Filing an uncontested divorce in Pasadena

Pasadena files at its own courthouse: the locator, zip by zip

Two boxes, City / Community and Zip Code, are all the court's Filing Court Locator asks for; its answer comes back as a table whose columns are Unlimited Civil, Family Law, Restraining Orders and Probate. A divorce reads the Family Law column. For Pasadena the answer in that column is the same on every row the locator returns, and it was read for each of the zip codes below on October 18, 2026. In the results page's own words, the courthouse 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"; where a street divides two districts, its note says "the boundary of the district is the centerline of that street."

Two cautions printed on the locator apply to Pasadena as they do everywhere in the county. The search page warns, in the court's words, that "a mailing address may not be a proper indicator of true geographic location." The locator's own table puts 91001 and 91011 under the Pasadena heading, and the page prints them as the court does. The second caution concerns caseload, and the court's note on it opens: "adjustments in caseload distributions in the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles areas, and in the North Central District may require..." For the full criteria behind any answer, the locator sends the reader to Local Rules Chapter 2, taken up below.

The locator's Family Law answers for Pasadena:

• PASADENA (91101): Pasadena Courthouse.
• PASADENA (91102): Pasadena Courthouse.
• PASADENA (91103): Pasadena Courthouse.
• PASADENA (91106): Pasadena Courthouse.
• EAST PASADENA (91107): Pasadena Courthouse.
• PASADENA (91001): Pasadena Courthouse.
• PASADENA (91011): Pasadena Courthouse.

The four-courthouse civil column, and why it does not apply to a divorce

The same rows show something different in the Unlimited Civil column. For 91101, 91103 and 91106 the locator lists four courthouses there: Burbank Courthouse or Glendale Courthouse or Pasadena Courthouse or Alhambra Courthouse. The Restraining Orders column, like the Family Law column, says Pasadena Courthouse alone. A petition for dissolution is brought under the Family Code, so the Family Law column governs it. The four-way choice belongs to an unlimited civil lawsuit, not to a petition for dissolution, and a Pasadena resident who reads the civil column and carries a petition to Burbank or Glendale has gone to a courthouse that the court's own directory lists no general family law department for.

Behind the civil column sits Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(C): "An unlimited civil action may not be filed in the Northeast District." The rule concerns unlimited civil actions; it places no limit on a family law filing there, and the locator's Family Law column, the Family Law Departments Directory and rule 2.2(b) all place the Pasadena Courthouse in that district. The rule is cited here so that a reader who finds it does not take it to mean that a divorce cannot be filed at Pasadena.

Alhambra, Glendale and Burbank: in the civil column, not the place to file

The Alhambra Courthouse, 150 West Commonwealth, Alhambra 91801, is the Northeast District's other court location under Local Rule 2.2(b). For a divorce it is not an option. Alhambra is missing from the fourteen locations in the October 1, 2026 edition of the court's Family Law Departments Directory. The appointment types each courthouse offers are listed on the clerk's office appointment scheduler, and the code FL it shows for Pasadena does not appear for Alhambra. Where the e-filing General Order assigns each family law courthouse its own notification account, it assigns none to Alhambra, and the court's list of Self-Help Center Locations has no Alhambra entry. On every Pasadena row the locator returned, the Family Law column names Pasadena, not Alhambra.

The Glendale Courthouse at 600 East Broadway and the Burbank Courthouse, 300 East Olive Avenue, sit in the North Central District by rule 2.2(b)'s list. At Glendale the directory has a single family law department, Department 005, for restraining orders only; at Burbank it has none. Neither shows an FL code on the scheduler, neither has a notification account in the General Order, and the self-help document has no center at either. For Glendale and Burbank zip codes the locator's Family Law column names the Pasadena Courthouse, just as it does for Pasadena's own.

Local Rule 2.3: Pasadena or Stanley Mosk, and the forms that state the choice

Pasadena sits in one of the twelve geographic districts into which Local Rule 2.2(a) divides the court, the Northeast; the others are Central, East, North, North Central, North Valley, Northwest, South, South Central, Southeast, Southwest and West, with Appendix 2.A mapping the lines between them. Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(B) then lets a Family Code action be filed in the Central District, or in a district other than the Central District where one or more of the parties resides. The rule's own line for family law reads, all matters under the Family Code, where one or more of the parties litigant reside. For a Pasadena resident that means the petition may be filed at the Pasadena Courthouse, as the district courthouse of the Northeast District, or at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles 90012, as the Central District's. The locator answers with the district courthouse; the rule keeps the Central District open as well. Rule 2.3's printed history ends with an amendment effective July 1, 2018; every page of the chapter is footed with the January 1, 2022 edition date.

Rule 2.3(a)(1)(D) is a carve-out that does not reach Pasadena. It covers nine zip codes in the Northwest District, 91301, 91302, 91303, 91304, 91306, 91307, 91326, 91361 and 91367, which, in the rule's words, "must be filed in Central or the North Valley District." None of them is a Pasadena zip code, and no comparable carve-out is written for the Northeast District.

The court's courthouse directory opens with this notice about the Central District's courthouse: "Stanley Mosk Courthouse Renumbering: Beginning May 4, 2026, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County will introduce a new department (courtroom) numbering system at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse." The Pasadena Courthouse's three family law departments carry letters, K, L and S, as the directory lists them. Local Rule 2.11 governs both courthouses alike: "Family Law Division courts are direct calendar courts," so a single judicial officer keeps the case for all purposes. A filed case can still change districts. Under Local Rule 2.3(b)(4) the Family Law Supervising Judge may move it from one district to another, and any motion asking for that goes to Department 2 in the Central District, not to the Pasadena department that has the case.

Two local forms go with the petition. Under Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(E), any action presented for filing in any district must carry the Civil Case Cover Sheet Addendum and Statement of Location, form LACIV 109, and where no counsel is of record the self-represented filer signs it. Under Local Rule 5.2, the first paper the filer presents in a family law action must come with a Family Law Case Cover Sheet, form FAM020. Both are the court's own local forms. The office prepares every document.

Inside the Pasadena Courthouse: hours, parking, offices and departments

The court's own courthouse page for Pasadena, part of its directory of courthouses and community justice centers, lists the building at 300 East Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91101, telephone (626) 396-3300. It gives two opening times: 8:00 a.m. for the building and 8:30 a.m. for the Clerk's Office, with 4:30 p.m. as the closing time for both, Monday through Friday except court holidays.

On parking the court's page is specific. A pay structure stands at the southeast corner of Marengo Avenue and Walnut Street, its entrance at 240 Ramona Street; the ceiling clearance is 6 feet 6 inches, and the court cautions that "Large trucks or sport utility vehicles may not be able to use the parking facility." The page also notes other pay parking lots next to the courthouse.

Each office in the building is named in the Pasadena page's General Directory. For a divorce, two of them count: the Family Law Clerk's Office and the Family Law Facilitator Office. The list goes on to Family Court Services, Evaluation and Family Court Services, Mediation; a Civil Harassment and Domestic Violence Restraining Orders office; the Small Claims, Traffic and Criminal clerk's offices; and an Unlawful Detainer Hub clerk's office. Office names appear here without rooms or hours, since the entries were left unexpanded on the visit.

Three departments appear for the Pasadena Courthouse in the Family Law Departments Directory's October 1, 2026 edition, under the Northeast District heading, each a General Family Law department: Department K, (626) 396-3355; Department L, (626) 396-3315; and Department S, (626) 396-3327. A dissolution filed at Pasadena is assigned to one of them for all purposes under rule 2.11. The directory lists no master calendar or case management department at Pasadena; those exist at Stanley Mosk only.

Self-help at the Pasadena Courthouse

Pasadena is on the court's list of Self-Help Center Locations, revised October 6, 2025, among the centers assisting individuals who need to proceed on their own without an attorney, at 300 East Walnut Street, 3rd Floor, Room 300, Pasadena, CA 91101. The services it lists for in-person help are protective restraining orders, family law cases, eviction answers and CARE petitions, so the Pasadena center is a family law center, which is not true of every center the court runs: its Inglewood and Santa Monica centers exclude family law and its Norwalk center handles CARE petitions only. The printed hours: Monday to Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and again 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Without a visit to Room 300, a question can be put to the Self-Help Call Center, reachable at (213) 830-0845 and staffed weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Walk-in help, by the court's self-help site, is "available on a first come, first served basis and is subject to availability. Spaces fill up quickly." Room 300 helps with forms and court procedure and gives no legal advice, as the court's own text puts it. On the Judicial Council's self-help finder, the Pasadena Courthouse entry shows (626) 396-3300, the courthouse's own number, with a blank hours field and a link to the Los Angeles court's self-help website. The Judicial Council's court-based self-help page states that "Every superior court in California has free legal help available in family law and in small claims cases."

Pasadena's General Directory also names a Family Law Facilitator Office, whose job is narrower than the Self-Help Center's. Its duties are set by Local Rule 5.23, which begins with meeting with litigants to mediate issues of child support, spousal support, and maintenance of health insurance, then covers stipulations, its advice to the court, and orders where neither party has an attorney. On the court's Facilitator page the office is described as one that "assists self-represented parties with child support, spousal support and health insurance issues," and the page adds: "The staff does not give legal advice nor does it represent a party in a case or at a hearing." The Facilitator's own hours and locations could not be read and are not printed.

The court publishes two fillable judgment packets of its own, one for an uncontested divorce without minor children and one for a case with children, each revised May 2025, and the packet without children opens with its condition: you and your spouse or partner must agree on all issues of the case. Its completion sheet asks, what courthouse was your case filed, because the caption of the judgment names the courthouse where the petition was filed and not necessarily where any hearing was held. Among the court's self-help offerings is a three-part divorce workshop series, the third part meant for the filing spouse who is finishing with a default judgment.

Outside the flat fee, in Pasadena as in every city: 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 Pasadena, the appointment code and the notification account

Whether a Pasadena filer must e-file is decided by the court's General Order 2022-GEN-009-00, In re Mandatory Electronic Filing for Family Law, dated April 13, 2022. Its opening recital says that the court, effective November 15, 2021, "mandated electronic filing of all documents filed in Family Law cases by litigants represented by attorneys," and under section 3(a) "self-represented litigants are exempt from mandatory electronic filing requirements." Section 3(a) is the line that decides it, and a spouse who files at Pasadena without an attorney of record files as a self-represented litigant, free to e-file and free not to. An amendment noted in the preamble took proposed judgments off the list of exempt filings effective April 18, 2022; that affects only those who must e-file.

E-filing from Pasadena brings the order's mechanics with it. Section 6(a) wants a PDF, and a text-searchable one. Section 6 makes redaction the filer's job, with a minor's initials in place of the name and only the final four Social Security digits shown, as its examples. The filing date comes from section 7(a): whatever reaches the court electronically between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. counts as filed on that court day if accepted. Section 12 waives e-filing fees and costs for a litigant with a fee waiver. Under section 5(b), the court serves its own generated documents by email, through a resource account, to whatever address the filer registered with the e-filing provider, and the order assigns each family law courthouse its own account. For Pasadena it is PD-FLNotification@lacourt.org.

At the counter, the route is the court's clerk's office appointment scheduler, which is organized by courthouse and then by appointment type. Pasadena's entry, 300 East Walnut St., shows five codes, CIV, CRM, FL, SMCL and TR, so an FL appointment can be made for Pasadena, unlike at the Alhambra, Glendale or Burbank courthouses. No definition of the codes appears on the scheduler, and this page offers none.

The court's only published drop-box statement is in Local Rule 5.3(a)(2)(B), the rule for ex parte applications. It allows those papers to be presented "through the Clerk's Office's resource account, by fax filing, by drop-box filing or by physical delivery (advance appointment is necessary)." It speaks of ex parte papers alone. The court pages read on October 18, 2026 describe no drop-box practice at Pasadena for petitions or judgment packets, and the ex parte rule is not stretched to cover them here. Your filing instructions name the Pasadena Courthouse and the method you have chosen.

The judgment packet, delivered at Pasadena

Local Rule 5.17 is the court's rule on what a judgment packet holds, and it is county-wide, reading the same at Pasadena as at any other family law courthouse of the court. First on its list is the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution, followed by either the Request for Default or the Appearance, Stipulation and Waiver form, depending on the case. It then calls for the judgment in an original and three copies, "The court will retain the original and one copy," and for two self-addressed, stamped envelopes "with the court's address as the return address." For a Pasadena case that return address is 300 East Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101.

The same rule lists the issues on which a hearing is needed if the spouses have no written agreement. Where a defaulting party has signed the judgment, the rule requires that party's signature to be notarized and takes no filing fee from that party. No notary comes with the office's work; a Pasadena spouse who signs without responding finds one. Under Local Rule 5.16(b), a judgment stipulated on reserved issues can likewise be submitted with no one appearing. Family Code section 2336, read with California Rules of Court, rule 5.409, lets the judgment be entered on your declaration alone. The court's 2011 Divorce Overview chart, which its self-help site still links, says that the preliminary and final declarations of disclosure are not filed with the court but are served on the other spouse, consistent with Family Code section 2104; the chart also says that in a small number of complex situations a hearing is required even for a default divorce.

The court answers the question of where the packet goes in two places. Rule 5.3 names "the Clerk's Office of the district courthouse to which the case is assigned," while the court's own judgment packet, on its completion sheet, asks for the courthouse where the case was filed. A case filed at Pasadena therefore goes to the Family Law Clerk's Office that the courthouse page lists at 300 East Walnut Street, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Should a hearing ever be set, the legacy Family Law Division page says: "In all Family Law departments and hearing types, the Court has remote video and audio courtroom appearance technology via LACourtConnect (LACC)." Because the statement is court-wide, it reaches Departments K, L and S. The judgment and the period after it are covered for the whole county on the Los Angeles County page, and not repeated here.

What the office does for a Pasadena filing, and the six months

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, $1,499 for an ordinary petition. Court fees are listed item by item on the county page; under section 2342.5(h) of the Family Code a joint petition pays the first-paper fee for each spouse, $870 in all, which the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists at item 99. For a Los Angeles County case, your intake records the courthouse the locator gave for your address, and the attorney goes over it with you before any petition is prepared. Filing is yours to do, with written filing instructions for the Pasadena Courthouse that the attorney reviews before release. The office does not file, does not serve, does not appear in court, does not provide a notary, and does not prepare or record deeds; a title company or another attorney prepares a deed where one is needed.

One spouse is the office's client, and only one: the other is not a client of the office and receives no advice from it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing. Within the flat fee are one revision round of the settlement agreement and the first correction of a judgment packet that the court sends back; should a further round be needed, it is quoted before the work starts. The fee is earned in stages, so that if the representation ends before the judgment, whatever part has not been earned is refunded.

No Pasadena residence rule exists: section 2320 of the Family Code asks only for one spouse's residence of six months in California and of three months in Los Angeles County before filing, and the courthouse follows the district under rule 2.3. Under section 2339 the marriage cannot be ended until six months have passed since the other spouse was served or appeared; the Judicial Council's FL-107-INFO puts it at six months plus one day. Section 2340 has the judgment give the date the marriage ends. Filing at Pasadena rather than at Stanley Mosk, e-filing, or an appointment at the clerk's window changes none of that. Each court fact here comes from the source listed for it below, read October 18, 2026.

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