Filing an uncontested divorce in Alameda County

One courthouse for every family law case

Alameda County's superior court hears family law in Hayward. The court's Family Law division page says that all documents to be filed in a family law case must be presented for filing at the Hayward Hall of Justice, and Local Rule 1.9(c), in the rules effective July 1, 2026, says the same for every action under the Family Code: the papers are presented to the office of the family law clerk at the Hayward Hall of Justice, 24405 Amador Street, Hayward. A petition for dissolution from any city in the county is filed there.

The family law page names one exception, and it does not reach a divorce. A case under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act may also be filed at the René C. Davidson Courthouse at 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland. A dissolution petition is not filed in Oakland. Rule 1.9(a) adds a second qualification: the courthouse rule does not apply to documents filed electronically, which the section on filing methods explains.

The court's page for the Hayward Hall of Justice gives the building's hours and the family law clerk's hours, which are shorter than the building's. The courthouse's departments are numbered 502 through 522, and Department 501 houses the Self-Help Center.

• Hayward Hall of Justice, 24405 Amador Street, Hayward, CA 94544; telephone (510) 690-2700.
• Building hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Family law clerk, in person: Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
• Family law drop box: Monday through Thursday, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Friday, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• An appointment at the clerk's office for family law can be booked on the court's online appointment page, which the family law page links to.

No courthouse to choose, and what the office confirms instead

In a county with several family law courthouses the office confirms the right one with the client before the petition is prepared, following the court's own assignment rule. Alameda County has no assignment rule to follow, because the court has placed every family law filing in Hayward. The filing instructions released with your petition name the Hayward Hall of Justice, its street address, the family law clerk's window hours and the drop box hours, and every document in the case carries the caption of the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda.

What the attorney confirms is that Alameda is the right county. Family Code section 2320 requires that you or your spouse have lived in California for the six months before the petition is filed and in the county of filing for the three months before it. The intake asks where each of you lives and for how long, and the attorney reviews those answers before the petition is released.

The court's fees, item by item

The court's Fee and Bail Schedules page posts two documents: the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, and an Alameda County Specific Fee Schedule effective July 1, 2026. Every family law fee is on the statewide schedule; the county schedule has nothing to do with a divorce, as explained below. The statewide schedule's dissolution items, read on October 18, 2026, are listed below.

The statewide schedule marks these fees with an asterisk and explains the mark in a footnote: the marked fees vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction. Alameda is not among them, and the county's own schedule confirms it. That schedule has a single line, item 201-A, a copy of an electronic recording at $25 under miscellaneous fees, and no family law fee or surcharge of any kind. The amount printed on the statewide schedule is the amount you pay in Hayward.

One caution about where to read the fee. The court's Divorce or Separation page links to an older statewide schedule, dated January 1, 2022, under the label "View the last Statewide Civil Fee Schedule". The figures on this page come from the January 1, 2026 schedule on the court's Fee and Bail Schedules page, which is the one in force on the date this page was written.

• Item 97: a petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, legal separation or nullity, $435 (Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6). This is the fee at the window when an ordinary petition is filed.
• Item 98 is the fee for a response or any other first paper your spouse files in the case, $435 (Government Code section 70670(d)), and your spouse owes it only if they file a response or an appearance.
• Item 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, other than a summary dissolution, $870. In the schedule's own words, this fee covers the appearance of both petitioners.
• Item 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, $435.
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted spouse and included in a judgment of dissolution, no fee. A spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing pays nothing for signing it.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

A summary dissolution pays item 100 once, $435. An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays item 97 once, $435, and nothing for the agreement under item 103. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response or an appearance pays items 97 and 98, $870 between the two of you. A joint petition pays item 99, $870, in one payment that the schedule says covers both of you. Family Code section 2342.5(h) is the reason: a joint petition is filed with both first-paper fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers. The joint petition does not save a court fee in this county or any other; the cost page compares the three paths.

Government Code section 70670 sets the first-paper fee in a dissolution, and the statewide schedule prints the total with the amounts the Government Code adds to it. The office's fee is separate from the court's and is paid to the office: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition, $1,499 for an ordinary petition. Each is a flat fee for preparing and reviewing every document in the case in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425. The court's fee is paid by you to the court when you file.

The office's fee is earned in stages as the work is done, and if the representation ends early the unearned part is refunded. One revision round of the settlement agreement is included, and so is the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round is quoted before any work is done on it.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court has no fee waiver page of its own that could be found on October 18, 2026. Its Self-Help Services page lists fee waivers among the matters the Self-Help Center helps with and sends the reader to the Judicial Council's guide, Ask for a Fee Waiver, which names the two forms: the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (form FW-003).

The grounds are in Government Code section 68632: receiving a listed public benefit, a household income at or below the limit the Judicial Council publishes on form FW-001-INFO, or being unable to pay the fee and still meet the basic needs of your household. Under section 68634(c) the clerk accepts the petition for filing without the fee while the court decides the request. The office prepares the request and the order form as part of the flat fee when you ask for them, and the court fee waiver page on this site goes through the detail.

Two points are particular to this court. Its own dissolution flowchart says that on a joint petition the two of you pay the filing fee or each of you must file and qualify for a fee waiver (form FW-001), which is what Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires. And the court's E-Filing FAQ says a petition and a fee waiver application may be e-filed in one transaction and are processed at the same time, and that e-filing fees apply unless the filer has a fee waiver. A waiver covers the court's fees; it does not cover the office's fee.

Filing in person, at the drop box, by mail or electronically

The court's Family Law e-filing page states the rule: the court has implemented mandatory electronic filing for attorneys and provides the option of e-filing to self-represented litigants, voluntary for all family case types from September 5, 2023 and mandatory for attorneys from October 23, 2023. Local Rule 5.12 is the source. Subdivision (a) requires a represented party to e-file through a court-approved electronic filing service provider, and subdivision (b) lets any party consent to e-filing by filing a notice of consent. Because the office prepares your documents and does not appear in the case, you are a self-represented litigant at the court, and e-filing is yours to choose. The court's E-Filing FAQ, revised July 24, 2023, puts it plainly: self-represented litigants are not required to file documents electronically, but they are encouraged to do so.

If you choose it, the court's list of approved providers runs to roughly 120 companies and does not sort them by case type; it includes One Legal, Green Filing, InfoTrack, First Legal, Rapid Legal and Journal Technologies among others. Each charges its own fee, and the FAQ says the court adds a transaction fee of its own unless you have a fee waiver. Rule 5.12 supplies the mechanics: an e-filed document must be a searchable PDF; certified judgments, sister-state judgments and documents that require an original signature may not be e-filed; and under subdivision (g) paper courtesy copies of e-filed documents must be delivered to the clerk of the assigned department the same day or the next court day.

If you file on paper, the court's Hayward page and Rule 1.9 between them describe three routes: the family law clerk's window during its hours, the family law drop box during the drop box hours, and the mail, addressed to the Hayward Hall of Justice. Rule 1.9(i) explains how file-endorsed copies come back from a mail or drop box filing: processed documents are returned by mail to a filer who includes a postage-paid, self-addressed envelope; they may be available on the court's eCourt Public Portal; or you may return to the courthouse where they were filed to pick them up. Your filing instructions say which route to use for each filing and what to put in the envelope. The clerk's stamped copy carries the filing date and the case number, which you enter in your portal so the next set of documents can be prepared.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. The set the office released to you, signed in ink where the instruction sheet marks it, in the number of copies the instructions state: the Petition (form FL-100) with the Summons (form FL-110) on an ordinary petition, the Joint Petition (form FL-700) with its summons (form FL-710) on a joint petition, or the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the property settlement agreement and the Judgment of Summary Dissolution (form FL-825). With it, the fee for item 97, 99 or 100, or the fee waiver request if you are making one. The court's flowchart notes that the joint petition and its summons are not served on anyone; only the disclosures are exchanged.

At service, on an ordinary petition. Your spouse is served by a third person, or signs a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (form FL-117), and the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115) is filed in Hayward once the server has signed it. The court's flowchart says to wait thirty days after service for a response. The preliminary declaration of disclosure (Family Code section 2104) is exchanged, not filed; the flowchart says disclosures are due within sixty days of filing the petition or the response; what goes to the clerk is the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141), which says only that the disclosure was served.

At the judgment. The packet the office prepares for your path, described in its own section below, with the stamped, addressed envelopes the court requires and nothing the court does not require. You may bring it to the window, use the drop box, or mail it, and the court decides it on the papers.

Local rules and local forms

Family law in this court is governed by Title 5, Division 1 of the Local Rules, the Family Rules, effective July 1, 2026 and posted on the court's Local Rules page. The rules that touch an uncontested dissolution are Rule 5.10 (the Office of the Family Law Facilitator, whose duties follow Family Code section 10005), Rule 5.11 (remote appearances), Rule 5.12 (electronic filing and service), Rule 5.17 (service of the notice of initial status conference), Rule 5.71 (marital settlement agreements) and Rule 5.72 (judgments involving custody or support). Rule 1.9 in Title 1, amended effective January 1, 2026, is the rule that places family law filings in Hayward.

Rule 5.17 deserves a word because it is unlike anything in some other counties. The court may issue a notice of initial status conference in a dissolution, and if no response to the petition has been filed when the notice is issued, the spouse who filed the petition must serve a copy of the notice on the other spouse. Rule 5.11(a) lets a party appear remotely at an initial status conference without filing anything first. If the court issues such a notice in your case, you upload it to your portal, and the office's instructions tell you how to serve it and what the court has asked for; the office does not appear at the conference.

On local forms, the court's Appendix A lists its family law forms in the ALA FL series, from ALA FL-002 to ALA FL-060: stipulations for mediators and experts, visitation supervision, conference questionnaires, continuances, telephone appearance, settlement conference and the Request for Case Resolution Conference (ALA FL-050). None of them is a petition, a default or a judgment form. The court's Family Law Rules and Forms page says Judicial Council forms are used and names no local form for a dissolution petition or judgment, and the Self-Help Center's flowchart names only Judicial Council forms for the petition, the default and the judgment; the one local form it mentions, ALA FL-050, belongs to the contested path. No page read on October 18, 2026 requires a local form with a petition, a default or a judgment packet, and the office's Alameda documents are the Judicial Council forms and your settlement agreement.

The judgment packet in Alameda County

The court's Self-Help Center publishes a two-page document called Dissolution Options and Process, revised December 19, 2025, whose second page is headed Paths to Judgment. It says the judgment packet is submitted to the clerk as the original and two copies of each form, with two stamped, addressed envelopes. By path, it lists: for a default with no agreement, the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165), the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (form FL-170), the Judgment (form FL-180) with its attachments, and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190); for a default with an agreement, the same with the Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144) and the settlement agreement or stipulation for entry of judgment attached; and for an uncontested case where a response or a joint petition has been filed, the Appearance, Stipulations, and Waivers (form FL-130), form FL-144, form FL-170, form FL-180 with the agreement attached, and form FL-190.

Two local rules shape the judgment itself. Rule 5.71 says a marital settlement agreement that is incorporated by reference in a proposed judgment must be physically attached to the judgment, so the agreement travels with the packet and is never merely referred to. Rule 5.72 says a judgment involving spousal support must state the commencement and termination dates of the support, and that the terms of any custody or support order must be set out in full in the judgment, with the Child Support Information and Order Attachment (form FL-342) mandatory where there is child support. The flowchart adds that every judgment must include orders on spousal support, community and separate property, and any restraining orders, and that a default judgment can only include what the petition specifically requested or an order the court has already made. The office drafts the petition and the agreement with those sentences in view, so the judgment asks for nothing the petition did not.

Statewide law frames the rest. Rule 5.405 of the California Rules of Court fixes the list of judgment forms on the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), and a court may not demand more than the checklist shows; rule 5.415 requires the stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address, and the original and copies of the Notice of Entry of Judgment; rule 5.409 and Family Code section 2336 let the court enter the judgment on your written declaration without a hearing. If the clerk returns the packet with a correction note, the first correction is part of the flat fee: you upload the note to your portal, the office revises the form the note names, and you resubmit.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on an agreement needs no hearing, and rule 5.409 requires the court to allow the judgment on declarations. If a hearing or conference is set anyway, the court's Family Law page says remote hearings continue to be an option in all family law courtrooms, that a party who wishes to appear remotely files and serves a Notice of Remote Appearance (form RA-010), and that its ZoomGov instructions are posted in English and Spanish. The court's Remote Appearances page says proceedings are conducted on ZoomGov and that the links are not published on the page; they come from the department hearing the matter.

Local Rule 5.11, amended effective January 1, 2026, draws the line between what is remote by right and what is in person. Under subdivision (a), a party may appear remotely without filing form RA-010 at a status conference, a case resolution conference, an initial status conference, a trial-setting conference or a settlement conference. Every other hearing is conducted in person unless the court orders otherwise, and a party who wants to appear remotely at one files form RA-010 with a short statement of the reason and a proposed order (form RA-020) ten court days before the hearing, or within one court day if the notice of the hearing came late. Should the court set a hearing, the instructions in your portal say what it has asked for; the office does not appear at it.

Help the court itself offers

The court's Self-Help Center and Family Law Facilitator, as the court names the service, is in Department 501 at the Hayward Hall of Justice. The court's Self-Help Services page says the staff and volunteers may be able to assist with procedural information and instruction on completing forms, that the service is free, and that it does not give legal advice; divorce is on its list of case types, with a link to the court's own Alameda County divorce process document. Local Rule 5.10 ties the facilitator's duties to Family Code section 10005.

How to reach it, as the page states on October 18, 2026: by telephone at (510) 272-1393, Monday through Thursday, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., which goes to voicemail during those hours with calls returned within five business days; and by LiveChat on the self-help page, Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., which may close early when it reaches capacity. Drop-in service is suspended; the page says to use the chat or the phone to be screened for an in-person or remote appointment. The dissolution flowchart adds that the center assists with each step by appointment only, and that appointments for disclosures and for judgments are only for those who qualify. The Hayward page lists the facilitators' hours as Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in person and 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. by phone. The self-help page also announces workshops by appointment, one on starting a divorce, legal separation or annulment case and one on the financial disclosures, with the next dates posted there.

What the office prepares is meant to be filed without the center's help, and a question about those documents goes to the office through your portal first; the court's center exists for what the office cannot answer, such as what the clerk at the window requires on the day. The other spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce and is not advised by it; they may consult an attorney of their own choosing. A case that is no longer uncontested, or that involves minor children, a business, a pension that needs its own order, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, or a spouse who cannot be found, is outside the flat fee, and the engagement ends as the engagement letter provides. The State Bar of California's Lawyer Referral Service directory, at calbar.ca.gov/Public/Need-Legal-Help/Lawyer-Referral-Service, lists the certified lawyer referral services for every county.

After the judgment, in this county

The clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) to each spouse in the envelopes you provided with the packet. The notice states the date your marriage ends. Family Code section 2339 sets that date no earlier than six months after the date your spouse was served or appeared, and section 2340 requires the judgment to state it; the court's own flowchart puts it the way form FL-107-INFO does, that the earliest you can be single is six months and one day after your spouse was served or the joint petition was filed. Nothing filed in Hayward shortens that period, and a judgment entered before it names a future date.

If you filed the packet by mail or at the drop box, Rule 1.9(i) governs how the file-endorsed copies reach you: by mail in the postage-paid envelope you included, on the eCourt Public Portal, or by picking them up at the Hayward Hall of Justice. To change a former name on your identification after it is restored in the judgment, you use a certified copy of the judgment, as the Judicial Council's guide After your divorce is final explains.

Where the office has not verified a county's court data from the court's own materials, it holds the filing instructions. Alameda County's are verified, from the pages and rules listed in the sources below, each read on October 18, 2026.

Rozsa Gyene, State Bar of California No. 208356, 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505.