Filing an uncontested divorce in Marin County

One courthouse: the Civic Center in San Rafael

The Superior Court of California, County of Marin lists one courthouse for every case type on its location page: Marin County Superior Court, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903, main telephone (415) 444-7000, with building hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., unavailable from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. The only other location the court lists is its juvenile hall, for juvenile matters. There is no branch to choose and no venue rule to apply by city or zip code; the caption of every document in your case names the court at the Civic Center.

Inside the building, the court's Family Law Information page and its Contact Us page both place the Family Law clerk in Room 113 of the Hall of Justice, with the telephone number (415) 444-7040 and the e-mail address familylaw@marin.courts.ca.gov. The counter hours those pages print are the hours Local Rule 1.22 fixes for every clerk's office of the court: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Unified Family Court page gives separate, shorter telephone hours for the Family Law clerk; this page prints the counter hours only, and that page carries the telephone hours.

The Family Law Information page adds a timing rule for the last half hour of the day: documents received in the clerk's office after 3:30 p.m. are stamped with that day's date and processed on the following court business day, so an afternoon filing is dated the day it arrives and handled the next. The court's mailing address, from its Contact Us page, is P.O. Box 4988, San Rafael, California 94913. As the court's pages gave them on October 18, 2026:

• Marin County Superior Court, Hall of Justice, Civic Center: 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903. Main telephone (415) 444-7000.
• Family Law clerk: Room 113, (415) 444-7040, familylaw@marin.courts.ca.gov. Counter hours 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. under Local Rule 1.22. Filings received after 3:30 p.m. are processed the next court business day.
• Mailing address: Marin County Superior Court, P.O. Box 4988, San Rafael, California 94913.

Assignment to a judicial officer and the Case Progress Conference

Marin assigns a case, not a courthouse. Local Rule 7.3 provides that every family law matter, other than a child support matter brought by the Department of Child Support Services, is assigned for all purposes other than settlement conferences to a Family Law Judicial Officer, and that the assignment is made when the petition is filed. Local Rule 7.5(B) describes what the clerk hands back at that moment: a Notice of Case Assignment and a Notice of Case Progress Conference. Rule 7.5(C) requires the person who filed to serve both notices on the other spouse together with the Summons (form FL-110) and the Petition (form FL-100), so in this county your server's packet carries two court-issued notices along with the summons and petition.

Local Rule 7.5 is titled Family Centered Case Resolution, and it applies to every dissolution except a summary dissolution. Under it the first Case Progress Conference is set 120 days after the petition is filed. Each party must file and serve the court's Case Progress Conference Questionnaire, local form FL003, at least five court days before each conference (rule 7.5(D)(3)). The Local Forms page also lists FL007, a Stipulation and Order to Continue Case Progress Conference, in English and Spanish.

For an uncontested case, rule 7.5(D)(2) is the sentence that matters: a pending Case Progress Conference is dropped from the calendar when a judgment resolving all issues has been submitted before the conference date. A couple who sign their agreement, complete their disclosures and submit the judgment packet inside the 120 days therefore never attend the conference. A couple who need longer attend the conference, with FL003 filed five court days before it, or continue it on FL007; the date is the one on the clerk's Notice of Case Progress Conference.

The court's fees, item by item

Three documents describe the fees here, and the two that state a petition fee agree on it. The Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, which its fee schedules page labels the current civil fee information, lists the petition for dissolution at item 97 and the response at item 98, each $435, both read on October 18, 2026. The court's own Filing Fees page hosts two PDFs and states no amounts in its own text. One is the Judicial Council's January 1, 2024 edition of the statewide schedule, where the petition is item 96 and the response item 97, each $435. The other is the court's amounts-set-by-court schedule effective December 22, 2025, which lists no petition or response line at all and carries the court's local items. This page follows the Judicial Council's 2026 edition and names the item numbers it uses.

The 2026 schedule marks the dissolution fees with an asterisk and explains in its footnote that those fees vary only in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction. Marin is not among them, so the figure the schedule prints is the figure the Room 113 clerk collects. The Family Law Information page states the consequence of paying less: documents mailed without the total filing fee are returned without being filed, and documents presented in person without it are rejected. The items that arise in an uncontested divorce, from the Judicial Council's schedule effective January 1, 2026 and from the court's own December 22, 2025 schedule, as they read on October 18, 2026:

• Item 97 (Judicial Council, 2026): a petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, legal separation or nullity, $435, under Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6. The clerk collects it with an ordinary petition.
• Item 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, $435. Marin's clerk charges it to your spouse only when a response or an appearance goes in.
• Item 99, $870, is the joint petition for dissolution or legal separation in any case other than a summary dissolution. The schedule says the fee covers the appearance of both petitioners.
• Item 100, $435, covers the joint petition for summary dissolution, whether of a marriage or a domestic partnership.
• Item 103 sets no fee for the settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment a defaulted spouse signs.
• Court schedule (December 22, 2025): an eFiling service fee of $8 under California Rules of Court, rule 2.253(b)(5) and Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, the court's share of an electronic filing; and a dissolution forms packet, not for summary dissolution, sold at $3.

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; the agreement your spouse signs is item 103, no fee. An ordinary petition answered by a response, or by an Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (form FL-130), pays items 97 and 98, $870 between the two of you. Item 99, $870, is what a joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays: subdivision (h) requires both first-paper fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) on a joint petition, unless both spouses have fee waivers. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays one first-paper fee, item 100, $435. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Marin County; it pays both first-paper fees.

The flat fee you pay Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene is a separate amount and does not go to the court: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. It covers 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 the Civic Center courthouse that the attorney reviews before they reach you, one revision round of the settlement agreement and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round, if one is needed, is quoted before any work on it begins. The fee is earned in stages, and the part not yet earned is refunded if the representation ends early.

What the office does not do is the same in Marin County as in any other: 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 in Room 113, by mail or electronically as a self-represented litigant, with the attorney's written instructions in hand. The office's client is one spouse, never both. In the divorce the other 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 Marin court publishes no fee waiver page of its own. Its statement is one sentence on the Family Law Information page: you may qualify for a fee waiver if your income meets guidelines established by the Judicial Council of California. The forms are named in Local Rule 1.51(B)(5), which speaks of an Application for Waiver of Court Fees and Costs on Judicial Council forms FW-001 and FW-002, and Government Code sections 68630 to 68634 set the three grounds: receipt of a listed public benefit, a household income at or below the published limit, or an inability to pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs. The petition is filed while the court considers the request.

Local Rule 1.51(B)(5) also answers the e-filing question: a party who has received a fee waiver is not required to pay any fee for electronic filing and service. The court's eFiling page lists, among the refunds it processes, fees charged to a party after a fee waiver has been granted. On a joint petition each spouse who needs a waiver applies separately, because section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers. The office prepares the request as part of the flat fee when you ask for it. A waiver reaches the court's fees and nothing else; the office's fee is unchanged by it.

E-filing: required of attorneys, optional for you

Local Rule 1.51, Electronic Filing, in the General Administrative Rules effective July 1, 2026, requires all parties represented by attorneys in all civil cases, including family cases, to file and serve documents electronically (subdivision (B)(1)). Subdivision (B)(3) states the rule for everyone else: self-represented parties are not required to file and serve documents electronically, citing California Rules of Court, rule 2.253(b)(2). The court's eFiling page says the same in plainer words, that self-represented parties are eligible to use the site for eFiling but it is not mandatory and they may continue to file by mail or in person, and it lists family law among the case types for which eFiling is permissive. You file the documents yourself, as a self-represented party, so the choice between paper and electronic filing is yours.

If you choose to e-file, the eFiling page links the court's eFiling Service Providers List, a four-page PDF revised July 2026 that lists providers alphabetically with their web addresses, and the page says the list does not constitute any endorsement of services by the court. The court's own share is the $8 eFiling service fee on its December 22, 2025 schedule. The eFiling page treats anything the court receives electronically on a court day, from 12:00 a.m. through 11:59:59 p.m., as filed that day. Administrative Order 26-01, signed by the presiding judge in February 2026, requires each document that needs its own file stamp to be e-filed as its own separate PDF in every non-criminal case, with one exception: documents related to case initiation are still e-filed as a bundle. The court's eDelivery portal is a different service, for criminal, juvenile and traffic cases and select other matters; family law is not named on its page.

Some documents stay on paper whatever route you choose. The eFiling page lists documents that may not be e-filed, and the list reaches a divorce in two places: the Schedule of Assets and Debts and the Declaration of Disclosure (FL-140) may not be e-filed, and neither may any Judicial Council form that states it should not be filed with the court. The disclosure forms are served on your spouse under Family Code section 2104, and only the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141) is filed with the clerk. The Local Forms page adds that the court's local forms cannot be filed electronically or by fax, so FL003, the Case Progress Conference Questionnaire, is a paper filing even in an otherwise electronic case.

Filing on paper: Room 113 and the mail

The Family Law Information page states the routes in one sentence: family law documents may be filed in person, by mail, or by eFiling. No page or rule read for this page mentions a drop box. The same page says that a fax filing agency or eFiling may be used when you are unable to deliver papers personally. For the counter, the page requires every paper presented for filing in person to be provided in triplicate, and the court's filing information sheet for a dissolution, local form FL069W, puts it as the original plus two copies for filing in Room 113. For the mail, the page says no conformed copies are returned unless a self-addressed stamped envelope with sufficient postage is enclosed, and FL069W asks for a 9 by 13 self-addressed stamped envelope.

Local Rule 7.4, Conformed Copies of Filings, sets the limit for a party filing on paper: the court conforms at most two copies of any pleading at the time of filing, three where the Department of Child Support Services is involved. If a copy is to come back by mail, a self-addressed stamped envelope must be supplied; if no envelope is provided, the conformed copy is placed in the Will Call cabinet in the clerk's office in Room 113 for a maximum of sixty calendar days.

What the opening filing contains, as the court's sheets list it. FL069W names the Petition (form FL-100), the Summons (form FL-110) and, only where there are minor children, the Declaration Under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (form FL-105). A couple filing a joint petition under section 2342.5 file the Joint Petition (form FL-700) instead. A couple who qualify for summary dissolution use the forms the court's summary dissolution sheet, local form FL068W, lists: the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) and the Judgment of Dissolution and Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-825). With any of them go the fee, or the fee waiver request, and the copies the court asks for. The office prepares and reviews each of them before you sign and file.

Local rules and local forms

The rules in force are the Uniform Local Rules of the Marin County Superior Court effective July 1, 2026, linked from the court's Local Rules page as a full set and as chapters. Family law is Title 7, Family Law Rules, rules 7.1 to 7.35, and rule 7.1 says they are cited as Marin County Rule, Family, or MCR Fam, followed by the rule number. Rule 7.2 settles any conflict in advance: where these rules are inconsistent with a California statute or a California Rule of Court, the statewide statute or rule controls. The rules an uncontested divorce meets are 7.3 on assignment, 7.4 on conformed copies, 7.5 on Family Centered Case Resolution, 7.13 on financial information, 7.26 on a default or uncontested judgment by declaration, 7.27 on such judgments generally, 7.28 on a default judgment with a written agreement, and 7.29 on the Family Law Facilitator. Rule 7.26 was last amended January 1, 2026.

Rule 7.27 states what every judgment must contain, agreed or not. No child or spousal support and no attorney fee award is ordered without a written agreement or a completed Income and Expense Declaration. Spousal support must be addressed for each party: an amount may be requested, support may be terminated, or the issue may be reserved. No division of community assets or debts and no confirmation of separate property is ordered without either an attached written agreement or a Property Declaration served with the Request to Enter Default (rule 7.27(E)). Rule 7.27(C) adds that a marriage of ten years or longer is presumptively a long-term marriage, and that absent an agreement the court reserves jurisdiction over spousal support for both parties. A settlement agreement submitted in this county therefore says what happens to spousal support for each spouse, even where the answer is that neither asks for any.

Rule 7.13, Financial Information to be Provided to the Court, includes a sentence about help: the Family Law Facilitator is available to assist self-represented parties in preparing support calculations. The court's Local Forms page lists the family law forms of its own that a dissolution may meet: FL003, the Case Progress Conference Questionnaire; FL007, the Stipulation and Order to Continue Case Progress Conference; FL070, a Declaration Regarding Address Verification Post Judgment, which rule 7.8(F) requires in post-judgment proceedings only; and three information sheets, FL061, How to Complete Your Family Law Case, for the spouse who files, FL062, You've Been Served, Now What?, for the spouse who is served, and FL063, Family Law Resources, each in English and Spanish. The court's petition sheet FL069W and its rule 7.26 packet list name Judicial Council forms only, so the local forms a Marin divorce files are FL003 before a conference and FL007 to continue one.

The judgment packet in Marin County: Local Rules 7.26 to 7.28

Local Rule 7.26, Default or Uncontested Judgment by Affidavit or Declaration, lists what the judgment packet submitted to the clerk's office must include when the judgment is sought on declaration under Family Code section 2336: the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution or Legal Separation (form FL-170); the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165), or the Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (form FL-130) as appropriate; the Judgment (form FL-180) with any attachments; and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190). Those are the forms California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 places on the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), and rule 5.411 governs the stipulated judgment the agreement path produces. The court's own guide for the filing spouse, FL061, describes three paths to judgment, each with different paperwork: a true default, a default with a written agreement, and a response, and the office prepares the packet for the path your case takes.

The envelopes are counted in the rule. Rule 7.26 asks for one stamped envelope addressed to your spouse with the Request to Enter Default, and two stamped envelopes for the Notice of Entry of Judgment, which California Rules of Court, rule 5.415 has the clerk mail to each spouse. For each, the rule offers an alternative to a person who e-files: the party may instead pay an additional court fee through eFiling to authorize the court to provide the envelope. No page or schedule read for this page states the amount of that fee, so this page does not print one; a paper filer supplies the envelopes. Rule 7.26(5) says copies of the judgment and its attachments and supporting documents are returned electronically.

Rule 7.28 is the county's own requirement, and the court's guide FL061 states the same rule: Marin County permits the entry of a default judgment with a written settlement agreement attached, your spouse's signature on the agreement must be notarized, and disclosure is required from both parties. Under the rule, the spouse who does not file a response signs the settlement agreement before a notary public, and both of you serve a preliminary declaration of disclosure under Family Code section 2104, with each FL-141 filed. The office does not provide a notary; your spouse arranges the notary. On the other path, where your spouse files FL-130, the signatures are the ones the Judicial Council forms call for.

The packet travels by the same routes as everything else: Room 113 in triplicate, the mail with the envelopes described above and a return envelope, or e-filing, remembering Administrative Order 26-01's requirement that each document needing its own file stamp be a separate PDF. The Family Law Information page states the result the court is working toward in the words a filer needs: your status will not be single until six months and a day after your spouse was served. The first correction of a packet the court returns is included in the flat fee. For a summary dissolution, FL068W says the judgment is processed and mailed back, and that the divorce is not final until the effective date on the judgment; before the judgment is entered, either spouse may file a Notice of Revocation of Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-830) under Family Code section 2402, which ends the case; the court's Divorce and Legal Separation page puts it as a filing within six months that vacates the judgment.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is entered on your declaration under Family Code section 2336, without a hearing, and in this county a judgment submitted before the Case Progress Conference removes that conference from the calendar under rule 7.5(D)(2). If a hearing or a conference is nonetheless set, the court's Virtual Courtrooms page provides that appearances for all non-evidentiary hearings can be made remotely unless otherwise ordered, through Zoom, and it lists each department with its meeting credentials, the family law departments among them. The page names no form to request a remote appearance, offers help by e-mail at videoappearance@marin.courts.ca.gov, and gives a telephone fallback: a person who cannot join by video may call (669) 254-5252 and use the passcode the page provides for the department.

Local Rule 1.20, Remote Appearances, applies to family cases and governs conduct: a party appearing remotely must, among other things, eliminate ambient noise from their location as far as possible. The court's December 22, 2025 schedule lists an appearance by videoconferencing under Government Code section 70630 as an amount set by court, with no dollar figure beside it. The office does not appear at a hearing; if the court sets one, the notice the court issues gives the date and the department.

The Legal Self Help Center and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help office is the Legal Self Help Center, a division of the court, in Room C-44 of the Hall of Justice at the Civic Center, San Rafael, CA 94903, telephone (415) 444-7130, e-mail selfhelp@marin.courts.ca.gov. Its page lists divorce among its primary areas of assistance, beside custody and visitation, child support, small claims, domestic violence and guardianship, and describes what it does as intake, information and referral to legal services partners, individual assistance with legal document preparation, and bilingual assistance and legal reference materials for non-English speakers. Its services are free and offered in English and Spanish.

The Center's page gives its in-person drop-in hours as Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., with a request to arrive by 10:30 a.m. to ensure time for assistance, and it offers Zoom drop-in clinics on Monday and Friday mornings with the credentials on that page. On its other hours the court's pages differ: the Center's page, the Unified Family Court page and the Contact Us page give two wordings of the telephone hours, and the location page prints office hours of Monday through Friday that do not match the Center's own drop-in days, so this page prints the in-person drop-in hours only and follows the Center's own page. None of the four pages marks its hours temporary or subject to change.

The Family Law Facilitator sits in the same room, and Local Rule 7.29 places the Facilitator's office at the Legal Self Help Center and sends the reader to the court's website for its hours and location. The Contact Us page gives the Facilitator's office hours as Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., with the same telephone number and e-mail address as the Center, and the court's resource sheet FL063 adds a telephone option, (415) 444-7130, option 6, and says mediation is by appointment only. The Unified Family Court page describes the Facilitator as a licensed attorney employed by the court who assists with parentage actions and other family law matters concerning child and spousal support, and it lists the limits: the Facilitator cannot help people who are represented by attorneys, cannot give legal advice and cannot represent parties in court. It asks a visitor to bring all of their court papers, paystubs for the last two months or other current income verification, and copies of any agreements reached. The Family Law Information page also describes a specialized calendar for self-represented parties to a dissolution, in which volunteer attorneys, mediators and other legal professionals are available in the courtroom to answer questions.

In Marin County the flat fee does not extend to a case with minor children, a case the spouses contest, a business, a pension needing a separate order, real property in another state or country, a legal separation or annulment, or a spouse whose whereabouts are unknown. 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 Divorce and Legal Separation page says the divorce process will take at least six months, starting from the date the other party is served with the Summons and Petition, and the Family Law Information page counts the end of it as six months and a day after service. That is Family Code section 2339, counted as form FL-107-INFO counts it, from service or from your spouse's appearance, whichever comes first, and the judgment states the date your marriage ends under section 2340. Submitting the packet early enough to drop the Case Progress Conference under rule 7.5(D)(2) changes nothing about that date; the judgment the court enters carries a termination date no earlier than the six months allow.

When the judgment is entered, the clerk mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse in the two stamped envelopes the packet supplied, or, for an e-filer who paid the rule 7.26 fee, in envelopes the court provides, and the copies of the judgment itself are returned electronically under rule 7.26(5). Keep the file-stamped judgment. Any transfer of California real property the agreement calls for is a separate matter after the judgment, handled by a title company or another attorney, because the office does not prepare or record deeds.

The residence rule the court's pages state is Family Code section 2320: one or both spouses must have lived in Marin County for at least the last three months and in California for at least the last six months before the petition is filed. If you have lived in Marin County for less than three months, the petition belongs in the county that meets the rule, and the office confirms the county with you in the intake. The court's pages and the Judicial Council schedules below were each read on October 18, 2026; every address, hour, fee, rule number and form number on this page comes from one of them, and anything the court's materials did not confirm, including the amount of the rule 7.26 envelope fee and a drop box, is left off rather than guessed.

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