Filing an uncontested divorce in Burbank

Every Burbank zip code files at the Pasadena Courthouse

The court decides where a case belongs, and it publishes the answer in its Filing Court Locator, which asks for a city or community, a zip code, or both, and returns a table with separate columns for Unlimited Civil, Family Law, Restraining Orders and Probate. Queried on October 18, 2026 for the Burbank zip codes one at a time and then for the city as a whole, the Family Law column gave one answer for all of them:

• Burbank 91501: Pasadena Courthouse.
• Burbank 91502: Pasadena Courthouse.
• Burbank 91503: Pasadena Courthouse.
• Burbank 91504: Pasadena Courthouse.
• Burbank 91505: Pasadena Courthouse.
• The remaining Burbank zip codes the city-wide query returned: Pasadena Courthouse, with no exception in the Family Law column.

Why the Unlimited Civil column reads differently

For the same Burbank zip codes the locator's Unlimited Civil column offers a choice of four buildings: Burbank Courthouse or Glendale Courthouse or Pasadena Courthouse or Alhambra Courthouse. A divorce is a Family Code action and follows the Family Law column, which names Pasadena alone. The distinction matters in Burbank more than in a city whose two columns match, because a reader who looks at the first column sees the Olive Avenue courthouse offered and may take that as the place to file a petition. It is offered for a civil lawsuit, not for a dissolution.

The locator prints three caveats of its own that apply to a Burbank address. First, a mailing address may not be a proper indicator of true geographic location; the locator was queried here with Burbank zip codes and the city name. Second, the results page says the location shown will normally be the location where a case from the selected zip code and community would be assigned, unless Local Rule 2.0 specifies a different location, and the search form adds that adjustments in caseload distributions in the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles areas, and in the North Central District, may change the district. Rule 2.2(b) lists the Burbank Courthouse under the North Central District and the Pasadena Courthouse under the Northeast District. Third, where a street forms the edge of a district, the boundary of the district is the centerline of that street. The locator refers the reader to Chapter 2 of the court's Local Rules for the criteria.

Because the court's answer and its caveats both live on the locator, the intake form asks which courthouse the locator gave for your Burbank address, and the attorney settles it with you before drafting the petition. The caption of the petition and of every later document names that courthouse.

The Burbank Courthouse on Olive Avenue does not take the petition

Local Rule 2.2(b) lists the Burbank Courthouse, 300 East Olive Avenue, Burbank 91502, as a court session location of the North Central District, alongside the Glendale Courthouse at 600 East Broadway. Three of the court's own documents show that neither building handles a new dissolution. The Family Law Departments Directory effective October 1, 2026 lists fourteen locations with family law departments, and Burbank is not among them; the directory lists the Glendale Courthouse, which rule 2.2(b) places in the North Central District, under its Northeast District heading, with a single department that hears restraining orders only. The clerk's online appointment scheduler lists the Burbank Courthouse with the appointment codes CIV and CRM and no FL code, and lists Glendale with CIV, CRM and TR. The e-filing General Order's list of family law notification accounts, one per family law courthouse, has no entry for Burbank or Glendale.

The Self-Help Center Locations document adds a fourth: it lists no self-help center at Burbank or Glendale. The locator's Family Law column for Burbank zip codes does not return Glendale either. The Burbank Courthouse's own detail page was not read for this page.

Local Rule 2.3: Pasadena, or the Central District

The locator applies a rule, and the rule gives a Burbank filer one alternative. Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(B), in the edition the court serves as its current rules, footed Effective January 1, 2022, provides that a Family Code action may be filed in the Central District or may be filed in a district other than the Central District, and the list that follows places family law, all matters under the Family Code, in the district where one or more of the parties reside. For a person living in Burbank, that is the district the locator assigns, with the petition heard at the Pasadena Courthouse, or the Central District at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles 90012. Both are proper under the rule; the choice is yours, and the filing instructions are written for the one you choose.

Two neighboring provisions do not reach Burbank but are worth knowing by name. Rule 2.3(a)(1)(C) bars an unlimited civil action from the Northeast District and says nothing restricting a family law filing there. Rule 2.3(a)(1)(D) sends family law matters from nine Northwest District zip codes, 91301, 91302, 91303, 91304, 91306, 91307, 91326, 91361 and 91367, to the Central or North Valley District instead of Van Nuys; no Burbank zip code is on that list. Rule 2.3 was last amended effective July 1, 2018, as its own history line prints.

Once filed, the case stays with one judicial officer: rule 2.11 states that Family Law Division courts are direct calendar courts, so the department that receives a Burbank petition at Pasadena keeps it for all purposes. If a case needs to move, rule 2.3(b)(4) lets the Family Law Supervising Judge transfer a family law case from one district to another, and a motion to transfer is made in Department 2 in the Central District, not at Pasadena.

Two cover sheets accompany the first paper. Rule 2.3(a)(1)(E) requires the Civil Case Cover Sheet Addendum and Statement of Location (form LACIV 109) with any action presented for filing in any district, signed by the self-represented party where there is no counsel of record. Rule 5.2 requires the first paper filed by the petitioner in a family law action to be accompanied by a Family Law Case Cover Sheet (form FAM020). The office prepares every document, these two included.

The Pasadena Courthouse, as the court describes it

The court's directory of courthouses gives the Pasadena Courthouse's address as 300 East Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91101, and states its hours in one sentence: the building is open from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., its Clerk's Office from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday with court holidays excepted. The telephone number on the page is (626) 396-3300. The Family Law Departments Directory heads the building Northeast District and lists three general family law departments there, K, L and S, each with its own telephone line; no master calendar or case management department is listed at Pasadena, which is a feature of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse alone.

Parking is described in the court's own words. Parking for a fee is available in the parking structure located on the southeast corner of Marengo Ave. and Walnut St.; the entrance to the structure is on 240 Ramona St.; ceiling clearance for the parking structure is 6 feet 6 inches, and large trucks or sport utility vehicles may not be able to use the parking facility; there are other pay parking lots adjacent to the courthouse.

The page's General Directory lists the offices in the building by name: Family Law Clerk's Office, Family Law Facilitator Office, Family Court Services - Evaluation, Family Court Services - Mediation, Civil Harassment and Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, Small Claims Clerk's Office, Traffic Clerk's Office, Criminal Clerk's Office, and the Unlawful Detainer Hub Clerk's Office. A petition filed on paper is handed to the clerk, and the directory names a Family Law Clerk's Office in the building. The directory entries' room numbers and hours were not expanded, so this page gives none; the Self-Help Center's room comes from a different court document and is in the next section.

If you elect the Central District instead, the directory index carries a notice headed Stanley Mosk Courthouse Renumbering: Beginning May 4, 2026, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County will introduce a new department (courtroom) numbering system at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. The notice concerns Stanley Mosk only; Pasadena's departments are lettered, and the directory lists them as K, L and S.

Self-help at Pasadena, and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's Self-Help Center Locations document, revised October 6, 2025, lists a center at the Pasadena Courthouse, 300 East Walnut Street, 3rd Floor, Room 300. Its hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Friday. The document describes the centers' in-person services as protective restraining orders, family law cases, eviction answers and CARE petitions, without the exclusions it prints for Inglewood and Santa Monica, so family law help is available at Pasadena. By telephone, the Self-Help Call Center answers at (213) 830-0845 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The court's self-help listing describes walk-in assistance as first come, first served and subject to availability, and warns that spaces fill up quickly; it also states the center's limit in its own words: staff can help you complete your court forms and educate you about court procedures, and do not provide legal advice.

The statewide finder kept by the Judicial Council shows (626) 396-3300 for Pasadena and no hours, and points to the court's self-help website; the Council's general page says every superior court in California has free legal help available in family law. The Pasadena General Directory also lists a Family Law Facilitator Office. The court's Facilitator page describes that office as assisting self-represented parties with child support, spousal support and health insurance issues, and says its staff does not give legal advice nor represent a party in a case or at a hearing; Local Rule 5.23 sets its duties, among them meeting with litigants to mediate issues of child support, spousal support and maintenance of health insurance. The Facilitator's office hours at Pasadena are not on this page because they could not be read.

The court publishes its own fillable judgment packets for an uncontested divorce, one without minor children and one with; the one without minor children is revised May 2025 and states its condition: you and your spouse or partner must agree on all issues of the case. Its completion sheet asks what courthouse your case was filed in, so a Burbank filer who files at Pasadena writes Pasadena Courthouse there. The court's self-help listing also offers a three-part divorce workshop series, the third part written for the filing spouse completing a default judgment.

Outside the flat fee, from Burbank as from anywhere in the county: a case with minor children, a contested case, a business, a pension that needs its own order, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, and a spouse who cannot be found. The Los Angeles County Bar Association Lawyer Referral and Information Service, at 213-243-1525, can refer you to a family law attorney.

E-filing from Burbank to the Pasadena Courthouse

The governing document is General Order 2022-GEN-009-00, In re Mandatory Electronic Filing for Family Law, dated April 13, 2022. It recites that effective November 15, 2021 the court mandated electronic filing of all documents filed in family law cases by litigants represented by attorneys, and section 3(a) exempts self-represented litigants from the mandate. With the office preparing your documents and no attorney of record in your case, the order counts you as self-represented: you may e-file through an electronic filing service provider or carry the papers to the Family Law Clerk's Office at Pasadena. The order's amendment of April 18, 2022 removed proposed judgments from the list of exempt filings, which binds those who must e-file and leaves your choice intact.

Section 5(b) of the order lists one family law notification account for each family law courthouse, and the Pasadena Courthouse's entry is PD-FLNotification@lacourt.org. The order explains that court-generated documents are served via that email resource account to the email address registered with the provider. There is no Burbank account on the list, a further sign that no family law case is kept at the Olive Avenue building.

The order's technical terms apply whichever provider you use. Section 6(a) requires documents to be electronically filed in PDF, text searchable format. Section 6 also puts the redaction duty on the filer, using initials for the names of minors and the last four digits of a Social Security number, among its examples. Section 7(a) sets the filing date: a document received electronically by the court between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. is deemed filed on that court day if accepted. Section 12 requires that fees and costs associated with electronic filing be waived for a litigant who holds a fee waiver.

For a paper filing, the clerk's online scheduler offers appointments by courthouse and appointment type, and the Pasadena Courthouse's entry carries the codes CIV, CRM, FL, SMCL and TR. The scheduler does not define the codes; FL is the one listed for Pasadena that the Burbank and Glendale entries lack. One more rule mentions a drop box, and it is narrow: Local Rule 5.3(a)(2)(B) names four ways to present ex parte papers at the district courthouse's clerk's office, through the Clerk's Office's resource account, by fax filing, by drop-box filing, or by physical delivery with an advance appointment. That rule is about ex parte applications. No court page read for this site states a drop box or counter rule for petitions or judgment packets at Pasadena, so this page states none.

The judgment packet, when the case is at Pasadena

The judgment rules are court-wide, in Chapter 5 of the Local Rules, and they apply at Pasadena exactly as at every other family law courthouse; what changes for a Burbank filer is only where the packet goes and whose address is on the envelopes. Local Rule 5.17 lists what is submitted: the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution; the Request for Default or the Appearance, Stipulation and Waiver form, whichever applies; the original and three copies of the judgment, of which the court retains the original and one copy; and two self-addressed, stamped envelopes with the court's address as the return address. For a case assigned to Pasadena, the court's address on those envelopes is the Pasadena Courthouse's.

Rule 5.17 also lists the issues that require a hearing in the absence of a written agreement. Where the responding spouse has not appeared and signs the judgment, the rule provides that filing fees will not be required from a defaulting party that has signed a judgment, and that the signature of the defaulting party must be notarized. The office does not provide a notary; a spouse who signs in that posture arranges one. Under rule 5.16(b), an agreed judgment on an issue reserved for later may be sent in with no appearance.

Where the packet is presented: rule 5.3 speaks of the Clerk's Office of the district courthouse to which the case is assigned, which for a Burbank case filed at the Pasadena Courthouse is the Clerk's Office at Pasadena, and the court's own judgment packet has the filer name the courthouse where the case was filed, noting that it may differ from the courthouse where a trial was held. Family Code section 2336 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409 allow the judgment to be entered on your declaration without a hearing. The court's Divorce Overview chart from June 2011, still linked from its self-help site, says the same two things in plain words: the preliminary and final declarations of disclosure are not filed with the court but are served on the other spouse, which is Family Code section 2104's rule, and in a small number of complex situations a hearing is required even for a default divorce.

Should a hearing ever be set, the court's Family Law Division page states that in all family law departments and hearing types the court has remote video and audio courtroom appearance technology via LACourtConnect; that sentence is court-wide and includes departments K, L and S at Pasadena. The office does not appear at a hearing if one is set. The court's fee amounts are on the county page; what matters here is that a joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5(h) pays both first-paper fees, $870, which the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists at item 99, unless both spouses hold fee waivers.

What the office does for a Burbank case, and the dates that govern

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews every document in your case for a flat fee in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. The fee includes written filing instructions for the Pasadena Courthouse, or for Stanley Mosk if you elect the Central District, reviewed by the attorney before they are released to you, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round is quoted before any work begins. The fee is earned in stages; if the representation ends early, whatever has not been earned is refunded.

The office does not file, does not serve, does not appear in court, does not provide a notary, and does not prepare or record deeds; a deed, if your agreement calls for one, is prepared by a title company or another attorney. One spouse is the office's only client; the other is not a client, receives no advice from the office, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

Three statewide dates apply to a Burbank filer as to anyone. Section 2320 of the Family Code looks to the state and the county: six months of one spouse's residence in California and three months in Los Angeles County before filing; living in Burbank rather than another city in the county is not part of the test. Family Code section 2339 provides that the marriage ends no earlier than six months after the responding spouse is served or appears, and form FL-107-INFO puts the earliest date at six months and one day. Family Code section 2340 requires the judgment to state the date. Filing at Pasadena, e-filing, or electing the Central District does not move any of those dates.

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