Filing an uncontested divorce in Glendale

The Glendale Courthouse hears restraining orders, not divorces

The Glendale Courthouse stands at 600 East Broadway, Glendale, CA 91206. Local Rule 2.2 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County divides the county into twelve geographic districts, and subdivision (b) places the Glendale Courthouse in the North Central District together with the Burbank Courthouse at 300 East Olive Avenue. The court's Family Law Departments Directory, in the edition effective October 1, 2026 and amended October 7, 2026, prints the Glendale Courthouse under its Northeast District heading with a single family law department, Department 005, and labels that department Restraining Orders. The directory labels each of the three family law departments at the Pasadena Courthouse General FL; Glendale's one department does not carry that label.

Three other court documents read on October 18, 2026 point the same way. The court's Self-Help Center Locations document, revised October 6, 2025, lists thirteen self-help centers by courthouse, and Glendale is not one of them. The clerk's office appointment scheduler at mycourtservices.lacourt.org lists the Glendale Courthouse with the appointment codes CIV, CRM and TR and no FL code, while it lists an FL code for the Pasadena Courthouse; the scheduler does not define its codes. And General Order 2022-GEN-009-00, the court's family law e-filing order, names a family law e-filing notification account for each family law courthouse and names none for Glendale.

One more fact belongs here. The locator's Restraining Orders column for Glendale zip codes also answers Pasadena Courthouse, even though the directory shows a restraining-order department at Glendale. This page concerns a dissolution, where the two sources agree; a person who needs a restraining order should put their own zip code into the locator and read its Restraining Orders column.

What the Filing Court Locator answers for Glendale zip codes

The court's Filing Court Locator at lacourt.ca.gov asks for two things and nothing else: a city or community, and a zip code. Its instruction reads, "Enter a city/community, a zip code, or both and click search." The results come back as a table with separate columns for Unlimited Civil, Family Law, Restraining Orders and Probate, and a petition for dissolution follows the Family Law column.

Queried on October 18, 2026, the locator answered as follows for Glendale. For 91201 the Family Law column reads Pasadena Courthouse, the Unlimited Civil column reads "Burbank Courthouse or Glendale Courthouse or Pasadena Courthouse or Alhambra Courthouse", and the Restraining Orders column reads Pasadena Courthouse. For 91205 and for 91206 the three columns read the same. A query by the city name alone returned a row for each Glendale zip code the locator holds, among them 91020, 91201, 91202, 91203 and 91205, and the Family Law column read Pasadena Courthouse on every one of those rows.

The Unlimited Civil column deserves a word. The court's note on the locator says family cases are treated like unlimited civil cases for assignment purposes, and a reader who stops there might conclude that four courthouses, Burbank and Glendale among them, are open to a Glendale petition. They are not. The locator keeps a Family Law column of its own, and for Glendale that column names one courthouse. The four-courthouse answer is the locator's answer for an unlimited civil action, and a petition for dissolution is not one.

The locator surrounds its answers with four cautions of its own, and each has a Glendale angle. First, it warns that a mailing address may not be a proper indicator of true geographic location; a Glendale mailing address is not the same thing as a Glendale location, and the zip code, not the city name on the envelope, is what the locator reads. Second, it says that adjustments in caseload distributions in the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles areas, and in the North Central District, may require a case to be assigned to a different district than the one shown; rule 2.2(b) lists the Glendale Courthouse as a North Central District location. Third, the results page says the location shown will normally be the location where a case from the selected zip code and community would be assigned, unless Local Rule 2.0 specifies a different location, and the search page sends the reader to Chapter 2 of the Local Rules for the criteria. Fourth, where a street forms the boundary between two districts, the boundary of the district is the centerline of that street.

Because the locator and not the mailing address decides, the intake for a Los Angeles County case asks which courthouse the locator returned for your zip code, and the attorney confirms that courthouse with you before the petition is prepared. For a Glendale address the answer is the Pasadena Courthouse, and that is the courthouse the petition and every document after it names in its caption.

Local Rule 2.3: Pasadena, or the Central District downtown

The rule the locator applies is Local Rule 2.3, in Chapter 2 of the court's Local Rules. The edition the court serves as its current rules is footed Local Rules, Effective January 1, 2022 on every page, and rule 2.3 itself carries an amendment line ending "amended and effective July 1, 2018". Subdivision (a)(1)(B) says that an unlimited civil or Family Code action may be filed in the Central District or may be filed in a district other than the Central District, and its list of optional filings carries the family law line: "Family law (all matters under the Family Code), where one or more of the parties litigant reside." The Central District's family law courthouse is the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles 90012.

For a Glendale spouse that opens a choice the locator does not display: the Pasadena Courthouse the locator returns, or the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown. Both are within the rule's words. The rule speaks of the district where one or more of the parties reside, so where the two spouses live in different districts the rule's text reaches the district of either. A filer who chooses the Central District should know one thing about it: the court's courthouse directory carries a notice that beginning May 4, 2026, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County will introduce a new department (courtroom) numbering system at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, so a department number for that courthouse is read from the current directory and not from older material.

Two more parts of rule 2.3 round out the picture for Glendale. Subdivision (a)(1)(C) says that an unlimited civil action may not be filed in the Northeast District; it says nothing that restricts a family law filing there, and rule 2.2(b) lists the Pasadena Courthouse in the Northeast District. Subdivision (a)(1)(D) sends family law matters from nine zip codes in the Northwest District to the Central or North Valley District rather than Van Nuys; the nine are 91301, 91302, 91303, 91304, 91306, 91307, 91326, 91361 and 91367, and no Glendale zip code is among them, so the carve-out has no bearing on a Glendale filing.

Rule 2.11 says that Family Law Division courts are direct calendar courts, one judicial officer for all purposes. Under rule 2.3(b)(4) a family law case can be moved from one district to another by the Family Law Supervising Judge, and a party who asks for that move files the motion in Department 2 of the Central District. An uncontested case on a written agreement gives no occasion for a transfer motion; the rule is named so that you know the court keeps that power and where it is exercised.

Two local forms travel with the first paper, and the office prepares both with every document set. Whatever the district, rule 2.3(a)(1)(E) requires a Statement of Location (form LACIV 109, the Civil Case Cover Sheet Addendum) to go with the filing, signed by you when no attorney is of record. Rule 5.2 adds that the first paper filed by the petitioner in a family law action must be accompanied by a Family Law Case Cover Sheet (form FAM020).

The Pasadena Courthouse, 300 East Walnut Street

The Pasadena Courthouse is at 300 East Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91101. According to the court's courthouse directory page for it, read on October 18, 2026, the building opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday except court holidays, while the Clerk's Office keeps hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on those days. The courthouse answers at (626) 396-3300.

The court's page on parking is specific and worth reading before the drive from Glendale. Parking for a fee is available in the parking structure on the southeast corner of Marengo Ave. and Walnut St., with its entrance at 240 Ramona St. The ceiling clearance in that structure is 6 feet 6 inches, and the court's page says that large trucks or sport utility vehicles may not be able to use it. The page adds that there are other pay parking lots adjacent to the courthouse.

Under the heading General Directory the page names the offices housed at 300 East Walnut Street. Two of them concern a dissolution: the Family Law Clerk's Office and the Family Law Facilitator Office. Here is the whole list in the page's order:

• Family Law Clerk's Office
• Family Law Facilitator Office
• Family Court Services, Evaluation, and Family Court Services, Mediation
• Civil Harassment and Domestic Violence Restraining Orders
• Small Claims Clerk's Office
• Traffic Clerk's Office
• Criminal Clerk's Office
• Unlawful Detainer Hub, Clerk's Office

Three family law departments at Pasadena

The Family Law Departments Directory lists three family law departments at the Pasadena Courthouse, Departments K, L and S, each labelled General FL, under the heading Northeast District at 300 East Walnut, Pasadena, CA 91101. Rule 2.11 makes each a direct calendar court, so the department a Glendale case is assigned to keeps it for all purposes. The directory prints a telephone number for each department; this page prints the department letters only.

Self-help at the Pasadena Courthouse, and none at Glendale

The court's Self-Help Center Locations document lists a center at the Pasadena Courthouse, 300 East Walnut Street, 3rd Floor, Room 300, and describes the centers' in-person services as help with protective restraining orders, family law cases, eviction answers and CARE petitions. For the centers that help with family law it prints morning and afternoon hours Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and then 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., with a morning session only on Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. For questions by telephone the same document prints a Self-Help Call Center number, (213) 830-0845, staffed Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The Glendale Courthouse is not on the document.

The court's self-help site describes walk-in assistance as first come, first served and subject to availability, and adds, in its own words, that spaces fill up quickly. It says the centers can help you complete your court forms and educate you about court procedures, and that they do not provide legal advice. On the Judicial Council's statewide finder, the Pasadena Courthouse entry gives (626) 396-3300 with an empty hours line and a link to the court's self-help site; the Judicial Council's own guide says every superior court in California has free legal help available in family law.

The Family Law Facilitator Office appears in the Pasadena Courthouse's General Directory. What that office does is set out on the court's Family Law Facilitator page: it assists self-represented parties with child support, spousal support and health insurance issues, its staff gives no legal advice, and its staff represents no party in a case or at a hearing. Local Rule 5.23 describes the same duties: meeting with litigants to mediate issues of child support, spousal support and maintenance of health insurance, preparing stipulations, and preparing orders where both parties are self-represented. The facilitator's scope is support and health insurance; in an uncontested case the written agreement settles those between the spouses.

The court's self-help site also publishes its own fillable judgment packets: an Uncontested (Stipulated) Divorce Judgment Forms Packet without Minor Children, revised May 2025, and a companion packet for cases with minor children. The packet states who it is for, you and your spouse or partner must agree on all issues of the case, and its completion sheet asks, "What courthouse was your case filed?", adding that this may be different from the courthouse where a trial was held. For a Glendale case filed where the locator points, the answer is Pasadena Courthouse. The site offers a three-part divorce workshop series as well; the third part is for the spouse who filed the petition and is completing a default judgment. Both are named here because the court offers them; in your case the office prepares every document.

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

E-filing from Glendale

The court's family law e-filing rule is General Order 2022-GEN-009-00, In re Mandatory Electronic Filing for Family Law, dated April 13, 2022. It recites that effective November 15, 2021 the court mandated electronic filing of all documents filed in family law cases by litigants represented by attorneys, and section 3(a) says that self-represented litigants are exempt from mandatory electronic filing requirements. You are a self-represented litigant for this purpose, because the attorney prepares your documents in a limited scope engagement under rule 5.425 and does not appear in your case. From Glendale, then, you may e-file through an electronic filing service provider or carry the papers to the Pasadena Courthouse; the order leaves the choice with you.

A Glendale filer who takes the electronic route is bound by the order's conditions. Under section 6(a) the document must be a PDF in text-searchable form. Under section 6 confidential information must be redacted before filing, and the order's own examples are initials in place of a minor's name and the last four digits in place of a full social security number. Section 7(a) fixes the filing date: a document that reaches the court electronically at any time between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. of a court day is treated, once accepted, as filed on that day. Section 12 says fees and costs associated with electronic filing must be waived for any litigant who has a fee waiver. The order's preamble also records that proposed judgments were removed from the list of exempt filings effective April 18, 2022, which concerns filers who must e-file; a self-represented filer remains exempt from the mandate.

Section 5(b) of the order lists a family law e-filing notification account for each family law courthouse, the court's email resource account from which court-generated documents are served to the address registered with the filer's electronic filing service provider. For the Pasadena Courthouse, section 5(b) gives the account PD-FLNotification@lacourt.org. The list has no Glendale entry, just as the scheduler lists no FL code for Glendale.

If you file on paper, the court's clerk's office appointment scheduler at mycourtservices.lacourt.org lets you select a courthouse and an appointment type. For the Pasadena Courthouse it lists the codes CIV, CRM, FL, SMCL and TR; the scheduler does not define the codes. For the Glendale Courthouse it lists CIV, CRM and TR.

On drop boxes the court's site says one thing, in Local Rule 5.3(a)(2)(B), and it is written for ex parte applications: such papers may be presented to the Clerk's Office of the district courthouse to which the case is assigned through the Clerk's Office's resource account, by fax filing, by drop-box filing, or by physical delivery, for which an advance appointment is necessary. No other mention of a drop box was found on the court's site on October 18, 2026, so this page leaves the rule where the court wrote it, with ex parte papers, and says nothing about a drop box for a Glendale petition or judgment packet.

The judgment packet, from Glendale to the Pasadena clerk

Local Rule 5.17 governs the judgment packet at every courthouse in the county, and it applies to a Glendale case at the Pasadena Courthouse exactly as it does downtown. The rule lists the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution and the Request for Default or the Appearance, Stipulation and Waiver form, whichever applies, among the papers the packet must contain. It requires an original and three copies of the judgment, and says the court will retain the original and one copy. It requires two self-addressed, stamped envelopes with the court's address as the return address; for a Glendale case that return address is the Pasadena Courthouse's, not yours. The rule names the issues that require a hearing absent a written agreement, and says that filing fees will not be required from a defaulting party that has signed a judgment, and that the signature of the defaulting party must be notarized. A notary is not something the office provides, so a spouse who signs the judgment without having responded finds one on their own.

A stipulated judgment on an issue left for later may also be submitted without an appearance (rule 5.16(b)). Rule 5.3 speaks of the Clerk's Office of the district courthouse to which the case is assigned, and the court's own judgment packet asks which courthouse the case was filed in, so for a Glendale case filed at Pasadena the packet goes to the Clerk's Office of the Pasadena Courthouse. The county page sets out the judgment and after-judgment steps in general; no court page read on October 18, 2026 says anything about judgment packets that is particular to Pasadena.

Under Family Code section 2336 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409, the court may enter the judgment on your written declaration without a hearing. The court's own Divorce Overview chart, dated June 2011 and still linked from its self-help site, puts two points in plain words: the preliminary and final declarations of disclosure are not filed with the court but are served on the other spouse, which is what Family Code section 2104 requires; and in a small number of complex situations a hearing is required even for a default divorce. If a hearing is ever set, the court's Family Law Division page says that in all family law departments and hearing types the court has remote video and audio courtroom appearance technology via LACourtConnect, which applies at Pasadena as at every other courthouse.

The office, the fee and the calendar for a Glendale case

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews every document in your case for a flat fee, in a limited scope engagement under rule 5.425: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. The fee includes written filing instructions for the Pasadena Courthouse, reviewed by the attorney before they are released to you, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns; a further revision round is quoted before any work on it begins. The fee is earned in stages; should the representation end before the work is done, whatever has not been earned is refunded. You pay the court's own fees directly to the court; the county page lists them item by item, and a joint petition pays both first-paper fees under Family Code section 2342.5(h), $870, which the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists at item 99.

The office 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; a title company or another attorney does that. You file as a self-represented litigant with the attorney's written instructions in hand, and the instructions name the courthouse and the method. The office represents one spouse only; the other spouse is not a client, is not advised by the office, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

Living in Glendale rather than in Pasadena changes nothing about who may file. A Glendale petition may be filed once one spouse has six months of California residence and three months of Los Angeles County residence (Family Code section 2320); the city is not part of the test. Family Code section 2339 says the marriage cannot end sooner than six months from the day your spouse is served or appears, section 2340 says the judgment states the date it ends, and form FL-107-INFO puts the earliest date at six months and one day. Filing at Pasadena, filing in the Central District under rule 2.3(a)(1)(B), or e-filing does not shorten that period.

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