Filing an uncontested divorce in Butte County

Two courthouses: Oroville and Chico

The court's Locations and Contact Info page lists two courthouses. The Butte County Courthouse is at One Court Street, Oroville, CA 95965-3303, and the North Butte County Courthouse is at 1775 Concord Avenue, Chico, CA 95928. The page gives each building one line labeled Hours, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Under the Oroville entry the page lists a main line, (530) 532-7002. Under the Chico entry it lists a Family Law line, (530) 532-7008, beside lines for Civil and Court Compliance; the Oroville entry has no Family Law line.

The Family Law Division's own page gives its address as the North Butte County Courthouse, Family Law Division, 1775 Concord Avenue, Chico, CA 95928, with the telephone number (530) 532-7008. Two other court documents point the same way. Local Rule 16.5(E) says family law ex parte hearings are held each court day at 3:00 p.m. at the North Butte County Courthouse in Chico, and local form FL.120, the Request for Default or Uncontested Hearing, asks the clerk to place the proceeding on the Family Law Calendar for hearing at the North Butte County Courthouse at 1775 Concord Avenue in Chico. The captions of local forms FL.040, FL.060 and FL.120 print both courthouse addresses.

What no court page or rule read on October 18, 2026 says in words is where a dissolution petition is filed, or how cases are divided between the two buildings. The one local rule that names a filing location by case type is Rule 1.3, which says that all civil matters, including small claims, are filed at the North Butte County Courthouse in Chico; it does not mention family law. This page therefore does not state that a petition is filed in Chico or that Oroville does not accept one. Because the county has two courthouses, the office confirms the courthouse with you before the petition is prepared, and the petition's caption and your filing instructions name that courthouse. The two, as the court's page gave them:

• Butte County Courthouse, One Court Street, Oroville, CA 95965-3303. Main line (530) 532-7002. The page says free parking is available in two lots on the south side of the courthouse, and that requests for accommodations may be made in the Court Clerk's Office.
• North Butte County Courthouse, 1775 Concord Avenue, Chico, CA 95928. Family Law line (530) 532-7008. The Family Law Division gives this building as its address.

The status conference printed on your petition

Local Rule 15, Family-Centered Case Resolution Process, applies to every dissolution, legal separation, nullity, custody and support, parentage and grandparent case filed after January 1, 2013. Rule 15.3 says the court issues a Notice of Status Conference when the petition is filed and calendars the conference within 180 days, and that the petitioner serves the notice on the respondent with the summons and petition. The court's Family Centered Case Resolution page puts it another way: the notice of the first status conference date is provided on the Petition, which must be served along with the Summons.

Rule 15.4 requires all parties to attend the initial status conference unless excused in advance by the court, the case has been dismissed, or a judgment resolving all issues has been entered. The court's page says attendance is in person unless the court orders otherwise, and that failure to attend a scheduled status conference without leave of court may subject the case to dismissal. For an uncontested divorce the third exception is the one that matters: a judgment entered before the conference date excuses attendance at it, so the conference date is the date to finish before.

Rule 15.5 governs what happens between the petition and the conference. It calls for the preliminary declaration of disclosure within 90 days of service, and for a Family Law Case Management Conference Statement on local form FL.060 to be filed and served on all other parties at least five calendar days before each status conference. The forms list marks FL.060 Mandatory.

The court's own fee schedule, row by row

Butte posts a fee schedule under its own name. The court's Fee and Bail Schedules page lists a 2026 Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, and the PDF behind the link is headed Statewide Civil Fee Schedule, Superior Court of California, County of Butte, Effective January 1, 2026. Every schedule figure below was read from that document on October 18, 2026, and the court's one-page Dissolution Roadmap repeats the two first-paper amounts and says a stipulated agreement is filed with no filing fee. The Judicial Council's schedule of the same date marks with an asterisk the fees that vary by county and says in its footnote that they vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge; Butte is not among the three.

The rows an uncontested divorce meets on the court's schedule:

• Row 97, $435: the petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, legal separation or nullity, citing Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6. It is paid when an ordinary petition is opened.
• Row 98, $435: the response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, legal separation or nullity. It falls on a spouse who files a response or another first paper.
• Row 101: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent, no fee. The row's note reads that a defaulted respondent is not charged a first paper fee under Government Code section 70670. A spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing else pays the clerk no fee.
• Row 200: appearance by videoconferencing, $0, citing Government Code section 70630.
• Packets sold by the court, with the amounts the schedule says are set by the court: Dissolution of Marriage Packet, $2.00; Dissolution of Marriage (with children) Packet, $2.00; Summary Dissolution Packet, $2.00; Local Rules, full set, $3.00.
• On the court's eFiling Information page, not the schedule: a $3.50 eFiling fee for each electronically filed envelope, plus the card or eCheck processing fees, waived for a party filing under an approved fee waiver.

The joint petition: both first-paper fees

For a joint petition this page follows the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, read on October 18, 2026: its item 99, a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation except for summary dissolution cases, is $870, both first-paper fees, with the note that this fee covers the appearance of both petitioners and a citation to Family Code section 2342.5(h); its item 100, a joint petition for summary dissolution, is $435.

The statute decides what this page prints. Family Code section 2342.5(h) provides that a joint petition is filed with both first-paper fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers. That is the figure this page shows for a joint petition in Butte County, $870, which is what the Judicial Council's item 99 prints. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Butte County; it pays both first-paper fees.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

The summary dissolution path of Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 costs one first-paper fee, $435. An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files no response pays row 97 once, $435, and row 101 says the signing spouse is charged nothing. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays rows 97 and 98, one by each of you, $870 in all. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5, in force since January 1, 2026, pays both first-paper fees, $870, for the reason the last section gives. An e-filed envelope adds the court's $3.50 to whichever path you take, unless a fee waiver has been granted.

Those are the court's fees. The fee of Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene is separate and is paid to the office: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. It pays for the preparation and attorney review of every document in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425, for written filing instructions for Butte County that the attorney reviews before they are released to you, for one revision round of the settlement agreement, and for the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round, if one is wanted, is quoted before any work on it begins. The fee is earned in stages, and the part not yet earned is refunded if the representation ends early.

The limits of the engagement are set in the same written terms. It does not file your documents or serve your spouse, it does not appear in court, it does not provide a notary, and it does not prepare or record deeds. You file as a self-represented litigant, with the attorney's written instructions in hand. The office represents one spouse only; the other spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce, is not advised by it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court keeps no page of its own about fee waivers in a family law case; the page headed Make Payments or Request Reduction concerns infraction fines. Its Self-Help Legal Resources page links the Judicial Council's fee waiver guide instead, and that guide names the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001), describes three ways to qualify, and says to take the original and a copy to the court clerk. The statute is Government Code sections 68630 to 68634: the court waives its fees for a person who receives a listed public benefit, whose household income is at or below the limit the Judicial Council publishes, or who cannot pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs (section 68632), and the clerk files the petition while the request is decided (section 68634(c)).

Two Butte rules follow the waiver to the end of the case. Rule 16.18(N) says all fee waivers are subject to review by a judicial officer at the time a judgment is submitted for signature and entry, and that the judicial officer may order that a judgment not be entered except upon payment of all outstanding fees or upon the granting of a new fee waiver. Local form FL.040, the Family Law Judgment Checklist described below, begins at item 1 with a statement of fee waiver status for each party, and tells the filer that the court can look to one party for the payment of both parties' previously waived fees. The e-filing page adds that the court's e-filing fees are waived for any party filing under an approved fee waiver, and that the provider's own fees cannot be waived by the court.

On a joint petition, Family Code section 2342.5(h) asks for both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers, so each spouse who needs a waiver files an FW-001 of their own. When you ask, the FW-001 is prepared within the flat fee. A granted waiver reaches the court's fees only; it leaves the office's fee as it is.

E-filing: mandatory for attorneys, optional for you

The court's eFiling Information page says electronic filing is mandatory in all family law matters, including child support and adoption, and Local Rule 21.1(A)(4) says the same. The page then adds the asterisk that governs your case: self-represented parties are exempt from mandatory eFiling requirements but are encouraged to participate in filing electronically. Rule 21.1(B) states the exemption and cites California Rules of Court, rule 2.253(b)(2) for it. You file the documents yourself, as a self-represented party, so the choice between a provider and the counter is yours. The page cites as its authority California Rules of Court, rules 2.250 to 2.261, Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, Local Rule 21 and Standing Order BCSC 2019-SO-03.

If you e-file, you do so through an electronic filing service provider. The court's page names none itself and sends filers to the Odyssey eFileCA website for a list of available providers; Rule 21.2 says approved providers are listed on the court's website. The court charges $3.50 for each electronically filed envelope plus card or eCheck processing fees, waived under an approved fee waiver, and the provider charges fees of its own that the court cannot waive. The page's timing rule: anything the court receives electronically on a court day, from 12:00 a.m. through 11:59:59 p.m., counts as filed that same court day. The page lists items that may not be e-filed regardless of case type: wills, bonds, subpoenaed documents, vital records forms, and lodged or sealed documents.

If you file on paper, you do so at the courthouse your filing instructions name, during the hours the Locations page gives, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Local Rule 13 governs the papers themselves. Rule 13.5 says the clerk conforms a maximum of two copies of any document at the time of filing. Rule 13.6 says a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage is required for the mailed return of any document submitted for conformance, and that documents not picked up or provided with an envelope are held for 30 days and then destroyed. Rule 13.1 allows filing by fax directly with the court for one-page informational letters only; anything else by fax goes through a fax filing agency.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. An ordinary case opens with the Petition (form FL-100) and the Summons (form FL-110), with the court fee or your FW-001. In Butte County the clerk issues the Notice of Status Conference at filing under Rule 15.3, and the Family Centered Case Resolution page says the first conference date appears on the Petition itself, so the conformed petition is served on your spouse with the summons as the rule requires. A joint petition opens with the Joint Petition (form FL-700), and a summary dissolution with the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) and the property settlement agreement. The court's Form Packets page lists printed Dissolution With Children, Dissolution Without Children and Summary Dissolution packets, sold in person at either courthouse at the $2.00 the schedule sets.

After service, on an ordinary petition. Once your spouse has been served, the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115) goes to the clerk. Family Code section 2104 requires the preliminary declaration of disclosure, and Rule 15.5 sets the court's clock for it at 90 days from service. The disclosure itself, the Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-140) with the Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150) and the Schedule of Assets and Debts (form FL-142), is served and not filed; what is filed is the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141). If the status conference date arrives before the judgment is entered, Rule 15.5 asks for local form FL.060 five calendar days before it, and Rule 13.7 requires papers filed for consideration at a hearing to carry the hearing date and time in the caption.

At the judgment. The packet described in the next section, with the envelopes and the checklist the court's rule and local form require. California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 fixes the statewide list on the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), rule 5.411 governs a judgment on a written agreement, rule 5.415 requires the envelopes for the Notice of Entry of Judgment, and Family Code section 2336 with rule 5.409 allows the judgment to be entered on your declaration without a hearing, which is how Rule 16.18(A) says uncontested and default judgments are generally obtained in this court.

Local rules and local forms

The court's Local Court Rules are linked from its Local Rules and Forms page. The PDF's cover reads Superior Court of California, County of Butte, Local Court Rules Effective July 1, 2026, while the file the page serves is named for January 2026; the two differ, and this page cites the cover. The same page posts proposed changes to the rules separately. The rules that touch an uncontested dissolution are Rule 1.3 (where civil matters are filed), Rule 1.10 (remote appearances), Rule 13 (documents presented for filing: 13.1 on fax filing, 13.5 on conformed copies, 13.6 on return envelopes, 13.7 on hearing captions), Rule 15 (the Family-Centered Case Resolution Process), Rule 16 (Family Law, amended through July 1, 2026, with 16.5(E) on ex parte hearings and 16.18 on default or uncontested judgments) and Rule 21 (electronic filing).

Under Rule 16 the Local Rules and Forms page lists the court's local family law forms, each marked Mandatory or Optional: FL.030, Declaration for Default Custody and Visitation Orders, Mandatory; FL.040, Family Law Judgment Checklist, Mandatory; FL.060, Family Law Case Management Conference Statement, Mandatory; FL.070, Written Stipulation and Agreement, Optional; FL.090, At Issue Memorandum, Mandatory; and FL.120, Request for Default or Uncontested Hearing, Mandatory. The page also lists GR.060, Request for Remote Appearance and Order, Mandatory. Each falls at a stage after the petition: FL.060 at the status conference, FL.040 with the judgment, FL.120 only where a hearing is requested, and FL.030 only where there are children and no custody order, which is a case outside the flat fee. Rule 16.18(D) says FL.030 must be filed and served at least fifteen calendar days before such a judgment is submitted.

Rule 16.18(B) adds a rule about default worth knowing before your spouse is served: a default will not be entered on a notice and acknowledgment of receipt signed by a person other than the party to whom it is directed, so service by mail with acknowledgment on an ordinary petition depends on your spouse signing the acknowledgment personally.

The judgment packet in Butte County

Rule 16.18(A) says uncontested and default family law judgments are generally obtained by declaration, that a hearing may be set upon request or on the court's order, and that a nullity requires a hearing requested on local form FL.120. Rule 16.18(C) says a Judgment Checklist, Dissolution/Legal Separation (Judicial Council form FL-182), or local form FL.050 in a parentage case, should be completed and filed with any proposed default or uncontested judgment, that the judgment is submitted to the Clerk's Office pursuant to Family Code section 2336, and that all documents described in the checklist should be submitted with it. The Local Rules and Forms page separately lists local form FL.040, Family Law Judgment Checklist, as Mandatory. This page names both, as the court's rule and the court's forms list do; no page read says one replaces the other.

Local form FL.040 sets out three kinds of judgment and the papers for each. For an uncontested judgment, where both spouses have appeared and signed a written agreement, it lists the Appearance, Stipulations, and Waivers (form FL-130), with the respondent's first appearance fee if not already paid, the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution or Legal Separation (form FL-170), the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141) or the Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144), the Judgment (form FL-180) with the written agreement, and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) with two self-addressed envelopes with postage prepaid, one for each party. For a default, the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165) comes with one self-addressed envelope with postage prepaid. The form also asks for an envelope addressed to you, large enough and with enough postage, for the return of your judgment forms, and says that if you do not want your forms mailed you should give the clerk other instructions.

The signatures. Rule 16.18(I)(3) says any jointly agreed-upon judgment or marital settlement agreement shall have the signatures of both parties notarized or otherwise authenticated, and the FL.040 checklists for a default with agreement and for an uncontested judgment both read that the signatures of both parties are notarized by a separate notary and the notaries' seals are affixed. The office does not provide a notary; each spouse arranges the notarization of their own signature before the packet is assembled.

The judgment's contents. Rule 16.18(I) requires custody, visitation, child support, spousal support and attorney fee orders to appear in the body of the judgment, and says that as to those matters a reference to an attached written agreement is not acceptable; the division of property may be set out in an incorporated agreement. Rule 16.18(F)(1) requires the judgment to address spousal or partner support for each party, whether requested, terminated or reserved, and Rule 16.18(F)(2) requires a petitioner taking a default in a marriage of long duration without an agreement to file and serve a declaration at least fifteen calendar days before filing the judgment. Rule 16.18(G) requires every parcel of real property referred to in a judgment to be described by its complete common address and/or legal description. Rule 16.18(L) says no judgment for dissolution is final until six months have expired from the date of service of the summons and petition or the date of the respondent's appearance, and that the judgment must state the termination date.

The delivery. Rule 16.18(C) says the packet is submitted to the Clerk's Office. The court's rules and pages read for this page do not describe the way it travels there, and no mailing address for filings or drop box appears on any of them, so this page does not say that the packet may be mailed or dropped. Your filing instructions name the courthouse and the method the clerk accepts when your packet is ready. If the clerk returns the packet, its first correction is part of the flat fee.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

Rule 16.18(A) says uncontested and default judgments are generally obtained by declaration, under Family Code section 2336 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409, so a remote appearance arises only if a hearing is set. On that question the court's remote appearance page and its local rule read differently, and this page reports both without choosing. The page for civil, probate and family matters says remote appearances are through CourtCall, scheduled by the party on CourtCall's Remote Court Scheduler after approval, that judicial approval is required for all remote appearances except case management conferences and law and motion matters, which are preapproved under Local Rule 1.10(D)(1), and that a new CourtCall link is needed for each hearing. To ask, the page says, file and serve a Notice of Remote Appearance (form RA-010) with a proposed order (form RA-020) at least five court days before the hearing, ten for an evidentiary hearing; the other side may file an objection on form RA-015.

Local Rule 1.10(E)(1)(a), in the edition whose cover is dated July 1, 2026, says the court authorizes telephonic appearances, but not video appearances unless otherwise approved, for parties and attorneys in all non-evidentiary civil, probate and family law matters, and that a Notice of Remote Appearance (form RA-010) is not required for them. Video under the rule needs forms RA-010 and RA-020 (1.10(E)(1)(b) and (c)), and trials and evidentiary hearings are in person unless the court approves otherwise. The court's schedule prices an appearance by videoconferencing at $0 at row 200. The forms list also carries GR.060, Request for Remote Appearance and Order, which the rule assigns to criminal, traffic and juvenile matters while the form's own instructions cite Rule 1.10 and a five-day filing requirement. If a hearing is set in your case, the notice the court sends and both the page and the rule are what to read. The office does not appear in court.

SHARP and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help program is SHARP, which its Self-Help page expands as the Self-Help Assistance and Referral Program and its Family Law page as the Self Help and Referral Program. The About SHARP page says SHARP has offices at both Butte County Superior Court locations, and the Contact page gives them: 1775 Concord Avenue, Chico, CA 95928, and One Court Street, Oroville, CA 95965, each with the same telephone number, (530) 532-7015, and the same in-person hours, Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. None of the three SHARP pages read marks those hours temporary. The program also serves the Glenn County courthouse in Willows and the Tehama County courthouse in Red Bluff, and its email address is asksharp@buttecourt.ca.gov.

The About SHARP page lists family law cases, guardianships, evictions, small claims, name and gender changes and restraining orders among the matters it assists with. Same-day walk-in assistance is provided for all case types and services, with appointments for more complex topics and services requiring more time, and each location has public computers for form-assembly questionnaires. The page says SHARP staff cannot provide legal advice and that communications between SHARP staff and you are not confidential. The Family Law Facilitator, the page says, is an attorney appointed by the court who can help with child support, spousal support, parentage and health insurance issues; the court publishes no facilitator hours or telephone number apart from SHARP's.

Two more court pages belong here. The Self-Help Legal Resources page links the Judicial Council's Finalize your Divorce guides for a true default, a default with agreement and an uncontested case with or without children, and the Judicial Council's fee waiver guide. The Self-Help Online Resources page offers LawHelp Interactive guided interviews for a divorce or legal separation, a divorce response and a joint petition for summary dissolution, and says the court has no access to your account and the program does not file your documents for you; the Divorce and Legal Separation interview page recommends following up with the Self-Help Center to review the paperwork.

The flat fee in Butte County, as in every county, leaves out cases with minor children, contested cases, a business, a pension that needs a separate order, real property outside California, legal separation and annulment, and a spouse who cannot be located. 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.

Summary dissolution in this county

The court's Family Law page describes the summary dissolution in its own terms: a married couple who have been married under five years, have no children and have no interest in real estate jointly sign the necessary paperwork and file the originals with the court, and after waiting six months either party can file for the judgment. The statute is Family Code sections 2400 to 2403, and the full list of conditions in those sections is longer than the court's summary; every one of them must be met. The first paper is the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the property settlement agreement, and the judgment is the Judicial Council's form for a summary dissolution, filed when the six months have run.

Three Butte points follow from the rest of this page. The summary dissolution pays one first-paper fee, $435. Rule 15.5 excludes summary dissolutions from its disclosure requirement. The court sells a Summary Dissolution Packet at either courthouse for $2.00 and posts a Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution guided interview page for people who fill out the forms themselves. The office's flat fee for a summary dissolution is $599.

After the judgment, in this county

Once the judge signs, the clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) to each spouse in the envelopes FL.040 had you supply, and your own judgment forms come back in the envelope addressed to you. The judgment states the date your marriage ends (Family Code section 2340), and that date is never earlier than six months after your spouse was served or appeared (section 2339); form FL-107-INFO counts the earliest date as six months and one day, and Rule 16.18(L) says the same six months in the court's words. The court's Family Law page adds: you are not automatically divorced at the end of six months, and at least one spouse must complete the required legal process and obtain a written judgment. Nothing filed in Butte County shortens the period.

A transfer of California real property that your agreement calls for is a separate matter after the judgment. The office does not prepare or record deeds; a title company or another attorney does, and Rule 16.18(G) means the judgment itself already carries the property's complete address or legal description for them to work from.

The residence rule is Family Code section 2320: one spouse must have lived in California for six months and in Butte County for three months before the petition is filed, and the court's Family Law page states the same requirement in its own words. Every address, hour, fee, rule number and form number on this page was read from the court's own pages, rules and forms on October 18, 2026, and each source is listed below; whatever those materials did not confirm has been left off.

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