Search Free Leon County Divorce Records (Streamlined Resource)

Look up free Leon County divorce records today. These records are part of court data, and because of Florida’s Sunshine Laws and the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), these documents are available for the public to view and request.

Citizens in Leon County can find marital information via state, county and local public agencies—often at no cost. Individuals may require divorce records for several reasons, including re-marrying and settling financial or immigration matters.

For whatever reason, interested parties can use this resource to search for marriage records in Leon County, Florida, even without knowing which particular agency has jurisdiction over them.

How To Conduct a Free Leon County Divorce Records Lookup

Interested persons who need to find divorce records can primarily acquire them from county public agencies; in particular, they will need to contact the Leon County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller.

This office allows patrons to view dissolution data online for free using the Leon County Divorce Record Search Tool, which scours through court documents. The tool permits users to view copies of the dissolution decrees; the courts generate these documents when judges grant couples divorces.

Users can find records in this divorce database using party names, case numbers and court dates. To find divorce records, restrict the search to “Domestic Relations.” This will display several cases; select all or the applicable divorce case types from the list below.

• Decree
• Domestic foreign divorce order
• Dissolution of marriage
• Divorce simplified

In addition, if requestors need to obtain copies of the documents, they will check the “Request Document” checkbox of the case. If no image is associated with the document, the court will charge a mandatory $1.00 per page. Other additional charges, such as certification costs are on this fee schedule.

The Clerk of Courts can email requested documents or requestors pick them up at the office addresses below.

Leon County Clerk of Courts & Comptroller
301 South Monroe Street #100
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Government Annex Building
315 S Calhoun Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Metro 8 Building
1276 Metropolitan Boulevard #101
Tallahassee, Florida 32312

It is also possible for citizens who need to obtain documents on divorce records to register for the Clerk’s Secure Website.³ Complete the application, sign and have it notarized. Scan and email the document to [email protected].

Citizens may also order certified copies of divorce certificates through this portal by selecting the self-service E-Certify.

Lastly, patrons may contact the Leon County Clerk of Court if they need more information or have questions.⁴ This link provides contact information such as email, phone and fax directory and addresses (above.)

Execute a Divorce & Dissolution of Marriage Search via Cities Within Leon County

The search for divorce records in Leon County may be run through city and town public channels. Looking for divorce records at the county level provides the widest search scope for records since it encompasses Leon County regardless of which population center the vital event was recorded.

In some cases, searching for these records through city clerks may be beneficial since these tend to be person-to-person requests which means more attentive staff. Furthermore, searching for these records can mean faster processing of requests since these agencies work with a smaller workload serving a smaller population.

To demonstrate the search for divorce records in Leon County, the top five most populated cities and towns will serve as examples. Leon County has only one city, Tallahassee. The county has other census-designated towns, including Bradfordville, Chaires, Capitola and Woodville.

Patrons who need to run a dissolution record search in the county will need to contact the Leon County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller as the city of Tallahassee and the towns mentioned earlier do not provide a way to request these records.⁵ Interested parties can, therefore, resort to the county or state public agency to find these records, which is touched upon in the next section.

How To Use the Florida Department of Health for Finding Statewide Divorce Information

While looking through county divorce records, individuals, in some instances may realize that the dissolution did not take place in the county but rather in a different county in the state. In these cases, the Clerk of Court would not have custody of said records, and patrons must contact the Florida Department of Health in Leon County.⁶

This state agency has public divorce records that occurred in Florida from June 6, 1927 to the present day.⁷ Conversely, earlier divorce records can be sought from county sources as seen above. Patrons may request divorce documents by visiting and mailing in a Florida Application for Dissolution of Marriage Form and include a $5.00 search and certified copy fee; additional copies will incur a $4.00 charge.

Shipping and handling costs $1.00, and a rush fee of $10.00 applies. Payments are made through check or money order payable to “Vital Statistics.” Mail the application to the address below; orders are ready in 3-5 days.

Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics
Post Office Box 210
Jacksonville, Fl 32231-0042

Walk-in applications are done at the Vital Statistics Office in Jacksonville Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM. Their physical location’s address is:

Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics
1217 North Pearl Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Interested people may also use VitalChek, an online third- party vendor approved by the state agency.⁹ They can also call this vendor at 1.877.550.7330.

Lastly, citizens may obtain older records from the Florida Department of Health – Division of Library & Information Services, which has divorce indexes that can be accessed online and onsite.^{10, 11, 12} The library can be reached at 850.245.6600 while interested persons can call the archive at 850.245.6700. Some fees for duplication of records may apply.¹³

State Library and Archives of Florida
R.A. Gray Building, Second Floor
500 South Bronough Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250

Are Details of Divorce Accessible to Everyone in Leon County?

Due to Florida’s Sunshine Laws, divorce records in Leon County are part of court data and, therefore, accessible to anyone who would like to view and request these documents from state and county public agencies.¹⁴ There is a distinction between divorce papers (decrees) and dissolution records.

When requesting divorce records from the Florida Department of Health, the agency issues a certification of the dissolution of marriage, which is an abstract of information drawn from the judgment recorded at the Leon County Circuit Court. While state and federal agencies accept these documents, they only contain pertinent information about the divorce, such as names of the parties, date and county of the event.

Conversely, divorce decrees are the actual judgment documents from the Circuit Court issued after approval of the dissolution and contain detailed information about the separation.

In the state of Florida, both divorce records and decrees can be accessed by the public without any restrictions, such as being the owner of the records, a close relative or a legal representative, as is the case in many other states. These documents however, exclude common law divorce records since common law marriages are not recognized in Florida.

Finally, patrons can contact third party vendors to conduct searches for divorce records in the county and state. This may be helpful if the county where the event was recorded is unknown or the requestor wants to keep their request private. If the state, county or city does not endorse the vendor, these records cannot be used for official purposes.

This article makes finding Leon County divorce records more streamlined by providing resources and aggregate links; it also clarifies the accessibility and availability of these documents to the public.