How much does an uncontested divorce cost in California?

The attorney's flat fee

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews every document in an uncontested divorce without minor children for a flat fee, stated before you pay. There are three packages, and the screening on the start page tells you which fits before anything is charged. An ordinary petition, where you file and your spouse either signs the agreement and files nothing or files an appearance, is $1,499. A joint petition, where both of you sign one petition and nobody is served, is $999. A summary dissolution, for a marriage of five years or less with no children, no real property and limited property and debt, is $599.

The fee is the whole charge for the attorney's work: every document from the first filing through the judgment, the settlement agreement drafted by the attorney from the terms you and your spouse agreed, your financial disclosure prepared from the figures you enter, the fee waiver forms if you ask for them, filing instructions for your county at each step, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. There are no hourly charges and nothing is billed by the page or the phone call.

California law requires the fee to be in writing. Business and Professions Code section 6148 provides that where it is reasonably foreseeable that the total expense to a client, including attorney fees, will exceed $1,000, the contract for services must be in writing, must state the basis of the fee, including a flat fee, the general nature of the services, and the responsibilities of the attorney and the client, and a signed copy must be given to the client. The engagement letter you sign in your portal is that contract, and it is signed before anything is charged. The engagement is a limited scope one under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425: the attorney drafts the documents and you file them, and the letter says so.

When the fee is earned, and what is refunded

The fee is earned in stages stated in the engagement letter, and any unearned portion is refunded if the representation ends early. 25 percent is earned when the engagement begins and your intake questionnaire is opened to you. 75 percent is earned when the first stage of documents (the petition and summons, the joint petition and joint summons, or the joint petition for summary dissolution) is approved by the attorney and released to you. The whole fee is earned when the last stage of documents is approved by the attorney and released to you.

So a client whose matter ends after the engagement letter but before the first documents are released is refunded 75 percent; one whose matter ends after the petition is released but before the last stage is refunded 25 percent. A matter that stops being uncontested, because the two of you no longer agree or the other spouse contests, ends the engagement the same way, with the same refund. Your portal shows the stage the fee has reached.

The court's filing fee, item by item

The court charges its own fee to file the first paper in a dissolution, and it is paid by you directly to the court, never to the office. The amount is set by the Government Code and the court's own schedule. Government Code section 70670(b) sets the uniform fee for the first paper in a dissolution at $355, and subdivision (d) sets the same fee for the first paper filed by the spouse who responds. The court's schedule adds the amounts other sections of the Government Code allow, and lists the result.

In Los Angeles County the Superior Court charges the amounts the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026, lists for the fees that matter in an uncontested divorce:

• Item 97: a petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage, $435 as of October 17, 2026. A joint petition pays both first-paper fees, $870, which the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists at item 99.
• Item 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, $435.
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a spouse who has not responded and included in the judgment, no fee. The spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing is not charged a first-paper fee.
• Item 104: an appearance, stipulation and waiver of rights in a dissolution where the spouse who responds is a member of the armed forces, no fee.
• Item 108: a motion or other paper requiring a hearing in a family law matter, $60, unless it is that party's first paper and the first-paper fee is paid. An uncontested divorce on an agreement needs no hearing.
• Item 110: a stipulation and order not requiring a hearing, $20.
• Item 187: certifying a copy of a paper on file, $40; item 189: a copy of any paper on file, $0.50 a page; item 195: a certified copy of a marriage or domestic partnership dissolution record, which is the judgment, requested by any applicant other than a public agency, $15.

How many times the court charges it

How many first-paper fees the court charges depends on how the case is opened, and that is the part people are caught out by.

On a summary dissolution, one. It is a single joint filing by both of you under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403, and item 100 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 charges it once.

On an ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing, one. You pay item 97 when you file the petition. Your spouse pays the court nothing: item 103 lists the agreement signed by a spouse who has not responded at no fee. This is the most common uncontested path.

On an ordinary petition where your spouse files a response or an appearance, two. You pay item 97 and your spouse pays item 98, the same amount, unless the court waives it. The divorce is still uncontested; the court simply charges each spouse who files a first paper.

On a joint petition, two. Family Code section 2342.5(h) provides that the filing of a joint petition shall be accompanied by the fees in Government Code section 70670(b) and (d), unless both parties have been granted a fee waiver. The law treats a joint petition as the first paper of both spouses, so the court charges its fee twice, once for each of you (Family Code section 2342.5(h)): both first-paper fees at item 99 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, $870 in Los Angeles County. The joint petition has the lowest fee from this office and the highest from the court, and it does not save a court fee.

Here is what each path costs in total in Los Angeles County, the office's fee and the court's together:

• Summary Dissolution Package: $599 to the office, $435 (one first paper, filed by the two of you together) to the court, $1,034 all in.
• Joint Petition Uncontested Divorce: $999 to the office, $870 (two first papers, one for each of you) to the court, $1,869 all in.
• Uncontested Divorce, No Minor Children: your spouse signs the agreement and files nothing: $1,499 to the office, $435 (one first paper; your spouse files nothing and pays the court nothing) to the court, $1,934 all in.
• Uncontested Divorce, No Minor Children: your spouse files an appearance: $1,499 to the office, $870 (two first papers, yours with the petition and your spouse's with the appearance) to the court, $2,369 all in.

The fee waiver

If you cannot afford the court's fee, the court can waive it. Government Code sections 68630 to 68634 and the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) set out who qualifies: a person receiving one of the listed public benefits, such as Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI, CalWORKs, General Assistance or unemployment compensation; a person whose monthly household income is at or below the amount the Judicial Council publishes for the household's size, which section 68632(b) sets at 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines; or a person who cannot pay the fees without using money that normally pays for the common necessaries of life for their family. The Judicial Council's guide says you need to meet only one of the three.

The waiver covers the court's fees: the filing fee, the fee to respond, copies including certified copies, and the sheriff's fee to serve papers, among others listed on the court's order form. It does not cover the attorney's fee, a notary or postage, and the office's flat fee is unchanged by it. A fee waiver in a divorce expires 60 days after the judgment is entered, and the court may order you to repay waived fees if your finances improve during the case; form FW-001-INFO explains both. The office prepares the request and the court's order form (FW-003) as part of the flat fee when you ask; the court decides. The page on the court fee waiver has the detail.

The small costs people forget

None of these goes to the office. Each is paid to the person or business that provides it.

• A notary for the settlement agreement. Both spouses sign before a notary of their own choosing. The Judicial Council's guide says the fee is usually $15 a signature and may be different; the office does not provide a notary.
• Postage and envelopes. California Rules of Court, rule 5.415 requires every judgment submitted for signature to be accompanied by stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse with the clerk's address as the return address, so the clerk can mail the entered judgment and the notice of entry. The Judicial Council's guide suggests two large envelopes with enough postage, and says some courts ask for a third small one for the notice of entry.
• Copies. The clerk keeps the original and stamps your copies, so you bring two copies of each document; a copy shop charges by the page. If you need the clerk to make copies, the court charges $0.50 a page (item 189 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026).
• A certified copy of the judgment, if an agency asks for one when you change a name or a title: $15 (item 195 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026; under Government Code section 70674, the dissolution record is the judgment).
• Service, on an ordinary petition. An adult who is not a party hands the papers to your spouse or mails them with a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt; a friend or relative may do it at no charge, and a professional process server or the sheriff charges a fee of their own. A fee waiver covers the sheriff's fee.
• Recording fees, if your agreement awards a home to one of you and a deed is recorded. The deed itself is arranged by the two of you, through a title company, an escrow company or a real property attorney; the office prepares and records none.

What raises the cost

The flat fee covers an uncontested divorce: you and your spouse have agreed on property, debts and spousal support, and your spouse cooperates. A dispute, minor children, a business, a pension that needs a domestic relations order, or real property outside California is outside the flat fee, and the screening says so before you pay. The office does not quote those cases; it points you to the lawyer referral service for your county.

Two things within the flat fee have a limit: one round of revisions to the settlement agreement, and one correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round is available and quoted on request before any work is done; the round begins when its fee is paid.

Two add-ons exist, and neither is required. Expedited document turnaround is $300: The office prepares each document stage ahead of its ordinary turnaround. The six-month waiting period set by California law is not affected. Former name restoration after judgment is $200: An ex parte application to restore a former name after the judgment has been entered, where it was not requested in the judgment. During the case a former name is restored in the judgment at no charge, from your intake.

What the other spouse pays

The other spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce and pays the office nothing. What the other spouse pays the court is set out above, path by path. An attorney of their own choosing, if they consult one before signing the agreement, charges whatever that attorney charges; the Judicial Council's guide notes that many lawyers charge an hourly consultation fee for reviewing an agreement. The office's guide for the other spouse explains their choices.

How this compares with the alternatives

The services compared on this site publish prices from $299 to $3,500 for an uncontested California divorce, read from their own pages, and an attorney billing by the hour cannot tell you the total in advance. The court's fee is the same whoever prepares the papers, because it is paid to the court. The office's comparison page sets its fee beside each service, row by row, with the date each company's price was read and who prepares and reviews the documents in each case.

The one cost that no fee changes is time. California law requires six months between the day your spouse is served or appears and the day your marriage can legally end (Family Code section 2339), and the court's own schedule takes what it takes to review a judgment packet. What the attorney's fee buys is documents prepared to the court's rules by an attorney who reads your facts, with the first correction included if the court returns the judgment packet.

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