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Divorce in Oconee County, Georgia: costs, court rules and local help
Summary
Divorces in Oconee County are filed with the Oconee County Superior Court. The current filing fee isn’t posted online, so ask the clerk. Counties that post theirs charge $208 to $224.
- The clerk's office in Watkinsville is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and handles Superior, Magistrate and Juvenile Court cases. Legal notices run in The Oconee Enterprise.1
- The clerk's site has an e-certification portal for certified copies, a docket search for Superior and Magistrate Court cases, and a filing activity notification system.2
- If you file without a lawyer, your divorce goes on a separate self-represented domestic docket, a court calendar just for those cases, under a 2019 order of the circuit's judges.3
- Oconee shares the Western Judicial Circuit, and its judges and divorce rules, with Athens-Clarke County.4
Where to file
Oconee County Clerk of Superior Court
23 N. Main Street, Room 208
Watkinsville, GA 30677
Phone: 706-769-39401
Filing fee
The clerk doesn't post a current divorce filing fee or sheriff service fee online, so call the clerk at 706-769-3940 before you file. Mail goes to P.O. Box 1099, Watkinsville, GA 30677. For comparison, Georgia counties that post their fee charge between $208 and $224 to file a divorce. Compare counties.2
Parenting class
If you file for divorce with children under 18, each parent has to complete the Divorcing Parents Program before the final decree is entered. It's two hours, including a 30-minute video, and costs $25 per parent. Parents in Oconee cases attend in Athens, and you're scheduled automatically, with a notice sent to each parent by regular mail.5
Mediation
The Tenth District ADR Program handles mediation for Superior Court cases in the Western Circuit, which is Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties. A case goes to mediation when the judge orders it, the program recommends it, or you and your spouse or your lawyers ask for it.6
Court forms
The clerk posts free divorce packets for contested and uncontested cases, with and without minor children, a guide to which packet you need, separate maintenance packets, a parenting plan, a financial affidavit and a pauper's affidavit for filing without paying. Go to the forms.7
Standing order
A domestic relations standing order signed January 30, 2019 applies to both spouses in every divorce and other family case filed in the circuit. If you file, you attach a copy to the papers served on your spouse. Neither of you may:
- Threaten or harass the other spouse or the children.
- Take the children out of Georgia, except for ordinary family activities or an emergency. For those trips, the other parent gets the dates, places and contact information in writing.
- Sell or move property out of the state, except in the ordinary course of business or an emergency.
- Change any insurance policy without the other spouse's written consent.
The order also asks both parents to keep the children out of the middle, for example by not having them carry messages or child support payments.8
Also good to know
Oconee County Superior Court takes filings in domestic relations cases electronically through PeachCourt or Odyssey eFileGA, and the county says e-filing is mandatory. Filing fees are paid electronically at the time of filing. Ask the clerk what applies if you're filing without a lawyer.9
Free and low-cost help in Oconee County
- Project Safe. A state-certified family violence program in Athens serving Oconee, Clarke, Oglethorpe and Madison counties. The number below is its crisis line; its office is 706-549-0922.
Phone: 706-543-333110 - Georgia Legal Services Program. Free civil legal help, including family law, for people with low incomes in 154 of Georgia's 159 counties. Apply online or call the intake line.
Phone: 833-457-752911
If you need an interpreter
If you or a witness needs an interpreter, including sign language, tell the court in writing before the hearing, at least 5 days ahead where you can. The court then works to provide a licensed interpreter at its own expense.12
Oconee County Superior Court website
Sources
- ^ Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, Oconee County clerk directory entry: key points and address and phone (gsccca.org)
- ^ Oconee County, Clerk of Courts: key points and filing fees (oconeecountyga.gov)
- ^ Western Judicial Circuit, order creating the self-represented domestic docket, 2019 (PDF) (accgov.com)
- ^ O.C.G.A. § 15-6-1, judicial circuits (Justia) (law.justia.com)
- ^ Tenth District ADR Program, Divorcing Parents Program (accgov.com)
- ^ Tenth District ADR Program, history and how cases are referred (accgov.com)
- ^ Oconee County, forms for pro se parties (oconeecountyga.gov)
- ^ Western Judicial Circuit, domestic relations standing order, January 2019 (PDF) (accgov.com)
- ^ Oconee County, Georgia e-filing (oconeecountyga.gov)
- ^ Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, state-certified family violence agencies (PDF) (cjcc.georgia.gov)
- ^ Georgia Legal Services Program, what we do (glsp.org)
- ^ Uniform Superior Court Rule 7.3, interpreters (gasupreme.us)
Court fees and rules change. Check with the clerk before you file. If something here looks out of date, email help@divorce.city.
Nearby counties
Fees and court rules differ from county to county. Guides for neighboring counties: Barrow County, Clarke County and Walton County.
Oconee County also borders Greene, Morgan and Oglethorpe counties. Their clerks are listed on the Georgia page.