Maine one of the best states in America to get divorced, cost analysis finds

There’s been a surprising number of studies finding that Maine, to varying degrees, is a place where marriages don’t last.

Slate reported that Maine has the highest percentage of people on their second or third (or more) marriage of any state in the Northeast, while the Washington Post went through U.S. Census Bureau data to determine that Maine has a greater percentage of divorced residents than all but one other state — Nevada, which is home to the shotgun wedding capital of America.

(As we’ve pointed out before, Maine is also the oldest state in the country, with a median age of about 44 years, so some of these high numbers can be attributed to the fact that Mainers have statistically just had more time to have loved and lost and loved again.)

In any event, the latest study along these lines brings good news. Kind of.

The personal finance site GOBankingRates.com found that Maine is the fourth best place in America to get a divorce, at least from a financial perspective. So as long as you’re splitting up, this is a pretty inexpensive place to do it.

The website reports that Maine’s $120 divorce filing fee is the eighth cheapest in the country, while the average hourly attorney fee of $207 is the fifth lowest among all states. The site also considers the state’s 60-day turnaround time for processing divorce paperwork pretty quick, relatively speaking.

The courts in California, Florida and Minnesota all charge more than $400 each to file divorce paperwork, in comparison.

“Because the requirements and costs of a divorce are so different from state to state, if you’re considering a split you should know where your state stands,” said Elyssa Kirkham, the GOBankingRates finance writer on the study, in a statement. “If divorces tend to be more expensive in your state, you’ll want to be more mindful of costs and look for strategies to minimize divorce expenses.”

Featured main page photo by Cordell and Cordell, used under Creative Commons license.