The number people quote each other at work is almost never the real number, so here is the breakdown.
There are two separate costs. The court filing fee is set by Maricopa County and paid to the clerk. If your spouse responds, they pay a response fee of their own. If you have children, Arizona requires a parent information program class, which carries its own fee. None of that money comes to me.
Then there is preparation. A dissolution petition without children runs $650 at my flat rate, and with children $750. If your spouse agrees to everything, a consent decree add-on is $450, and that is often the whole case. A response, if you are the one served, is $450 or $500.
The costs people forget: serving the other party if they will not sign an acceptance, certified copies, and a parenting plan if you do not already have one.
What I cannot tell you is whether to file, what to ask for, or what a judge is likely to do. Those are lawyer questions. The paperwork is mine.
SJ
Nothing here is legal advice. It is general information about how the process works, from an Arizona Certified Legal Document Preparer.