Filing an uncontested divorce in Contra Costa County

One filing counter for the whole county

The court's Where to File page is unambiguous: all family law cases, including restraining orders and adoptions, are filed at the Spinetta Family Law Center in Martinez. The building's full name is the Peter L. Spinetta Family Law Center, at 751 Pine Street, Martinez, CA 94553, telephone (925) 608-1000. The building is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the filing counter takes papers from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Family Law staff there accept every filing in a family law case except requests for temporary emergency orders and domestic violence restraining order papers, neither of which arises in an uncontested divorce on an agreement.

The court's own Starting Your Divorce packet (FamLaw-001) tells the person filing to bring the original and two copies to the clerk's office at that address, and the same packet names the address for the spouse who files a response. A Family Law clerk line, (925) 608-2070, answers from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the court's Contact and Locations page.

The county's other courthouses do not take a divorce petition. The Where to File page allows a filing at the Pittsburg and Richmond windows only for a restraining order by a person who has no existing case with the other party, no children with the other party, and is not married to the other party; a spouse filing for dissolution fails the last condition by definition. No court page the office read permits a petition for dissolution to be filed anywhere but 751 Pine Street, so the filing instructions for Contra Costa County name that address and no other.

Which department hears your case: direct calendaring

Contra Costa County does not sort family law cases by where you live. Its Family Law Departments page explains direct calendaring: upon the initial filing of a family law petition, the case is randomly assigned to a specific judicial department, and that department keeps the case for every purpose. Local Rule 5.1(b)(3) of the court's Local Rules, effective July 1, 2026, describes the same arrangement: the family law departments hear all matters filed under the Family Code under a direct calendar system.

Seven departments hear family law. Five of them, Departments 2, 7, 26, 35 and 52, sit at 751 Pine Street in the Spinetta building, which houses five of the county's seven family law courtrooms. Two, Departments 9 and 11, sit in Courtrooms 222 and 212 of the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse at 725 Court Street, Martinez, CA 94553; the clerk's windows there open at 8:00 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. Whichever department draws your case, the petition itself is filed at the Pine Street counter.

In an uncontested divorce decided on the papers, the department's address matters only if the court sets a hearing, and the judgment in such a case is submitted and reviewed without one. Because the court, not you, picks the department, there is nothing to choose and nothing for the office to confirm about the courthouse before the petition is prepared; the caption names the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa, and the Pine Street address where the papers are filed.

The court's fees, item by item

Contra Costa County does not publish a fee schedule of its own. Its Fees page links the Judicial Council's statewide civil fee schedule (the edition effective January 1, 2024, which shows the same amounts), and the Judicial Council's Civil Fees page names the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 as the current one. The items that arise in an uncontested divorce, read on October 18, 2026, are listed below.

The schedule marks each of these fees with an asterisk and explains it in a footnote: the marked fees vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction. Contra Costa is not one of the three, so the amount printed is the amount the Martinez clerk collects. The court's own divorce packet says the same thing in its own words, that the fee is currently set at $435 but is subject to change, and tells you to bring a check payable to Contra Costa County Superior Court or a completed fee waiver packet.

• 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 petition.
• Item 98 is the response fee, the same $435 (Government Code section 70670(d)), owed only if your spouse files a response or an appearance.
• Item 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, $435 (Government Code section 70670(b)). The one fee a summary dissolution pays.
• Item 103: a stipulation for judgment signed by a spouse who has not responded, no fee; the schedule's note says a defaulted spouse is not charged a first-paper fee under Government Code section 70670 (section 70671(b) and (e)). The spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing pays nothing.

How many first-paper fees each path pays in Martinez

A summary dissolution pays item 100 once. An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files no response pays item 97 once, and the agreement goes into the judgment under item 103 without a fee. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response or an appearance pays items 97 and 98, one by each of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5, the form available since January 1, 2026, pays both first-paper fees as well: subdivision (h) of the section says the joint petition is filed with the fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers, which in this county is $870 at the counter. The joint petition does not save a court fee anywhere in California, and it does not save one here.

The office's flat fee is separate from everything the court charges and is paid to the office, not the clerk: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition, $1,499 for an ordinary petition. Each covers the preparation and attorney review of every document in the case under a limited scope engagement (California Rules of Court, rule 5.425); the court's fee is paid by you, to the court, when you file. The cost page compares the three paths in full.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court's Fees page puts it simply: if you are low-income and cannot afford the fee to file your court papers, you can ask for a fee waiver. The waiver is governed by Government Code sections 68630 to 68634, and the court's Fee Waiver page names California Rules of Court, rules 3.50 to 3.58, as the rules it applies. The request is form FW-001 and the court's order is form FW-003, and the Contra Costa page adds a detail the statewide guide does not: you file an original and one copy of both the Request to Waive Court Fees and the Order on Court Fee Waiver. The court publishes both forms together as its Fee Waiver packet, listed on its Form Packets page.

The page also states the consequence of a denial. If the court denies the request, you have 10 days from notice of the denial to take one of the steps the page lists, and if none is taken within those 10 days the documents you filed are voided. The office prepares the FW-001 and the FW-003 as part of the flat fee when you ask, and the page on the court fee waiver explains the three ways to qualify. A waiver reaches the court's fees only; the office's fee is not a court fee and no court can waive it.

For a joint petition, section 2342.5(h) means a single waiver is not enough: the second first-paper fee is excused only when both spouses hold fee waivers. Each spouse asks on their own FW-001, and the other spouse, who is not a client of this office, prepares their own or asks the court's facilitator about it.

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

Contra Costa County adopted mandatory electronic filing for attorneys and made it optional for people without attorneys. The court's E-Filing Services page describes the program that way, and its schedule shows family law coming into the program on June 20, 2022 (voluntary) and July 5, 2022 (mandatory for attorneys). Local Rule 2.87(b)(1) states the exemption in words: the rule does not apply to self-represented litigants, but self-represented litigants are permitted and encouraged to electronically file and serve documents if they so elect. The Family Law Facilitator's page repeats it for the person reading from the other side: if you do not have an attorney, e-filing is optional and not mandatory.

You are that person. The office drafts and reviews your documents in a limited scope engagement and does not appear in the case, so you file as a self-represented litigant and may choose any of the ways the court accepts. The court's Where to File page says cases not subject to mandatory electronic filing may be given to the clerk by mail or in person, and the facilitator's page adds the third way: you can submit your forms in person, through the drop box, or by mail. Electronic filing goes through a vendor; Local Rule 2.87(c) says a list of approved vendors is to be published on the court's website, and the court's e-filing page links to its e-filing portal. The court's e-filing page notes one trap for a person filing a first paper electronically: the fee to select is the first appearance fee of $435, not a motion fee.

The drop box is in front of the Spinetta building on Pine Street. The court asks that a drop box filing include the original of each document, at least two copies, the filing fee or fee waiver application, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The court's pages give the box's hours as Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m., closing at 4:00 p.m. on three pages and 5:00 p.m. on the Spinetta page's own drop box paragraph; the earlier hour is the one to meet. The Family and Children page says the court encourages people to file by drop box or by mail rather than at the window, and that filing fees must be included.

For mail, the Spinetta page gives the address as Contra Costa County Superior Court, 751 Pine Street, P.O. Box 911, Martinez, CA 94553, Attn: Clerk's Office; the Family and Children page gives the shorter line Family Law, 751 Pine Street, Martinez, CA 94553. The court's divorce packet asks for a check payable to Contra Costa County Superior Court. Your filing instructions, reviewed by the attorney before release, carry the address, the number of copies, and the envelope for the clerk to return your stamped copies.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. The court's Starting Your Divorce packet lists only Judicial Council forms: the Petition (form FL-100) and Summons (form FL-110), with a Property Declaration (form FL-160) where one is used, each as an original and two copies. The court attaches its own information sheets to the packet (FamLaw-001a, 001b, 104, 105 and 106), but none of them is a form you file, and no local form is required with the petition. A joint petition under section 2342.5 files the Joint Petition (form FL-700) and its summons (form FL-710); a summary dissolution files the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the property settlement agreement and the Judgment (form FL-825). Bring the fee or the fee waiver request with any of them. The clerk keeps the original, stamps your copies with the case number and the filing date, and on an ordinary petition issues the summons.

At service, on an ordinary petition. Nothing is filed until your server has signed the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115), or your spouse has signed the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (form FL-117). The office does not serve; the proof is prepared for you and you file it the same way you filed the petition. The preliminary declaration of disclosure (Family Code sections 2104 to 2107) is served on your spouse and never filed; only the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141) is filed, and the court's Form Packets page carries a Declaration of Disclosure packet for a person who wants the court's own instructions on it.

At the judgment. The judgment packet described in the next section, in the copies the court's checklist requires, with the stamped envelopes rule 5.415 calls for, and nothing the court does not ask for. You enter the filing date and the case number in your portal after each step, and the office prepares the next set from them.

Local rules and local forms

The court's Local Rules, effective July 1, 2026, put family law in Title Five, Division 1, Chapter 1, rules 5.0 through 5.20. Rule 5.0(c) sets the standard the court holds you to: self-represented litigants are treated in the same manner as if represented by counsel and held to the same standards. That is the reason the office's documents are prepared to the court's checklist and reviewed by the attorney before they are released, rather than filed as drafts and corrected later.

The rules that touch an uncontested divorce are few. Rule 5.1 assigns departments under the direct calendar described above. Rule 5.5, Procedures to Complete Dissolution/Legal Separation, says in subdivision (a) that a default or uncontested judgment follows the Judicial Council's Judgment Checklist (form FL-182). Rule 5.11, Judgments, is the rule the judgment section below walks through. Rule 5.14 provides the Family Law Facilitator under Family Code sections 10004 and 10005. The rules on hearings (5.4), case management conferences (5.6), settlement conferences (5.7) and trials (5.9) describe the contested track and do not arise in a case that is decided on an agreement.

The county's local family law forms belong almost entirely to that contested track. FamLaw-112, Request for Case Management Conference, is labeled optional on the court's Family and Children page; FamLaw-113, Case Management Conference Statement, is labeled mandatory, but rule 5.6(a) requires it only for a case management conference, which an uncontested case never reaches. Two local forms appear in the court's uncontested judgment packet: FamLaw-114, a Stipulation for Entry of Judgment under California Rules of Court, rule 5.411, which lists the judgment forms and pages the spouses are agreeing to, and FamLaw-112 again. Rule 5.11 does not say either is required for an uncontested judgment; the office includes the FamLaw-114 in a judgment packet entered on the spouses' stipulation because the court's own packet lists it.

Rule 5.4(i) reserves certain hearing days, which the court calls Double Pro Per days, for matters where both parties are self-represented; the days are posted on the Family and Children page, effective January 6, 2026. An uncontested divorce on an agreement needs no hearing, so the rule is noted here only so that a notice naming such a day is not a surprise.

The judgment packet in Contra Costa County

The court publishes its own judgment packets. Packet A, Divorce Final Judgment (FamLaw-014, revised July 1, 2026), is the one for a case with no hearing, no children and no separate child support order, which is every case within the flat fee; Packet B (FamLaw-016) is added only where children or a separate support order are involved. Packet A gathers the Judicial Council forms in the order the checklist wants them: the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165), the Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150), the Property Declaration (form FL-160), the Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144), the Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (form FL-130 and FL-130A), the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (form FL-170), the Judgment (form FL-180), the judgment attachments (forms FL-343, FL-345 and FL-348) where the agreement uses them, the local Stipulation for Entry of Judgment (FamLaw-114), and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190), with the Judicial Council's information sheet MC-500-INFO and the court's own instruction sheet (FamLaw-014a) in front. Not every form in the packet applies to every case; the office prepares the ones your path requires and leaves out the rest.

Local Rule 5.11 adds four county rules to the statewide checklist. Subdivision (b): for dissolution and legal separation cases, parties shall use the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), which rule 5.405 of the California Rules of Court already makes the measure of what a court may require. Subdivision (c): if the parties submit a signed default judgment, which the court calls a default with agreement, the signature of the defaulting party shall be notarized. Subdivision (e): in a true default, the relief may not exceed the relief requested in the operative petition. Subdivision (f): all default and uncontested judgments for dissolution or legal separation are processed in the order in which they are received, and a request to move ahead of that order goes to the Ex Parte Window on local form FamLaw-34.

Subdivision (c) is the one that changes what you do. On the ordinary petition path where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing, Contra Costa County requires that signature to be notarized before the judgment is submitted. The office does not provide a notary, so the spouse who signs the agreement goes to a notary of their own choosing; the other spouse is not a client of this office and the office does not arrange it for them. A joint petition and a summary dissolution are not default judgments, and a case where your spouse files an appearance (form FL-130) is not one either, so the notary rule reaches only the default with agreement.

The FL-182 checklist in the court's packet states the copies: an original and two copies of each document being filed, five copies of the Judgment (form FL-180), and two stamped envelopes, one addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address, which is what rule 5.415 requires for the Notice of Entry of Judgment. The court does not say on any page whether a self-represented person may e-file the judgment packet, so the office's instructions describe the window, the drop box and the mail. The court's instruction sheet in the packet (FamLaw-014a-INFO) sends questions about the process of submitting a judgment to the Family Law Facilitator's office, and the statewide self-help guide describes the same step: make copies, prepare return envelopes, and mail or bring the forms to the clerk.

The first correction of a judgment packet the court returns is included in the flat fee, and the court processes judgments in the order received under rule 5.11(f), so a corrected packet is a new submission. The court's Starting Your Divorce packet carries a warning worth repeating: the court will not automatically divorce you, and the case ends only when the judgment forms are completed and submitted.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on an agreement is decided on the papers, and no hearing is needed for a judgment on declaration (Family Code section 2336). If the court does set one, the court's Court Calendars and Remote Appearances page states that Zoom is now the court's sole remote appearance platform, and that the Family Law Department conducts hearings both via Zoom and in person, with the Zoom information published department by department. The court publishes dial-in numbers for a person without video, 1-669-254-5252 and 1-833-568-8864 for Zoom Government sessions, and warns in capital letters that you may not record any remote hearing without express prior permission (California Rules of Court, rule 1.150). Title Two, Chapter 11 of the Local Rules is titled Remote Appearances and governs the mechanics.

The office does not appear at hearings. If one is set in your case, your portal tells you, and the office's written instructions tell you what the court has asked you to bring or to do, which you then do yourself, in the department the case was assigned to, by Zoom or in person as that department directs.

The self-help center and the family law facilitator

The Contra Costa County Superior Court Self-Help Resource Center provides procedural information and assistance to people who do not have an attorney, and its page lists divorce among the family law subjects it covers, with services extended effective October 1, 2025. The only telephone number the center publishes is for civil matters (landlord and tenant, civil harassment, small claims and name changes); the family law help runs through the Family Law Facilitator, whose own page says its phone line is not currently active.

The facilitator's office is in the lobby of the Spinetta Family Law building at 751 Pine Street, and helps in three ways: by appointment, by LiveChat, and in person at the Martinez location only. The hours it publishes, read on October 18, 2026: a drop-in Help Desk Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 11:30 a.m.; thirty-minute Self-Help Appointments Monday through Friday from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m.; LiveChat Tuesday through Friday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., with a notice that the chat queue may close before 4:00 p.m. once it reaches capacity; and Finish Your Divorce, or Review Your Judgment, appointments on Mondays only from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., the last at 3:15. The booking page and the chat link are on the facilitator's page. The facilitator's page lists what it helps with, which includes starting, responding to, or finishing a divorce, and what it cannot help with, which includes pension (QDRO), complex property and complex support issues; a pension that needs its own order is outside the flat fee as well.

The judgment review appointment has conditions: a Proof of Service of Summons or a Response must already be filed in the case, and the court asks you to complete the appropriate judgment packet before the appointment, as fully as you can. The facilitator's page states its role plainly: the facilitator is not your lawyer, but a neutral person who does not represent any parent or party. The office's documents are prepared and reviewed so that this review is not needed; your portal and the office are the first place for a question about your own documents, and the facilitator is there for what only the court can answer, such as what its clerk requires on the day.

The office's part, and what is outside the flat fee

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. You file the documents yourself with written filing instructions for Contra Costa County, reviewed by the attorney before release; 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. 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.

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

Some cases are outside the flat fee from the start: 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, or a spouse who cannot be found. A case that becomes contested during the engagement is outside the flat fee as well, 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

When the assigned department signs the Judgment, the clerk enters it and mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) to each spouse in the envelopes you supplied. The notice carries the date your marriage ends, which Family Code section 2339 fixes at no earlier than six months from the day your spouse was served or appeared, and section 2340 requires the judgment to state. Form FL-107-INFO puts the earliest date at six months and one day after service or appearance. Nothing in Contra Costa County's procedure moves that date, and the order in which the court processes judgments under rule 5.11(f) may mean the judgment is entered after it; the marriage still ends on the date the judgment states.

The residence rule is the same one the court states on its Divorce, Legal Separation and Annulment page: a dissolution may be started in Contra Costa County if one or both spouses have lived in the county for at least the last three months and in California for at least six months (Family Code section 2320). If you have moved to another county since separating, the intake asks, because the petition is filed where the residence rule is met, not where the marriage was.

Contra Costa County's facts on this page were read on the court's own pages and the Judicial Council's schedule on October 18, 2026, and each source is listed below with that date. The office's filing instructions for the county are prepared from the same sources and reviewed by the attorney before they are released to you.

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