By Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce · Published · Updated
60 days in Arkansas before filing, and 30 days from filing to the final decree with no exceptions. Arkansas does grant legal separation.
Arkansas divorce runs through Circuit Court under rules that lean more toward an even split than many neighboring states — and a handful of Arkansas-specific features, including covenant marriage, can change your timeline entirely.
| Residency requirement | One spouse must have lived in Arkansas for at least 60 days before filing, and Arkansas residence must continue for a full 3 months before the court can enter the final decree (A.C.A. § 9-12-307). |
|---|---|
| Grounds | One no-fault ground — living separate and apart without cohabitation for 18 continuous months — or fault-based grounds such as adultery, cruel and barbarous treatment/general indignities, habitual drunkenness, felony conviction, or impotence (A.C.A. § 9-12-301). Most cases use 'general indignities' to avoid the 18-month wait. |
| Waiting period | At least 30 days from filing to final decree, with no exceptions. (The no-fault ground separately requires 18 months of prior separation before you can even file on that ground.) |
| Legal separation | Arkansas does grant legal separation. It settles the same questions a divorce settles — support, parenting and, depending on the case, property — but leaves the marriage in place, so neither spouse can remarry without a divorce. |
| If you were never married | Arkansas does not create common-law marriage, and living together gives neither partner property or support rights. Claims rest on agreements between you. A common-law marriage validly formed in a state that does create them is generally still recognised. |
| Where you file | The Complaint for Divorce is filed with the Circuit Court Clerk in the county where you or your spouse resides. |
| Filing fee | Confirm current fee with the circuit clerk's office — amounts vary by county and change over time. If you can't afford it, ask about a fee waiver using the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit. Filing fees are set by the court and change without notice: check the current schedule on the court's own website before you file, and ask about a fee waiver if the cost is a barrier. |
| Starting forms | Complaint for Divorce (Arkansas has no standard statewide fillable complaint form — it's drafted by you or an attorney), filed together with the official Domestic Relations Cover Sheet and a Summons. Use the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit if requesting a fee waiver. |
| Simplified option | Arkansas has no separate 'simplified divorce' statute, but if you and your spouse agree on everything, the case proceeds as uncontested and can typically be finalized without a contested hearing, based on your testimony plus a corroborating witness. Note: Arkansas does not recognize common-law marriages formed within the state, and there is a separate 'separate maintenance' action (not a divorce) for legally married couples who want to live apart without ending the marriage. |
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Arkansas is an equitable distribution state, but with a twist worth understanding early: courts generally start from a presumption that marital property should be divided equally, and a judge who wants to divide it unequally is expected to explain why on the record. That's a stronger starting presumption toward a 50/50 split than you'll find in many equitable distribution states, which matters when you're weighing whether an opposing proposal is a genuine compromise or an opening bid. Separate property — generally what either spouse owned before the marriage, or received individually as a gift or inheritance — is typically excluded from division, but only if it stayed identifiably separate; money or assets that got mixed with marital funds can lose that protection.
Divorce cases are filed in Arkansas Circuit Court, which handles domestic relations matters statewide. Arkansas also has a residency requirement before you can file, and separately, once a case is filed it generally cannot be finalized until a minimum waiting period has passed — commonly referred to as the 30-day rule. Confirm the current residency and waiting-period details with a local Arkansas family law attorney or your Circuit Clerk's office, since these procedural rules are the kind that get enforced strictly and are easy to get slightly wrong.
Arkansas recognizes both no-fault and fault-based grounds. The no-fault route generally requires the spouses to have lived separately, without cohabiting, for a continuous period before filing — commonly cited as eighteen months — which is longer than the separation period many other states require. Because of that, a meaningful number of Arkansas divorces are filed on fault grounds instead, which can shorten the path but introduces its own proof requirements. A local attorney can walk through which ground fits your situation.
Separately from grounds, Arkansas imposes a waiting period after filing before a final decree can be entered — generally described as 30 days from filing (longer in some circumstances, such as when minor children are involved). That period exists whether or not both spouses agree on everything, so even an uncontested case has a floor on how quickly it can conclude. Knowing this up front helps set realistic expectations with family, employers, or anyone else pressing for a firm end date.
Arkansas is one of only a few states offering covenant marriage as a legal option at the time couples marry. If you and your spouse chose a covenant marriage, the rules for ending it are meaningfully stricter than a standard Arkansas marriage: covenant marriage generally requires completed premarital counseling to have occurred, and divorce is generally limited to specific fault grounds or a longer period of living separately, rather than the standard no-fault path.
If you're not certain whether your marriage was designated as a covenant marriage, check your original marriage license paperwork or ask your attorney to confirm — it changes which grounds are available to you and can affect timing. This is a genuinely Arkansas-specific wrinkle; don't assume the standard process applies without checking.
Start pulling together what you'll need regardless of which track applies: recent tax returns, pay statements, and statements for every bank, retirement, and investment account; records for real estate, including how and when it was acquired, since that bears directly on the marital-versus-separate property question; vehicle titles and loan balances; and any records tracing property you consider separate — the original purchase, gift, or inheritance documentation, plus a paper trail showing it stayed apart from joint funds.
If your case may proceed on fault grounds or under covenant marriage rules, keep any documentation relevant to those grounds organized separately, since it will matter in a way it wouldn't in a straightforward no-fault filing. And from the moment any letter arrives — from a spouse's attorney, the court, or your own counsel — keep it, dated and intact; Arkansas's grounds and waiting-period rules make timing sensitive in this state in a way it isn't everywhere, so a disorganized letter pile is a real risk here, not just an inconvenience.
Legal separation is available in Arkansas. It is a court proceeding, and in most respects it runs like a divorce: the court can settle support, parenting arrangements and, depending on the case, the division of property, and the resulting order binds both spouses.
What it does not do is end the marriage. People choose it for a range of reasons — health coverage, religious conviction, immigration status, or simply not being ready — and it leaves the door open to reconciling without starting over.
Two consequences follow. Neither spouse can remarry unless they later obtain a divorce, and modifying the order generally takes the court's approval rather than a private agreement between you. If you expect to divorce eventually, ask what converting the separation into a divorce involves here before you start.
Arkansas does not create common-law marriage. There is no number of years of living together that turns into a marriage here, and none of the divorce machinery on this page applies to a couple who never married — no property division, no spousal support, no residency requirement to satisfy, because there is nothing to dissolve.
What unmarried partners have instead are ordinary civil claims: whatever you agreed between yourselves, in writing or by clear conduct, and claims over property you actually hold jointly. These are argued like any other contract or property dispute rather than as family-law entitlements, and they turn on what can be proved.
One qualification runs the other way and matters. A common-law marriage validly formed in a state that does create them — Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas or Utah — is generally recognised elsewhere. A couple who met that state's test while living there, and later moved here, are married, and separating means divorcing. Children are unaffected either way: custody and child support are decided on the same basis whether or not the parents married.
1) Confirm which grounds path applies to you — no-fault separation, fault, or covenant marriage — since it shapes your realistic timeline before you plan around it. 2) Build your financial disclosure binder early, flagging anything you believe is separate property along with its supporting paper trail. 3) Get at least one consultation with an Arkansas family law attorney, even if you plan to handle parts of the process yourself. 4) If children are involved, start organizing a practical parenting schedule proposal — Arkansas courts, like most, decide parenting matters based on the child's best interests, and specific proposals tend to move discussions forward faster than vague ones. 5) Track every deadline set in every letter from day one; the 30-day floor and Arkansas's longer separation requirement mean a case can stretch out, and losing track of dates over months is easier than it sounds.
At least one spouse must have actually lived in Arkansas for 60 days before you file, and that Arkansas residence must continue for 3 full months before a judge can sign the final decree. You'll need a witness who can confirm your residency in court.
Decide whether you'll file on the no-fault ground (18 months living separately without cohabiting) or a fault ground like general indignities, adultery, cruel treatment, habitual drunkenness, felony conviction, or impotence. Most people choose a fault ground such as general indignities specifically to avoid the 18-month separation wait.
File your Complaint for Divorce with the Circuit Court Clerk in the county where you or your spouse lives, along with the Domestic Relations Cover Sheet. Arkansas does not provide a fill-in-the-blank state complaint form, so this is typically drafted by you or an attorney.
Ask the circuit clerk for the current filing fee when you file, since it varies by county. If you cannot afford it, you can file an In Forma Pauperis Affidavit asking the court to waive the fee and service costs.
Your spouse must be formally served with the Summons and Complaint, usually by sheriff, process server, or a signed Notice and Acknowledgement for Service by Mail if they're cooperative. Service starts the clock on their time to respond.
Your spouse then has a set period to file an answer. If you agree on property division, custody, support, and other issues, you can put those terms into a written settlement agreement rather than litigating them before a judge.
Arkansas requires at least 30 days between filing and the entry of a final decree, with no exceptions — plan your timeline around this even if both spouses agree on everything.
For an uncontested case, this is usually brief: you and a corroborating witness testify to the grounds and residency, and the judge reviews any settlement agreement before signing the Decree of Divorce.
After the decree is entered, follow through on anything it requires — dividing retirement accounts (which may need a separate qualified domestic relations order), updating your name and ID, and retitling property or accounts as ordered.
Not automatically, but courts generally start from a presumption of equal division and are expected to justify departing from it. Confirm with a local attorney how that presumption applies to your specific assets.
Arkansas generally requires a minimum waiting period after filing — commonly described as 30 days — before a final decree, regardless of whether both spouses agree. Longer waits can apply in some situations, such as when minor children are involved.
Covenant marriage generally limits divorce to specific fault grounds or a longer separation period, rather than the standard no-fault path. Check your original marriage paperwork or ask an attorney if you're unsure whether your marriage was designated as covenant.
A legal separation in Arkansas settles much of what a divorce settles — support, parenting and, depending on the case, property — and the order binds both spouses. The difference is that it does not end the marriage, so neither spouse can remarry without later obtaining a divorce. People use it for health coverage, religious reasons, immigration status, or because they are not ready to divorce. Changing the order generally requires the court's approval.
No. Arkansas does not create common-law marriage, and living together for any length of time gives neither partner property division nor spousal support. Unmarried partners rely instead on agreements between themselves and on claims over jointly held property, argued as ordinary civil matters. One important exception: a common-law marriage validly formed in a state that does create them — such as Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas or Utah — is generally recognised here, so that couple would need a divorce. Custody and child support apply regardless of marriage.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. There is no statewide crisis line here that we could verify, so use the national one: contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788 if a call is not safe. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
Last reviewed August 2026. Researched and written by Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice — laws, fees and forms change, so please confirm current details with the official sources above or a local family lawyer.
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