Filing an uncontested divorce in Nevada County, California

Two courthouses hear family law: Nevada City and Truckee

The court's Family Law Division page says the division handles all cases involving dissolution of marriage, legal separation and nullity at the Nevada City and Truckee courthouses. Both buildings take family law, so the question for a new divorce is not whether a courthouse hears dissolution cases but which of the two your case belongs in, and the court answers that in its local rules, covered in the next section.

The court's Locations and Hours page posts one set of hours for the clerk's office, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and separate building hours, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The same page gives one court telephone number, (530) 362-4309, answered during the clerk's office hours, and says questions can also be sent through the court's online service desk portal. The court's local form FL12 prints that same number for both branches. The page does not divide the clerk's hours by branch, and this page does not either.

The two courthouses, as the court's pages gave them on October 19, 2026:

• Nevada City Courthouse: 201 Church Street, Nevada City, CA 95959. This is also where the Self-Help Center sits, on the first floor in Suite 9.
• Truckee Courthouse, Joseph Government Center: 10075 Levon Avenue, Truckee, CA 96161, as the location page prints it. The cover page of the 2026 Local Rules lists the Truckee Branch at 10075 Levon Avenue, Suite 107, so the suite number comes from the rules rather than from the location page.

Which branch receives your petition: Local Rule 2.05(C)

Local Rule 2.05, Division of Court for Filing and Adjudication, in its subdivision (C) as amended July 1, 2024, draws the line geographically. A case that arises from an occurrence or residence in Truckee, which the rule describes as eastern Nevada County, east of the intersection of Interstate 80 and Highway 20, is filed in the Truckee Branch. All other cases are filed in the Nevada City Branch. The rule also lets a judge transfer a case from one branch to the other, so a case does not stay fixed where it began if the court decides otherwise.

Local Rule 5.00, amended July 1, 2026, then says who hears the case once it is filed. Under subdivisions (B) and (C), family law matters filed in Nevada City go to the judge assigned to the Family Law Department, and family law matters filed in or transferred to the Truckee Branch go to the judge whose assignment is the Truckee Branch, unless the matter is assigned to the Commissioner.

Because Nevada County has two family law courthouses, the office confirms the courthouse with you, applying Local Rule 2.05(C), before the petition is prepared, and your written filing instructions name that courthouse and the filing method you chose. For mail, the Document Preparation page gives a separate address for each clerk's office: the Nevada City Clerk's Office at 201 Church Street and the Truckee Clerk's Office at 10075 Levon Avenue.

The fee schedule the Nevada court posts, by item

The court's Fees and Bail Schedules page does not publish a county schedule of its own. Under Civil Fee Schedule it links a 2026 version, labeled statewide, and a 2024 version beside it. The 2026 copy the court hosts is the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, and its text matches the Judicial Council's posted schedule of that date line for line, so the item numbers and amounts below are the same whichever copy you open. Each figure here was read on October 19, 2026 from the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026.

The schedule explains that some counties add a surcharge for courthouse construction and lists those counties' fees in an appendix. Nevada County is not among the counties in that appendix, and the court's own fee page posts no local surcharge, so the statewide amounts are the amounts in this county.

• Item 97, $435: the petition, or any other first paper, that opens a dissolution, legal separation or nullity of a marriage or domestic partnership; its authority, as the schedule lists it, is Government Code section 70670(b) together with sections 70602.5 and 70602.6. In an ordinary case it is paid by whichever spouse files the petition, when the petition is filed.
• Item 98, $435: a response or other first paper filed in answer to a dissolution petition, under Government Code section 70670(d). It is charged to the other spouse only if that spouse files a first paper of their own.
• Item 99, $870: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, except a summary dissolution, under Family Code section 2342.5(h). The schedule says this fee covers the appearance of both petitioners and that no additional first appearance fee is charged even if a party later revokes the joint petition.
• Item 100, $435: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, under Government Code section 70670(b).
• Item 103, no fee: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent and included in a judgment of dissolution, under Government Code section 70677(c).
• Item 104, no fee: the appearance, stipulation and waiver of rights of a respondent who is a member of the armed forces, form FL-130, under Government Code section 70673.

What each kind of case pays the Nevada County clerk

An ordinary petition in which your spouse files nothing, has a default entered and then signs the settlement agreement pays item 97 once, $435; item 103 charges nothing for an agreement signed by a respondent whose default has been entered. If your spouse instead files a response or an FL-130, item 98 is added and the case pays $870 in total, unless the paper is a servicemember respondent's FL-130, which item 104 exempts. A summary dissolution, open to the couples Family Code section 2400 describes, pays one first-paper fee, $435, under item 100.

The joint petition does not save a court fee in Nevada County; it pays both first-paper fees. Family Code section 2342.5, operative January 1, 2026, lets spouses file one petition together, and its subdivision (h) requires both the fee under Government Code section 70670(b) and the fee under 70670(d) when it is filed, unless both spouses have fee waivers. Item 99 of the statewide schedule states the result, $870, collected when the joint petition is filed.

The office's flat fee is a separate payment, made to the office and not to the court, and its amount follows the kind of case: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. For that fee Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews every document in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425, and the attorney reviews your written filing instructions for Nevada County before they are released to you. That fee includes one revision round of the settlement agreement and the first correction of any judgment packet the Nevada court sends back; a further revision round is quoted before any work on it starts. The office earns the fee in stages and refunds whatever part is unearned if the representation ends early.

The limits of the engagement are fixed. Five tasks stay with you or with others: the office files nothing on your behalf, serves nothing on your spouse, makes no appearance in court, provides no notary, and does not prepare or record deeds. The office represents one spouse only: your spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce, receives no advice from it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

The fee waiver in Nevada County

The court's Forms and Packets page includes a Fee Waiver packet made up of three Judicial Council forms: the information sheet FW-001-INFO, the Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (FW-003). The statute behind the request is Government Code sections 68630 to 68634, which set out who qualifies for a waiver of court fees and how the court decides the request.

Two of the court's local rules carry the waiver forward to the end of the case. Local Rule 5.06(B)(7) says that if fees were waived for either party, the judgment packet includes an updated fee waiver application for both parties, or payment of the fees by a party able to pay, and Local Rule 5.06(D)(4) says the judgment must provide for the opposing party's payment of fees unless that party has a fee waiver. A waiver granted at the start of the case therefore needs an updated application when the judgment is submitted.

Local Rule 1.06(A)(6) adds that the fees an e-filing service provider may charge are waived for a litigant who has received a fee waiver. Any waiver the court grants covers court fees and nothing else, so the office's flat fee stays the same.

Filing: e-filing, mail, the counter or the drop box

Local Rule 1.06(A)(1), amended July 1, 2026, has made e-filing mandatory since July 1, 2022 for parties it covers and permits it in all case types, but it exempts self-represented parties from any mandatory e-filing requirement while encouraging them to file electronically. The court's Document Filing page lists the options for self-represented litigants: e-file, mail the documents, or drop them off at the clerk's office, with a drop box just outside the courthouse lobby for after-hours filings.

E-filing in family law runs through an approved Electronic Filing Service Provider and is available around the clock, as the Document Filing page states. The court keeps a list of approved providers, among them Journal Technologies at nevada-efsp.ecourt.com. Local Rule 1.06(A)(6) says a provider may charge a fee; the court states no amount. Local Rule 1.06(A)(2) and the Document Preparation page are plain that a document cannot be filed by email, and Local Rule 1.06(A)(5) asks that every filed form include a current email address for the filer.

Some documents are exceptions to e-filing. The court's eFiling Exceptions List, issued in 2022 under Local Rule 1.06, names originals such as certified judgments, wills and bonds. If you file on paper by mail or in the drop box and want conformed copies back, Local Rule 1.06(B) says the court returns them only when you include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Whatever the method, the financial disclosure itself stays out of the court file. Family Code section 2104 requires the preliminary declaration of disclosure to be served on your spouse, and what the court receives is the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141), which Local Rule 5.06(B) lists among the judgment documents.

Going to the courthouse in person

The Locations and Hours page warns that anyone entering the courthouse must pass through a walk-through metal detector, so allow time for screening before the clerk's office closes at 4:00 p.m. The building itself stays open until 5:00 p.m., and the Document Filing page places a drop box just outside the courthouse lobby for after-hours filings.

The court's Forms and Packets page says printed packets of required forms can be bought at the Civil Clerk's Office.

For a filing in person, bring the originals, the copies you want conformed, payment of the first-paper fee or your fee waiver forms, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for anything you want mailed back. If your case belongs in the Truckee Branch under Local Rule 2.05(C), take it to the Truckee Clerk's Office on Levon Avenue rather than to Church Street.

The 2026 Local Rules and the court's local forms

The court's Rules of Court page posts the 2026 Local Rules, effective July 1, 2026; the cover reads Effective January 1, 1997, Updated July 1, 2026. Chapter 5 is Family Law, and the rules in it that bear on an uncontested divorce are 5.00, Actions and Assignment of Actions; 5.06, Uncontested Trials, Defaults by Hearing or by Affidavit or Declaration, amended July 1, 2026; 5.08, Trials and Mandatory Settlement Conferences; 5.09.1, Family Centered Case Resolution Conference; 5.10, Court Facilitator; and 5.11, Use of Forms. Outside Chapter 5, Rule 1.06 governs submitting pleadings for filing and Rule 2.05 covers the division of the court for filing and adjudication.

The Family Law Division page says a case will be managed through one or more status conferences, part of the family centered case resolution process that Rule 5.09.1 addresses. The court's Local Forms page lists form FL20, the Status and FCCR Conference Questionnaire, revised July 1, 2025, and marks it Mandatory.

The Local Forms page marks the other family law forms by name. FL12, Request for Setting Default Hearing, revised July 1, 2025, is marked Optional and is the request for the Department V default family law calendar. FL17, the Stipulation for Appointment of Commissioner as Temporary Judge, and FL1, the Advisement used in contempt matters, are marked Mandatory; FL14, a stipulation form, and FL4, FL6, FL8, FL11 and CCRC1 are marked Optional. The forms that open the case are Judicial Council forms, gathered in the Initial Paperwork packet for dissolution, legal separation or nullity on the Forms and Packets page.

The judgment packet under Local Rule 5.06

Local Rule 5.06(B) opens with the sentence that judgments on default or uncontested matters must be submitted with a list of documents, and the list is the checklist for a Nevada County packet. In every county, rule 5.405 of the California Rules of Court ties the packet to form FL-182, the Judgment Checklist; rule 5.411 governs a judgment built on the spouses' written agreement; and rule 5.415 has the clerk mail notice of entry in envelopes you supply. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 allow the judgment to be entered on declaration without a hearing; Rule 5.06's own title covers defaults by hearing as well as by affidavit or declaration, and FL12 is how a party asks for the hearing route if one is wanted.

One point on copies needs care, because two documents the court relies on say different things. Local Rule 5.06(B)(8) notes that the FL-182 Judgment Checklist calls for five copies of the judgment. Local Rule 5.06(B)(8) says that, notwithstanding that language on FL-182, only the original and one copy are needed, because the court uses electronic files. This page follows the local rule, which applies specifically to this court: a Nevada County packet carries the original judgment and one copy.

The court's Forms and Packets page also lists the Final Paperwork packets for dissolution, legal separation or nullity, one without children and one with children, which gather the Judicial Council forms for the end of the case, including FL-182, FL-130, FL-165, FL-140, FL-142, FL-141, FL-170, FL-180, FL-345 and FL-190. The packet reaches the clerk by the routes the court gives for any filing: e-filing, mail to the clerk's office of your branch, the counter, or the drop box.

The documents Rule 5.06(B) lists, as the rule sets them out:

• The Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution or Legal Separation (FL-170).
• The Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141), for the preliminary and the final declarations, or a Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (FL-144) in place of the final one.
• The Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (FL-130), where a response was filed.
• The Request to Enter Default (FL-165), with a pre-addressed stamped envelope to the other spouse, where no response was filed.
• The Income and Expense Declaration (FL-150) or Financial Statement (Simplified) (FL-155), and the Property Declaration (FL-160), when required.
• If fees were waived for either party, an updated fee waiver application for both parties, or payment of the fees by a party able to pay.
• The Judgment (FL-180), as the original and one copy under Rule 5.06(B)(8).
• The Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190), with pre-addressed stamped envelopes to both parties.

Remote proceedings through CourtCall

Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 allow a judgment on declaration without a hearing, but a status conference or another event may still be set. The court's Remote Hearings page names its system: the CourtCall Remote Court Scheduler and the CourtCall video platform. Registration is at rcs.courtcall.com/nevada/home. The page gives the registration deadline twice and the two statements differ, 15 minutes before the hearing in its step-by-step list and four hours before in its questions section, so this page follows neither; the same page asks you to register at your earliest convenience.

The page separates family law events by the notice they need. A Request for Order hearing or a status conference needs no form; you notify the other parties no later than one court day before. A default judgment hearing, a trial or an evidentiary hearing needs form RA-010, Notice of Remote Appearance, filed and served with 10 court days' notice, and form RA-015 is how another party opposes. The court also posts a guide to its remote appearance system on the same page.

The office does not appear for you at any hearing, remote or in person, so if an event is set you attend it yourself, by CourtCall or at the courthouse of your branch.

Help from the court: the Self-Help Center on Church Street and the Facilitator

The court's Self-Help Center is at 201 Church Street, Nevada City, first floor, Suite 9. Its page says it gives free legal and procedural information and help with court forms, in family law and small claims, to people representing themselves; that it assists both sides of a case equally; and that it does not give legal advice. It lists the telephone number (530) 362-5328 and labels the telephone the least preferred contact method, pointing people to its online question portal instead.

The Self-Help page lists the Nevada City walk-in hours, the days the office may be closed and the closure dates beyond court holidays, and the Locations and Hours page says any change to Self-Help Center or Facilitator hours is posted there, so read that page before you go. For Truckee, the two pages describe the walk-in clinic's days differently: the Self-Help page and the Locations and Hours page do not give the same Wednesdays. This page prints neither and refers you to the Self-Help page's own list of dates.

The Family Law Facilitator works in the Self-Help Center and, the Facilitator's page says, assists self-represented parties with child support, spousal support and health insurance issues, without giving legal advice and at the same telephone number; Local Rule 5.10 lists the Facilitator's further duties. For people preparing their own forms, the Document Preparation page points to the LawHelp Interactive Divorce/Legal Separation interview, and it warns that the court cannot see your account and the program does not file anything for you.

Some cases are outside the flat fee: minor children or a pregnancy, a divorce the spouses have not yet agreed on, a restraining order or a safety concern, a business or professional practice, a pension that needs a qualified domestic relations order, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, a spouse who cannot be located, and spouses who are not both proficient in English. 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 Nevada County

No filing method shortens the waiting period. Family Code section 2339 runs it six months from service of the summons and petition or from your spouse's appearance, whichever comes first, and form FL-107-INFO puts the earliest date the marriage can end at six months and one day. The judgment can be entered before that date, but under Family Code section 2340 it states the date the marital status ends, which is never earlier than the statute allows.

When the judgment is entered, the clerk mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse in the envelopes Local Rule 5.06(B) and rule 5.415 call for. A certified copy of the judgment is the copy of a marriage dissolution record that Government Code section 70674 describes, and item 195 of the statewide schedule sets its fee at $15, or $10 under item 194 when a public agency asks. The court's case records request form, ADMIN1, lists the same $15 for certification of family law judgments, and the Case Records Requests page says records can be requested online or by mail with payment in advance, and that case viewing kiosks at the court let the public search for and view case documents.

If your agreement transfers California real property, the office does not prepare or record the deed; a title company or another attorney handles that after the judgment is entered. Each source below was read on October 19, 2026 at www.nevada.courts.ca.gov or from the statewide sources.

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