How Long Does It Take to Get a Divorce in Florida? (2026)

How Long Does It Take to Get a Divorce in Florida?

A fully uncontested Florida divorce with no minor children can sometimes be finalized in four to eight weeks after filing, while a contested divorce involving disputes over children, property, or alimony commonly takes six months to well over a year. The single biggest factor is agreement: spouses who agree on every issue move through the court system quickly, while spouses who disagree trigger discovery, hearings, and scheduling delays that stretch the case out. Florida also requires six months of residency before you can file at all, which sets the earliest possible starting line regardless of how cooperative both spouses are.

1. The Two Paths: Uncontested vs. Contested Divorce Timelines

Every Florida dissolution of marriage falls into one of two broad tracks, and the track a case is on matters more to the timeline than almost anything else. An uncontested divorce means both spouses agree on every material issue: division of marital assets and debts, alimony (if any), and, if there are minor children, timesharing and child support. When both spouses sign a marital settlement agreement and there is nothing left for a judge to decide, the case can move to a final hearing as soon as the paperwork is complete and any local scheduling requirements are met.

A contested divorce is the opposite: one or both spouses disagree on at least one issue, and that disagreement has to be resolved through negotiation, mediation, or a trial before a judge under Florida Statutes governing equitable distribution and support. Contested cases require formal financial disclosure from both sides, temporary hearings if one spouse needs support or exclusive use of the home while the case is pending, and often mediation before a final hearing can even be scheduled. It is not unusual for a contested Florida divorce with disputed property or custody issues to take a year or more, particularly in counties with heavier court dockets.

Most cases start out somewhere in between: spouses agree on some issues and disagree on others. The timeline in these hybrid cases depends heavily on how quickly the disputed issues narrow. A single unresolved issue, like who keeps the marital home or how a retirement account gets divided, can hold up an otherwise-finished case for months while the parties negotiate or wait for a hearing date. For a full breakdown of what pushes a case into contested territory, see florida-contesting-a-divorce.

2. Florida's Residency Requirement Before You Can File

Before any divorce timeline can start, Florida law requires that at least one spouse have been a resident of the state for six months immediately before filing the petition, under Fla. Stat. § 61.021. This is a jurisdictional requirement, not a formality: a petition filed before the residency period is met can be dismissed, forcing the filer to start over once the six months have actually passed. Residency is typically established through a driver's license, voter registration, or a sworn statement from a corroborating witness who can confirm the spouse has lived in Florida for the required period.

The residency clock runs separately from anything else in the case. A couple can be married for decades and separated for years elsewhere, but if neither spouse has lived in Florida for six months, the case cannot proceed in a Florida circuit court. This requirement catches military families, recent movers, and snowbirds more often than people expect, so confirming residency status is one of the first things to verify before estimating how long a case will take. Details on what else must be true before filing are covered in florida-divorce-filing-requirements.

3. Simplified Dissolution of Marriage: The Fastest Route

Florida offers a streamlined process called simplified dissolution of marriage under Fla. Stat. § 61.19, and it is genuinely the fastest way to end a marriage in the state. To qualify, both spouses must agree the marriage is irretrievably broken, have no minor or dependent children together and the wife must not be pregnant, agree on how to divide all property and debts, and neither spouse can be seeking alimony. Both spouses also have to appear together at the clerk's office to file the petition and later appear together at a short final hearing.

Because there is no discovery, no financial disclosure dispute, and no contested hearing, simplified dissolution cases can move from filing to final judgment in a matter of weeks once a hearing date is available on the court's calendar. The tradeoff is that both spouses give up the right to a trial and to appeal the outcome, so this path only works when the parties are genuinely in full agreement and comfortable finalizing quickly. It is not available to couples with minor children or unresolved alimony or property questions, which is where most of the length in a Florida divorce actually comes from.

4. Standard (Non-Simplified) Uncontested Divorce Timeline

Most Florida couples who agree on the terms of their divorce still use the standard dissolution process rather than the simplified one, usually because they have minor children, one spouse wants alimony addressed in writing, or they simply want the option to have a hearing without both parties needing to be present together. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.052, the grounds for dissolution are that the marriage is irretrievably broken or, less commonly, that one spouse has been mentally incapacitated for at least three years.

In a standard uncontested case, the petitioning spouse files, serves the other spouse (who can waive formal service if cooperative), and both sides submit financial affidavits and, in some circuits, a proposed marital settlement agreement and parenting plan. Once the paperwork is complete and any required parenting course is finished, the case is typically set for a short, uncontested final hearing. Depending on the county's docket and how quickly both spouses complete their required filings, this process commonly takes six to twelve weeks from filing to final judgment, though busier circuits can push that closer to three or four months even when nobody disagrees on anything. Cases where one spouse does not respond at all follow a related but distinct track, discussed in florida-default-divorce-guide.

5. What Slows Down a Contested Divorce

When spouses cannot agree, the timeline extends because the court process itself has more steps built in. Mandatory financial disclosure requires both spouses to exchange detailed records of income, assets, and debts, and disputes over what counts as marital versus non-marital property under the equitable distribution framework in Fla. Stat. § 61.075 often require additional documentation, appraisals, or even forensic accounting for business interests or complex investment accounts.

Most Florida circuits also require mediation before a contested family law case can go to trial. Mediation itself can resolve a case in a single session, but scheduling a mediator that both attorneys and both spouses can attend often adds weeks to the calendar, and if mediation fails, the case proceeds toward a trial date that is set according to the court's own docket, not the parties' preference. Temporary relief hearings, requests for continuances, and discovery disputes, such as one spouse being slow to produce financial records, are the most common sources of delay in contested cases, and each can add weeks or months depending on how aggressively the issue is pursued.

Alimony disputes in particular can extend a case significantly. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.08, a court weighs factors including the length of the marriage, each spouse's earning capacity, and the standard of living established during the marriage, and disagreements over these factors often require testimony and financial expert input rather than a quick paper resolution.

6. Children in the Picture: Parenting Course, Timesharing, and Support

Any Florida divorce involving minor children adds a mandatory step that childless cases skip entirely: both parents generally must complete a state-approved parenting course before the court will finalize the divorce. This course is typically a few hours long and can usually be completed online, but scheduling it, receiving the certificate, and filing proof of completion with the court adds time that has to be built into the overall timeline.

Beyond the parenting course, any disagreement over parental responsibility or timesharing under Fla. Stat. § 61.13 can meaningfully lengthen a case. Florida law starts from a preference for shared parental responsibility, but when parents disagree about a timesharing schedule, decision-making authority, or a proposed relocation under Fla. Stat. § 61.13001, the court may order a social investigation, appoint a guardian ad litem, or set the issue for an evidentiary hearing. Any of these steps can add months to a case that would otherwise be straightforward.

Child support is calculated using the statutory guidelines in Fla. Stat. § 61.30, which weigh both parents' incomes, the timesharing schedule, and costs like health insurance and childcare. When parents agree on the inputs, the calculation itself is fast, but disputes over imputed income or work-related childcare costs can turn a routine support determination into another contested issue. More detail on how these calculations work is available at florida-child-support-guidelines, and general custody and timesharing rules are covered in florida-child-custody-laws.

7. Property Division and Alimony Disputes That Add Months

Equitable distribution disputes are one of the most common reasons a Florida divorce timeline stretches well past a year. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.075, courts start from a presumption of equal division of marital assets and liabilities but can deviate based on factors like each spouse's contribution to the marriage, the economic circumstances of each party, and any intentional dissipation of assets. When spouses disagree about what a business, a retirement account, or real property is actually worth, the case often requires independent appraisals or expert valuations before either side can negotiate meaningfully.

Retirement accounts add their own layer of delay because dividing a pension or 401(k) typically requires a separate qualified domestic relations order, which has to be drafted, approved by both attorneys, and often reviewed by the plan administrator after the divorce itself is finalized. Real estate held jointly presents a similar issue: if neither spouse can afford to buy out the other or the property needs to be listed and sold, the marital home can remain an open issue on the case long after everything else is resolved. These asset-specific complications are a major reason overall divorce costs and timelines vary so widely, which is covered in more depth at florida-divorce-cost.

8. When a Spouse Can't Be Located: Service by Publication

A Florida divorce cannot proceed until the other spouse has been properly notified of the case, and when a spouse cannot be located after a diligent search, Florida law allows notice by publication in a newspaper under the procedures in Chapter 49, Florida Statutes. This route requires the filing spouse to document a genuine, good-faith effort to find the other spouse, including checking last known addresses, employers, and other reasonably available sources, before a court will authorize publication.

Service by publication adds a mandatory waiting period built around the publication schedule itself, since the notice typically must run for a period of consecutive weeks before the court will treat service as complete. Because this route also limits what relief a court can grant, particularly around property division, alimony, and support obligations, when the missing spouse never appears, it changes both the timeline and the scope of what the final judgment can address. A closer look at this process is available at florida-divorce-by-publication.

9. Court Backlogs and County-by-County Variation

Even two nearly identical uncontested cases can finalize on very different schedules depending on which Florida circuit is handling them. Larger urban circuits often have heavier caseloads and longer waits for hearing dates, while smaller or less congested circuits may be able to schedule a final hearing within a few weeks of a case becoming ready. Some circuits also use different local procedures for approving uncontested final judgments, with certain judges willing to enter judgment on the paperwork alone and others requiring both spouses to appear regardless of agreement.

Court backlogs are not something either spouse's attorney can control directly, but they are worth accounting for when setting expectations. A case that is fully agreed and ready for final judgment in month two may still not receive a hearing date until month three or four simply because of docket volume. Filing complete, accurate paperwork the first time avoids the most common self-inflicted delay: having a hearing continued or a judgment rejected because a required form was missing or incorrectly completed.

10. Steps to Keep Your Divorce Timeline as Short as Possible

While some delays are outside either spouse's control, several practical steps consistently shorten a Florida divorce timeline. Confirming residency eligibility under Fla. Stat. § 61.021 before filing avoids a dismissal that would otherwise force a restart. Completing financial disclosure promptly and accurately, rather than waiting to be pushed, removes one of the most common sources of delay in contested cases.

A few additional steps matter as well:

• Reaching agreement on as many issues as possible before filing, even if full agreement isn't realistic, narrows what mediation or trial actually needs to resolve.
• Completing the mandatory parenting course early when minor children are involved, so it is not the last outstanding item holding up final judgment.
• Responding quickly to discovery requests and document requests from the other side to avoid motions to compel and the delays they cause.
• Gathering valuations for any business interests, retirement accounts, or real property early, since these often become bottlenecks late in the case.

Working with counsel who understands local circuit practices and scheduling patterns can also make a meaningful difference, since procedural missteps are one of the most common and avoidable causes of delay. Anyone unsure which track their situation falls into can get a sense of where they stand through /qualifier or review general /pricing and /services information before deciding how to proceed.

Bottom line

The honest answer to how long a Florida divorce takes is that it depends almost entirely on agreement: a genuinely uncontested case with no minor children can finish in a matter of weeks under the simplified dissolution process in Fla. Stat. § 61.19, a standard uncontested case with children typically takes a couple of months, and a contested case involving disputed property, alimony, or timesharing often takes six months to a year or more. Residency requirements, mandatory parenting courses, financial disclosure, and local court scheduling all factor into the actual calendar, and the fastest path through any of it is complete, accurate paperwork and as much early agreement as the situation allows.

Attorney Advertising Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Florida divorce law as of 2026 and is not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship with Louis Law Group. Every case involves different facts, and outcomes and timelines vary based on individual circumstances; past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Consult a licensed Florida attorney regarding your specific situation.