Ultimate Guide to Getting a Divorce in Mississippi

Ending a marriage is one of life’s most stressful experiences, in part because of the uncertainty you might have about the divorce process and what your life might be like once it is over. U.S. Census statistics show that Mississippi’s divorce rate is 8.7 new divorces per 1,000 women — not much higher than the divorce rate nationwide. But the laws regarding divorce in Mississippi have certain requirements that you might not realize.

If you’re a Mississippi resident who has received divorce papers, or if you’re considering filing for divorce, it’s important to educate yourself about how to get a divorce in Mississippi so that you can navigate any decisions about property division and other challenges with confidence. 

Although your circumstances might require hiring collaborative law attorneys, family law attorneys, or other legal or financial advisors, we’ve gathered some key information as a first step to help you learn about filing for divorce in Mississippi. This includes residency requirements, where to file your divorce forms, and more.

How to File for Divorce in Mississippi

In Mississippi, the chancery court in each county has jurisdiction to handle divorce cases. (“Chancery court” is a term carried over from the English judicial system. Instead of a judge, these courts use a chancellor.) The courts do not publish Mississippi divorce forms to download online, so you’ll need to obtain a “Complaint for Divorce” from your local county’s court clerk. 

To file for divorce, at least one party must be a resident of the state. Either the plaintiff (also known as the complainant) or the respondent (the complainant’s estranged spouse) must have lived in the state for at least six months. The residency requirements say that either party can file the divorce complaint in the Mississippi county where you live — or where at least one of you lives, if your estranged spouse has moved out of state or is serving in the military.

If you are pregnant, the court will usually postpone the case until after the baby’s birth to address child support issues.

Types of Divorce in Mississippi

Mississippi divorce laws are quite detailed regarding the grounds for divorce. Some terms that you might use casually, such as “no-fault divorce,” actually don’t exist in Mississippi. That doesn’t mean that the parties have to point fingers at each other, though. 

Mississippi divorce law essentially has two types of divorce grounds: an uncontested divorce and divorce with cause. Many people colloquially refer to the former as a no-fault divorce, even though the law does not. However, as the Mississippi Bar notes, no-fault divorce in Mississippi would be the same as citing irreconcilable differences as grounds for divorce.

Filing for Divorce and Citing Irreconcilable Differences

To file for divorce under this option, both parties agree that the marriage is over, even if they don’t agree on every issue such as child custody, spousal support, or property rights. As for filing for divorce:

• You and your spouse together can file a joint petition for divorce citing irreconcilable differences, or
• The party complaining can file for divorce citing irreconcilable differences if the other doesn’t object.

Many couples who choose to take a more amicable approach to divorce may decide to seek a collaborative divorce attorney’s services, which is a much less expensive and less contentious approach to dissolving a marriage than the stereotypical legal battles that we often see in movies and television.

However, if one party contests or denies the divorce, you cannot cite irreconcilable differences as your cause for divorce unless the other party withdraws their denial or objection. (Again, this is why a resident in another state would consider this a no-fault divorce.) 

A divorce citing irreconcilable differences requires a 60-day waiting period. According to the Mississippi Bar, this gives the spouses ample time to resolve various issues and the chancellor time to approve a property settlement agreement.

Filing for a Fault-Based Divorce: Determining the Fault Ground

Mississippi has 12 causes for a fault-based divorce. People filing for divorce under fault-based grounds can choose any one or more of the following reasons:

• Natural impotence
• Adultery (unless one party committed adultery for the purpose of obtaining a divorce)
• Sentence to a state penitentiary of one spouse
• One spouse’s desertion of the other for a year
• Habitual drunkenness
• Habitual drug use
• Habitual “cruel and inhuman treatment,” including physical or emotional domestic abuse
• Mental illness or intellectual disability of one spouse that the other spouse did not know about at the time of marriage
• Bigamy on either spouse’s behalf
• A pregnancy of the wife by another person at the time of the marriage when the husband was unaware of the pregnancy
• Discovery that the parties are genetically related within degrees that the law prohibits
• One spouse’s incurable mental illness after having undergone treatment for at least three years

For the chancellor to grant a fault-based divorce, the plaintiff must prove at least one of these fault grounds through evidence or witness testimony. If you’re unsure which fault-based grounds apply to your situation, please consult with a divorce attorney to establish an attorney-client relationship.

Serving Divorce Papers in Mississippi

When you file for divorce, you’ll give a copy of your signed Complaint for Divorce to the Clerk of the Chancery Court in your county. The clerk will then give you a copy stamped with the date, noting that it’s been filed. Be sure to obtain an extra stamped copy for your spouse and an acknowledgement form of receipt if necessary. 

The next step is to serve your spouse with divorce papers in one of several ways:

• mailing them a stamped copy with an acknowledgement form that they are to return to you to file with the court
• asking the sheriff’s office in your county to deliver the documents
• hiring a process server in your county to deliver the documents for a fee
• asking an individual over age 18 who is not a party to your divorce to deliver the complaint

If your spouse tries to avoid being served, you can ask for the court’s permission to serve them via an alternative means, such as publishing a notice in the newspaper. For military divorces, please consult with your spouse’s branch of the military about serving divorce papers if your spouse is deployed.

Property Division and Divorce in Mississippi

Divorce in Mississippi involves dividing property based on “equitable distribution,” meaning that the court divides the marital assets and property. The chancellor doesn’t split everything down the middle but considers different factors in the case, such as:

• each spouse’s contributions to accumulating property
• the market value of the assets
• each spouse’s indirect economic contributions
• spousal use of assets
• contributions made to a wage-earning spouse’s training and education
• the needs of each spouse (including spousal support or alimony)

Child Custody and Divorce in Mississippi

If you have children and cannot agree on a custody arrangement, one step in your divorce case will involve the court’s deciding child custody and any child support. Barring any serious issues, the court often awards joint legal custody to divorcing parents, meaning that both can make decisions concerning the child. However, much like in other states, the court designates one parent the custodial parent and issues a visitation schedule for the other. 

In deciding child custody, the court also considers a number of factors in the case related to the child’s best interest, such as:

• the child’s age, gender, and health
• the parenting skills, willingness, and capacity to provide primary child care 
• the employment and responsibilities of each spouse
• the age, moral fitness, and physical and mental health of each spouse
• the child’s record at school and in the community
• the child’s preference
• the stability of the home environment and financial situation of each spouse
• any differences in religion, personal values, or lifestyle

How Much Does It Cost to Get Divorced in Mississippi?

The cost of filing the divorce complaint and serving your spouse runs about $75, resources say, but that’s not the full financial cost of a Mississippi divorce. Even an uncontested divorce involves court costs and fees. 

Adding the expenses of divorce attorneys will naturally add substantially to the total, with collaborative attorneys who can resolve your issues over a table much less expensive than those cases involving competing divorce attorneys taking your case to court. You should also factor in fees such as deposition fees. 

The cost of ending a marriage all depends on how many issues the parties can’t agree upon, the schedule of court dates, the county and state in which you live, and the period of time the case takes to wind through the legal system. 

Protect Your Financial Assets After a Divorce

Simplify My Divorce is not a lawyer referral service or a law firm, and none of the information on this website is meant as legal advice. Rather, we’re financial professionals who understand how difficult and confusing the divorce process can be. We believe that financial guidance shouldn’t be available solely by paying a high-priced financial professional or lawyer. We provide financial guides, free workshops, and other resources on our website.

If you’d like to find out more about how to navigate your divorce with financial confidence, please visit our website and click on more information about our Divorce Preparation Bootcamp.