Filing an uncontested divorce in Los Angeles County

One court, thirteen family law courthouses

Los Angeles County has one superior court, and it hears family law cases at the courthouses its Family Law Departments Directory lists. The directory, effective October 1, 2026 and read on October 18, 2026, names the following courthouses with family law departments; it also lists one department at the Glendale Courthouse that hears restraining orders only, which is why Glendale is not on the list. Your case is heard at the one the court assigns, which is a question of where you live, not of which you prefer.

• Stanley Mosk Courthouse (Central District): 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
• Metropolitan Courthouse (Central (Metropolitan) District): 1945 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
• Pomona Courthouse South (East District): 400 Civic Center Plaza, Pomona, CA 91766
• Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse (North District): 42011 4th Street West, Lancaster, CA 93534
• Chatsworth Courthouse (North Valley District): 9425 Penfield Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311
• Pasadena Courthouse (Northeast District): 300 East Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101
• Van Nuys Courthouse East (Northwest District): 6230 Sylmar Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91401
• Compton Courthouse (South Central District): 200 West Compton Boulevard, Compton, CA 90220
• Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse (South District): 275 Magnolia Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802
• Whittier Courthouse (Southeast District): 7339 South Painter Avenue, Whittier, CA 90602
• Torrance Courthouse (Southwest District): 825 Maple Avenue, Torrance, CA 90503
• Inglewood Courthouse (Southwest (Inglewood) District): One Regent Street, Inglewood, CA 90301
• Santa Monica Courthouse (West District): 1725 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Which courthouse is yours

The court decides. Its Filing Court Locator takes a city or community and a zip code and returns the district and courthouse where a case belongs, and the court's note on the locator is worth reading: a mailing address is not always a reliable guide to where a place actually is, because mailing addresses sometimes carry the name of a nearby community where the post office is, and the court tells you to check a map of municipal boundaries if you are unsure. The locator also notes that family cases are treated like unlimited civil cases for this purpose, and that caseload adjustments in the San Fernando Valley, East Los Angeles and North Central areas can send a case to a different district than the one shown. The criteria are in Chapter 2 of the court's Local Rules.

The office asks for your courthouse in the intake, with the locator's answer, and confirms it with you before the petition is prepared; the petition and every later document name that courthouse in the caption.

The court's fees, item by item

The Superior Court's Civil Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026, lists every fee the court charges. The ones that arise in an uncontested divorce, at the same amounts and numbered as the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 numbers them:

• Item 97: a petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage, $435 as of October 17, 2026. This is what you pay when you file an ordinary petition. 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. Your spouse pays this only if they file a response or an appearance.
• 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.
• Item 104: an appearance, stipulation and waiver of rights where the responding spouse is a member of the armed forces, no fee.
• Item 108: a motion or other paper requiring a hearing, $60. Nothing in an uncontested divorce on an agreement requires one.
• Item 110: a stipulation and order not requiring a hearing, $20.
• Items 187, 189 and 195: certifying a copy of a paper on file, $40; a copy of a paper on file, $0.50 a page; a certified copy of a dissolution record, $15.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

Under the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, a summary dissolution (item 100) and an ordinary petition where your spouse signs the agreement and files nothing (item 97) each pay one first-paper fee; an ordinary petition where your spouse files an appearance (items 97 and 98) and a joint petition (item 99; Family Code section 2342.5(h)) each pay two, $870 in this county. The cost page explains each path; the joint petition does not save a court fee.

Government Code section 70670 sets the base fee for each first paper in a dissolution at $355; the court's schedule shows the amounts the Government Code adds in this county, and the total it lists is the amount you pay. The office's fee is separate from all of it: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition, $1,499 for an ordinary petition, each a flat fee paid to the office, with the court's fee paid by you to the court.

If you cannot afford the fee

The Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) asks the court to waive its fees for a person who receives a listed public benefit, whose household income is at or below the Judicial Council's published limit, or who cannot pay without going short on the necessaries of life (Government Code section 68632). The clerk files your petition without payment while the court decides (section 68634(c)). The office prepares the request and the court's order form as part of the flat fee when you ask; the page on the court fee waiver explains the rest. In Los Angeles County, as everywhere, a waiver covers the court's fees and not the office's.

Filing in person, by mail or electronically

The court's Family Law EFiling page states the rule: the Superior Court of Los Angeles County implemented mandatory e-filing for documents filed by litigants represented by attorneys, and self-represented litigants have the option to electronically file their documents with the court. Because the office prepares your documents in a limited scope engagement and does not appear in your case, you file as a self-represented litigant, and e-filing is a choice, not a requirement. You may file in person at the clerk's window of your courthouse, by mail, or through one of the electronic filing service providers the court lists for family law, which charge their own fees.

The court's e-filing page carries a warning that applies whichever way you file: parties must leave out, or redact, Social Security numbers and financial account numbers from papers filed in the public file, keeping only the last four digits where a number is required (California Rules of Court, rule 1.201(a)). The office prepares your documents to that rule, and your financial disclosure, which carries account information, is not filed with the court at all; only the proof that it was served is.

Your filing instructions name the courthouse, the method, what to bring and what to ask the clerk for. The clerk keeps the original, stamps your copies with the filing date and the case number, and on an ordinary petition issues the summons. You enter the date and the case number in your portal, and the next set of documents is prepared from them.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. The original and two copies of each document in the set the office released to you, signed in ink where the instruction sheet shows: the Petition (form FL-100) and Summons (form FL-110), or the Joint Petition (form FL-700) and its summons (form FL-710), or the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the property settlement agreement and the Judgment (form FL-825); the fee waiver request if you are making one; and the fee.

At service, on an ordinary petition. Nothing goes to the court until the proof of service is signed by your server; then you file the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115), or the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (form FL-117) your spouse signed. The disclosure declaration (form FL-141) is filed when your disclosure has been served; the disclosure itself is never filed.

At the judgment. The judgment packet your filing instructions list: Local Rule 5.17, read on October 18, 2026, calls for the original and three copies of the judgment (the court keeps the original and one copy), the original and two copies of the Notice of Entry of Judgment, and two self-addressed stamped envelopes with the court's address as the return address, which is also what rule 5.415 requires; the court requires nothing beyond the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182) that rule 5.405 fixes. You may submit the packet at the clerk's window or by mail, and the court reviews it on paper; Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 allow the judgment to be entered on your declaration without a hearing.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on an agreement needs no hearing, and the court must allow the judgment to be entered on declarations (rule 5.409). If the court does set one, the court's own page says that in all family law departments and hearing types the court has remote video and audio appearance through LACourtConnect, which the court describes as letting you attend most hearings from your computer or phone. The office does not appear at hearings; where one is set, your portal tells you and the office's instructions tell you what the court has asked for.

Help the court itself offers

The court maintains self-help resource centers for people without attorneys, and the Judicial Council's statewide self-help guide points every reader to their court's self-help center or family law facilitator for help with forms. The locations and hours are on the court's website. The office's documents are prepared to be filed without that help, and your portal and the office are the first place to ask; the court's centers exist for questions the office cannot answer for you, such as what a clerk requires on the day.

A case that is no longer uncontested is outside the flat fee, and the engagement ends as the engagement letter provides. The State Bar of California's Lawyer Referral Service directory lists the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Lawyer Referral and Information Service, at 213-243-1525; that is the referral your portal gives if the engagement ends.

After the judgment, in this county

The clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) to each spouse in the envelopes you provided. The notice states the date your marriage ends, never earlier than six months from service or appearance (Family Code sections 2339 and 2340). If an agency later asks for a certified copy of the judgment, the clerk sells one for $15 (item 195 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026). A former name restored in the judgment is changed on your identification with that certified copy, as the Judicial Council's guide explains.

The office holds the filing instructions for any county whose court data it has not verified from the court's own materials. Los Angeles County's are verified, and the dates each source was read are listed below.

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