if you’ve been separated for months.¹⁴ Near year-end, that timing is worth a conversation with a tax professional.

1
NY CourtHelp. Residency and Grounds for a Divorce
2
New York Courts. How to Divorce in New York
3
NYCOURTS.GOV. Uncontested Divorce Forms
4
NY Courts. Filing for an Uncontested Divorce
5
NYCourts.gov. Defendant’s Response in an Uncontested Divorce
6
New York State Unified Court System. About Custody
7
New York State Office of Child Support Services. Child Support Standards Chart
8
NYCOURTS.GOV. Maintenance and Child Support Tools
9
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance
10
New York State Unified Court System. Judgment in an Uncontested Divorce
11
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). COBRA Continuation Coverage Questions and Answers
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Qualified Domestic Relations Orders Under ERISA – A Practical Guide to Dividing Retirement Benefits
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1041 – Transfers of Property Between Spouses or Incident to Divorce
14
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Taxes After Divorce or Separation