Filing an uncontested divorce in El Dorado County

One court, two branches that file family law

El Dorado County has one superior court spread across four branches, and its Family Law division page names two of them under the heading Locations for Filings: the Placerville Building C Branch and the South Lake Tahoe Branch. The court's Locations and Contact Information page agrees, routing Family Law in Placerville to Building C and Juvenile/Family Law/Probate in South Lake Tahoe to the Johnson Boulevard branch. The other two branches serve other case types: the Cameron Park Branch at 2927 Meder Road lists civil, probate, small claims, traffic, unlawful detainer and several specialty calendars among the cases it serves, and the Placerville Main Street Branch at 495 Main Street lists criminal cases and houses Child Custody Recommending Counseling. Neither of those two pages lists family law, and this page names only the two branches the court lists for family law filings.

Family law cases are heard in Departments 4, 5 and 12, as the Family Law page states. The court's Judicial Assignments page places Department 5 at the Placerville Building C Branch and Departments 4 and 12 at the South Lake Tahoe Branch, which is why a petition filed on the West Slope and a petition filed in South Lake Tahoe end up in different courtrooms. The Family Law page gives the division's office hours as 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays and court closures, with telephone hours the same; the Locations page says all clerk's offices are open 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and have after-hours drop boxes.

The two family law branches, as the court's location pages gave them on October 18, 2026:

• Placerville Building C Branch: 2850 Fairlane Court, Suite 120, Placerville, CA 95667. Telephone (530) 621-5047. Departments 5 and 8. The building is open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the clerk's office 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with an after-hours drop box. Family law is among the cases the page lists, with appeals, guardianships, juvenile dependency and restraining orders.
• South Lake Tahoe Branch: 1354 Johnson Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. Departments 3, 4, 11 and 12. The building is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the clerk's office Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with an after-hours drop box; fax (530) 542-9102. Family law is among the cases the page lists. The court's pages differ on this branch's telephone: the Family Law page prints (530) 573-3044 for the South Lake Tahoe filing location, while the branch's own page prints (530) 573-3075 for civil, small claims, juvenile, family law and probate and (530) 573-3044 for criminal and traffic. Both are given here as the court gives them.

Which branch takes your petition: what the local rules say

The court's Local Rules, in the edition effective January 1, 2026, answer the question in two rules, and it is worth reading what they do and do not say. Rule 2.00.08(A)(4) provides that all papers must be filed directly with the clerk's office in the courthouse where the case is assigned, with one exception: filings for Department 8 go to Building C, Suite 120. Rule 2.00.08(B) declares that a session of the court is held in South Lake Tahoe under Government Code section 69751.5, and rule 2.00.08(C) defines the South Lake Tahoe Area by a metes-and-bounds legal description rather than by a list of towns. Rule 2.00.09(B) then fixes the consequence: if a case has been venued in the Placerville session, all filings in that case are made in Placerville only, and if a case has been venued in the South Lake Tahoe session, all filings are made in South Lake Tahoe only. Rule 2.00.09 also carries the court's procedure for transferring a case between the two sessions.

What the rules do not state is the criterion by which a new dissolution case is placed in one session or the other. No rule read for this page, and no court page, says that a petition is assigned by the petitioner's residence, the respondent's residence or any other fact, and this page does not supply a criterion the court has not published. The practical result is the same either way: once a case is in a session, every paper in it, from the petition to the judgment packet, is filed at that session's clerk's office, and nowhere else.

Because the county has two family law branches, the office confirms the branch with you before the petition is prepared, and the filing instructions name that branch and the method you chose.

The court's fees, item by item

The El Dorado court posts a fee schedule of its own, but it is the statewide schedule under the court's name. Its Fees and Bail Schedules page links a document it labels Statewide Civil Fee Schedule El Dorado County (Updated 1/2026), and the PDF is captioned Superior Court of California, County of El Dorado, Statewide Civil Fee Schedule, Effective January 1, 2026. Apart from that caption, its items 97 through 104 and their amounts match the Judicial Council Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, and both copies were read on October 18, 2026. The schedule's asterisk note says the marked fees vary only in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local courthouse construction surcharge, and El Dorado County appears neither in that note nor in the appendix of local surcharges, so the figures below are the figures at either branch. The Family Law page itself sends a reader to the Civil Fee Schedule for current filing fees, and the court's two divorce coversheets, F-115 and F-116, repeat the petition fee in their own text. The items an uncontested divorce meets:

• Item 97, $435: the first paper, petition or otherwise, in a dissolution, legal separation or nullity of a marriage or domestic partnership, as Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6 set it. This is what the clerk collects when an ordinary petition is filed.
• Item 98: the response, or any other first paper a respondent files in answer to a dissolution petition, $435, under Government Code section 70670(d). A spouse who files neither a response nor any other first paper never meets this item; the court's stipulated judgment checklist, F-13, lists the response or the Appearance, Stipulation and Waivers (FL-130) as submitted with this fee or a fee waiver.
• Item 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, except in a summary dissolution case, $870. The schedule says the fee covers the appearance of both petitioners and that no further first-appearance fee is charged if the joint petition is later revoked.
• Item 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, $435, under Government Code section 70670(b).
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent and included in a judgment of dissolution, no fee, under Government Code section 70677(c).
• Item 104: an appearance, stipulation and waiver of rights by a respondent in the armed forces, no fee, under Government Code section 70673.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays item 97 once, $435, and item 103 says the agreement your spouse signs after default carries no fee of its own. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response or an FL-130 pays items 97 and 98, $870 between the two of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays item 99, $870, for the reason the statute gives: subdivision (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. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays one first-paper fee in this county, the $435 of item 100. The joint petition does not save a court fee in El Dorado County; it pays both first-paper fees.

The office's flat fee is paid to the office and stands apart from anything the clerk collects: $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, written filing instructions for your El Dorado branch that the attorney reviews before they are released to you, one revision round of the settlement agreement and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. If the agreement needs a further revision round, the office quotes that round before starting it. The fee is earned in stages; if the representation ends early, the part not yet earned comes back to you.

What the office does not do is as fixed as what it does: it does not file your documents, does not serve your spouse, does not appear in court, does not provide a notary and does not prepare or record deeds. You file at your El Dorado branch as a self-represented party, carrying the attorney's written instructions. The office represents one spouse only; in the divorce your spouse is not a client of this office, is not advised by it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The El Dorado court keeps no fee waiver page of its own. Its Self-Help page links Fee Waiver Forms to the Judicial Council, and its divorce coversheets F-115 and F-116 tell a filer who cannot afford the filing fee to apply for a fee waiver and name the two forms: the Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (Superior Court) (FW-003). The statute is Government Code sections 68630 to 68634: the court waives its fees for a person receiving a listed public benefit, a person whose household income is at or below the published limit, or a person 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 pending (section 68634(c)). The Judicial Council's fee waiver guide, which the court links, says a waiver in a divorce case can cover the fee to file divorce papers and the fee to respond to them, and that a waiver expires 60 days after judgment is entered.

Two of the court's own pages speak to what a waiver reaches in this county. The eFiling page says that under Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6 no filing or convenience fees are charged to a party granted a fee waiver under Government Code section 68631, that a service provider's fees are waived for a party with an active fee waiver, and that acceptance of an e-filed fee waiver request means only that the document was accepted for filing; an order granting or denying the request follows. The Remote Appearances page says no remote appearance fee is charged to a party with a valid fee waiver. On a joint petition, Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers, so each spouse who needs one submits a request of their own.

When you ask, the office prepares FW-001 and FW-003 as part of the flat fee. A fee waiver reaches the court's fees and nothing else; the office's fee is unchanged by it.

E-filing under local rule 7.08.00: mandatory for attorneys, optional for you

The court's eFiling page states that eFiling is mandatory for all represented parties and justice partners in civil, family law, probate and small claims cases, and that self-represented parties, as defined in California Rules of Court, rule 2.250(b)(10), are exempt from mandatory eFiling. Local rule 7.08.00, Electronic Submission of Filings, says the same in rule form for adoptions, civil, family law, family support, probate and small claims and forbids e-filing in other case types. The page then answers the question a person filing their own papers asks: self-represented parties are eligible to use the site for eFiling. You file the documents yourself, as a self-represented party, and whether to e-file is your choice.

If you e-file, it goes through an authorized electronic filing service provider: the eFiling page says filings are not accepted through any other electronic method, such as email or fax, and the court maintains its own list of authorized providers, linked below, each of which may charge a transaction fee. The page states the filing-date rule: a document received electronically between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on a court day is deemed filed that day, and one received on a day that is not a court day is deemed filed the next court day. It sets format requirements too: PDFs must be text-searchable, a document of ten or more pages with multiple exhibits must be bookmarked, and every e-filed document needs page numbers. The page lists the documents that must still be filed on paper, among them original wills and codicils, bonds, exhibits lodged for hearings or trials and subpoenaed documents; none of them is part of an uncontested divorce. The court's coversheets add one practical note and cite the rule: copies are not required if you file electronically.

If you file on paper, you go to the clerk's office of the branch where your case is assigned during its 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. hours, or use that branch's after-hours drop box. Local rule 4.00.04 says the clerk conforms a maximum of two copies of any document at the time of filing, and rule 4.00.05 requires a self-addressed return envelope with sufficient postage if conformed copies are to be returned; without one, the rules say, copies go to a will-call file and may later be destroyed. The court's coversheets ask for the original and two copies on a paper filing, and the Facilitator page describes the same packet: the original and at least two copies, the filing fee or a completed fee waiver application, and a postage-paid self-addressed envelope for the return of your copies.

Whichever route you choose, your financial disclosure is not among the papers filed. Family Code section 2104 requires the preliminary declaration of disclosure to be served on your spouse, and the court sees only the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141), which the court's own judgment checklists list.

Local rules and local forms

The court's Local Rules Information and Services page posts the edition effective January 1, 2026, and rule 1.00.01 states that date. Family law is Chapter 8.00.00, Family Law Proceedings, and rule 8.00.02 makes family law matters subject as well to the civil rules of Chapter 7.00.00 where the two are consistent, which is how rules 7.02.00 on remote proceedings and 7.08.00 on e-filing reach a divorce. Within Chapter 8, the rules an uncontested dissolution meets are 8.03.00 and 8.03.01 on when an Income and Expense Declaration is required, 8.21.00 to 8.21.03 on a default or uncontested judgment, 8.22.00 to 8.22.05 on the contents of the judgment, 8.25.00 to 8.25.03 on the Family Law Facilitator and 8.27.00 on the Family Centered Case Resolution process. The chapter's rules on requests for order, custody counseling, trial setting and the statement of issues describe proceedings an agreed divorce does not reach. Outside the chapter, rules 2.00.08 and 2.00.09 on where papers are filed and 4.00.04 and 4.00.05 on conformed copies apply to every filing in the case.

Rules 8.27.02 and 8.27.03 bring one obligation into the first week of the case. In every dissolution, legal separation, nullity and parentage case the court issues a notice of status conference and sets three status conferences, within six, twelve and eighteen months, together with dismissal hearings at two and five years, and the petitioner must serve the notice of status conference on the respondent with the summons and petition and the other initial papers. The rule says the parties need not attend unless ordered, and the Family Law page says no court orders are made at a case management conference and that self-represented parties meet with the Facilitator at status conferences held in person at Placerville and South Lake Tahoe.

The court marks every local form that touches a divorce petition, a default or a judgment Optional in the Mandatory/Optional column of its Local Forms page. Those forms are F-115 and F-116, the How to Start a Divorce coversheets with and without children; F-91, the Family Law Information Sheet; F-11, F-12 and F-13, the judgment checklists for a true default, a technical default and a stipulated judgment; F-15 and F-16, the checklists for a reserved issues judgment and a status only judgment; F-124, a court-drafted fill-in Marital Settlement Agreement, with F-124A, a Waiver of Right to Spousal Support; F-26a, a Stipulation to Waive Final Disclosure; F-119, a coversheet on requesting financial disclosures; and M-3, a Request to Set Uncontested Matter. The local forms the court marks mandatory in family law concern custody counseling and other matters not tied to a dissolution petition or judgment. The Family Law page nonetheless points default filers to F-11 and F-12 and filers with a settlement agreement to F-13.

The coversheets say what the court wants with a petition. F-116, for a divorce without children, lists the Judicial Council forms the court requires: the Summons (FL-110), the Petition (FL-100) and the Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115); F-115 adds the Declaration Under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (FL-105/GC-120) for a case with children. Both coversheets state the filing fee, name the fee waiver forms, say documents may be e-filed under local rule 7.08.00, and end with the step every path shares: file the documents with the Clerk's Office.

The judgment packet in El Dorado County

Local rule 8.21.01 states the court's expectation: uncontested or default dissolution judgments should be obtained by declaration without the necessity of a hearing, though a hearing may be set on a party's request or by court order. Family Code section 2336 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409 are the statewide authority for that, and rules 5.405, 5.411 and 5.415 supply the frame: the Judgment Checklist (FL-182) is the limit of what a court may require with a judgment, a stipulated judgment signed by both spouses is governed by rule 5.411, and the clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment in stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address under rule 5.415. The court's three checklists end on the same note, listing the Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190) with self-addressed stamped envelopes for both parties.

Rule 8.21.02 adds El Dorado's own requirements for the judgment's format. The judgment is on form FL-180, and the original proposed judgment, including any marital settlement agreement, is submitted to the court clerk. Any award of support or fees must rest on an agreement or on an Income and Expense Declaration served with the Request to Enter Default. The judge's signature may not follow an attached agreement. All parties and attorneys sign the marital settlement agreement, and a respondent on whom default has been taken must have his or her signature acknowledged by a notary if not represented by counsel; the court's technical default checklist, F-12, repeats it: the defaulting party's signature must be notarized. The office does not provide a notary, so your spouse arranges the notary for that signature. The rule also provides that where only one party is represented, the other must sign a statement that they were advised to consult an attorney and declined.

Rules 8.22.00 to 8.22.05 govern what the judgment must contain. Rule 8.22.03 requires that spousal support for each party be addressed, whether a support amount is requested, support is terminated or the issue is reserved, and a default request for support needs a declaration of the effective date, the amount and both parties' net incomes. Rule 8.22.05 governs the division of community property in a default without an agreement: the court requires proof that the respondent was given notice of the proposed division of community property and the confirmation of any separate property at least 30 days in advance, by a petition or amended petition stating values with its proof of service, or by a filed property declaration with the proposed division and values and its proof of service. The court's true default checklist, F-11, adds that a prove-up hearing may be set if the community property division is unequal or has not been properly disclosed to the respondent, and that you can only request in the judgment what was originally requested in your petition.

The court's checklists set out the packet form by form. F-11, for a true default, lists the Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115) or the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (FL-117), the Request to Enter Default (FL-165), the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141), the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (FL-170), the Judgment (FL-180) with its attachments where a case needs them, the Child Support Case Registry Form (FL-191), which the checklist says must be submitted even if no child support is requested, retirement joinder forms where they apply, and FL-190 with the envelopes; it notes that a prove-up may be set when support is sought without a current Income and Expense Declaration from the respondent. F-12, for a technical default, adds the preliminary disclosures of both parties and either the final disclosures or their waiver on FL-144. F-13, for a stipulated judgment, adds the Response (FL-120) or the Appearance, Stipulation and Waivers (FL-130), filed or submitted with the fee or a fee waiver, the signatures of both parties and any attorneys, and, for a marriage of long duration, a waiver of spousal support, for which the checklist says a template is available from the Facilitator.

The packet reaches the court by the routes the court states for any filing: in person at the clerk's office of the branch where the case is assigned, in that branch's after-hours drop box, or by e-filing through an authorized provider, which the court's eFiling page opens to self-represented parties for family law filings generally. Under rules 2.00.08(A)(4) and 2.00.09(B) a Placerville case's packet goes to Building C and a South Lake Tahoe case's packet to the Johnson Boulevard branch. No court page read for this page describes filing by mail, and this page does not describe one. Should the clerk send the packet back, the flat fee covers correcting it the first time.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is decided on the papers, and local rule 8.21.01 says the court expects it so. If a hearing or a conference is set in your case nonetheless, the court's Remote Appearances page names its platform for all remote appearances: Unicorn Digital Courtroom, which the court abbreviates UDC. The page describes three steps. First, a remote appearance request is filed under local rules 5.01.00 and 7.02.00, through the court's web portal, by eFiling or at the clerk's office; the court's Remote Appearance Forms page lists the Judicial Council's Notice of Remote Appearance (RA-010), the Order Regarding Remote Appearance (RA-020) and the Opposition to Remote Proceeding at Evidentiary Hearing or Trial (RA-015) for civil, family, probate and small claims. Second, the party registers and pays on the UDC self-registration portal, which opens 14 days before the hearing and closes 15 minutes before it, with a $5.00 late fee the same day. Third, the party joins through UDC at the hearing time. The page exempts family law trial setting conferences, civil case management conferences, ex parte proceedings and juvenile detention hearings from the request step, and local rule 8.18.05 says parties may appear remotely at a trial setting conference without submitting the request form.

Local rule 7.02.00 sets the timing: form RA-010 is filed and served at least two court days before a non-evidentiary hearing, and notice for an evidentiary hearing or trial is given at least ten court days before, with RA-015 available to the other party to oppose. Rule 8.06.05 applies California Rules of Court, rule 3.672 and rule 7.02.00 to family law remote appearances. The court's Remote Appearances page states the fees for civil, family law and probate matters as a $25.00 remote appearance fee and a $10.00 convenience fee plus a payment processing fee, with cancellation fees of $2.00 one to four days before and $5.00 the same day, and says none is charged to a party with a valid fee waiver. The page also says that any recording of a remote proceeding, screenshots included, is prohibited under California Rules of Court, rule 1.150. The office does not appear at a hearing; if the court sets one, the court's notice says what it has asked for.

The Family Law Facilitator/Self-Help Center

The court's family law self-help service is the Family Law Facilitator/Self-Help Center, which local rules 8.25.00 to 8.25.03 require each division of the court to maintain under the Family Law Facilitator Act. The court's page describes the Facilitator as an attorney available to provide procedural assistance to people representing themselves in Family Court, and lists divorce, child custody, child support, preparation of orders, restraining orders and other family law matters among what the center helps with, along with small claims, landlord-tenant, expungement, civil harassment and CARE Act matters; it cannot help with probate, guardianship, conservatorship or civil cases. The page's limits are stated in the court's words: the staff can only provide information and education, not legal advice; they cannot represent you; no attorney-client relationship is formed; and communications with the center are not confidential.

There are two offices, one at each family law branch. The Placerville office is at 2850 Fairlane Court, Suite 120, Placerville, CA 95667, telephone (530) 621-5098, email selfhelp@eldorado.courts.ca.gov. The South Lake Tahoe office is at 1354 Johnson Boulevard, first floor, next to Department 12, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150, telephone (530) 573-3066, email sltselfhelp@eldorado.courts.ca.gov. The court publishes the offices' walk-in days, call-in times and workshop dates on a monthly schedule for each office, linked below, and its page says the schedule is subject to change without prior notice; the Building C branch page and local form F-91 also print walk-in days, and the court's own documents do not agree on the Placerville days, so this page prints none of them and sends you to the current month's schedule. The page says telephone and email help is given during the scheduled call-in times, first come first served.

Three services on the Facilitator's page bear on an uncontested divorce. Completed forms may be submitted to the Facilitator for review before filing, in person, by email, by mail or in a drop box, with a self-addressed stamped envelope for a mailed or dropped submission; the page adds that the Facilitator does not file your documents for you. The Facilitator's office offers monthly workshops, by videoconference and in person at the Placerville Building C Branch, including Beginning a Divorce and Preparing for the Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure. And the court's Interactive Online Forms page links the LawHelp Interactive interview Starting a Divorce (Dissolution), while its Self-Help page links the Judicial Council's step-by-step guide, Divorce in California, which covers divorce, the joint petition, summary dissolution, legal separation and annulment.

The flat fee does not reach a case with minor children, a contested case, a business, a pension that needs an order of its own, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, or a spouse who cannot be found; each of those is outside the flat fee. 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 court's Family Law page puts the wait in two sentences: you must wait six months from the date the respondent was served with the divorce documents, and you will then have to submit judgment paperwork to the court. The statute is Family Code section 2339, which runs the six months from service or from the respondent's appearance, and form FL-107-INFO counts the earliest possible date as six months and one day from that day. Under section 2340 the judgment itself carries the date on which the marriage ends. The court enters the judgment when it has reviewed the complete packet; no branch, no drop box and no e-filing shortens the period.

Once the judgment is entered, the clerk uses the stamped envelopes from your packet, the ones rule 5.415 requires, to mail the Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse. Where your agreement calls for a transfer of California real property, the office does not prepare or record the deed; a title company or another attorney handles it after the judgment. The Family Law page also describes summary dissolution in the court's own terms, for spouses who were married for under five years, had no children born during the marriage and have very few community assets and debts; the statute is Family Code sections 2400 to 2403, and a summary dissolution's judgment is on form FL-825.

The residence rule for filing here at all is Family Code section 2320: six months in California and three months in El Dorado County before the petition is filed. The sources below were each read on October 18, 2026 at www.eldorado.courts.ca.gov; each address, hour, fee, rule and form on this page is drawn from them, and anything the El Dorado court's materials did not confirm was left out.

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