Filing an uncontested divorce in Placer County

One court, three clerk offices

Placer County has one superior court and three buildings with a clerk's office, as the court's Locations and Contact Info page lists them. The Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse at 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville, CA 95678, is the Main Courthouse; the page lists the Clerk's Office, the Self-Help Center, Jury Services and Family Court Services (Mediation) there, with the court's general telephone at (916) 408-6000. The Historic Courthouse at 101 Maple Street, Auburn, CA 95603, has a Clerk's Office and answers at the same number. The Superior Court Tahoe Courthouse at 2501 N. Lake Blvd, Tahoe City, CA 96145, has a Clerk's Office, answers at (530) 584-3460 and takes mail at P.O. Box 5669, Tahoe City, CA 96145. The court's general mailing address is Placer County Superior Court, P.O. Box 619072, Roseville, CA 95661-9072. The Family Division is reached at (916) 408-6000, option 6.

Local rule 10.10, Place of Filing, in the Local Rules of Court effective January 1, 2026, governs where a paper goes. Subdivision (A) provides that all filings presented to the court are filed at the clerk's office in the Santucci Justice Center, which is the Roseville building at 10820 Justice Center Drive, or at the clerk's office in the Auburn Historic Courthouse at 101 Maple Street, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except as subdivisions (B) through (E) provide. Subdivision (B) is the Tahoe exception: it says the Tahoe Court does not accept Adoption, Family Support, Juvenile or Probate papers, and a dissolution is not one of those four. The court's Hours and Holidays page, under its heading Court Hours (Excluding Holidays), gives the clerk's office hours at the Gibson, Historic and Tahoe courthouses as 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, the same hours the rule states.

The court's Start Your Divorce instruction sheet, revised December 28, 2023, tells a filer at the Roseville courthouse to take a number ticket for Family Law at the kiosk on the first floor, and says that a person filing at the Historic Courthouse in Auburn or the Tahoe Courthouse does not need a ticket. That is the court describing a divorce filing at each of its three clerk's offices. What none of the court's pages or rules read for this page states is how a new dissolution case is assigned to a courthouse or a department once filed. Because the county has more than one courthouse that takes a family law petition, the office confirms the courthouse with you before the petition is prepared, and your filing instructions name it.

• Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse (Main Courthouse), Bill Santucci Justice Center: 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville, CA 95678. Clerk's Office, Self-Help Center, Family Court Services. Clerk's office hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. (916) 408-6000.
• Historic Courthouse: 101 Maple Street, Auburn, CA 95603. Clerk's Office, with an after-hours drop box near it. Clerk's office hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. (916) 408-6000.
• Superior Court Tahoe Courthouse: 2501 N. Lake Blvd, Tahoe City, CA 96145; mail to P.O. Box 5669, Tahoe City, CA 96145. Clerk's Office; rule 10.10(B) says the Tahoe Court does not accept Adoption, Family Support, Juvenile or Probate papers. Clerk's office hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. (530) 584-3460.

Filing at the counter or in a drop box

Local rule 10.9, Filing of Documents, sets the form of a paper filing. Under subdivision (F) you present one original of each document, bound by clipping or rubber-banding and not stapled, with up to two copies of each document to conform. The Start Your Divorce sheet says the same in its own words: make two copies of each form and paperclip the original. Subdivision (D) expects every person submitting documents for filing to give the clerk a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope for the return of the conformed copies; without one, the copies go to an unsecured pickup box and are discarded after thirty days. The sheet states the fee to open the case and says the court accepts cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and Discover.

Two drop boxes are described on the court's courthouse FAQ pages. At the Gibson Courthouse there is a drop box near the information booth on the first floor; at the Historic Courthouse, after-hours filings may be left in the drop box near the Clerk's Office on the second floor. Rule 10.10(F) gives the timing: a filing placed in an after-hours drop box after 4:00 p.m. is filed by the court on the next court day. A petition dropped before 4:00 p.m. on a court day carries that day's date.

When the clerk returns your filed Summons and Petition, the court's Family Law eFiling FAQ says the clerk's office provides a Notice of Family Centered Case Resolution conferences with them, together with the Judicial Council's information sheet FL-107-INFO. Local rule 30.13(C) requires you to serve that Notice on your spouse together with the summons and petition, which is why the section on status conferences below matters on the first day and not only in month six.

The court fee, under two schedules

Two schedules have to be read side by side in this county. The court's own Fee Schedule page posts the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective July 1, 2025 as its civil fee schedule, and the Judicial Council's Civil Fees page lists the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 as the current civil fee information. Both were read on October 18, 2026. Both put the petition and the response at the same amount, so the figure you pay does not depend on which one the clerk opens. Both schedules carry the same footnote: the fees marked with an asterisk vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction. Placer is not among the three, so the asterisked amounts are the Placer amounts.

In the Judicial Council schedule effective January 1, 2026, the family law items that arise in an uncontested divorce read as follows:

• Item 97, $435, is the first paper that opens a dissolution, legal separation or nullity case for a marriage or a domestic partnership; the schedule cites Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6. The court's Start Your Divorce sheet puts it in plain words as the fee to open your case with the court.
• Item 98, $435, is the response or other first paper a spouse files in answer to the petition, under Government Code section 70670(d). The court's Respond to a Divorce sheet names the same amount as the fee to file the Response.
• Item 99, the joint petition for dissolution or legal separation other than a summary dissolution, $870; the schedule says the fee covers the appearance of both petitioners.
• Item 100, $435, is the joint petition for a summary dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership. The court's Family Law eFiling FAQ gives the same figure for a summary dissolution.
• In the July 1, 2025 schedule the court posts, item 97 is the petition or other first paper for dissolution, $435, item 98 is the response at $435, and items 99 and 100 are the first paper and the first responsive paper in a family law matter other than dissolution, legal separation or nullity.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays one first-paper fee, $435, at the Roseville, Auburn or Tahoe City counter or through a filing service provider. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays two, $870 between the two of you, under items 97 and 98. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays $870: subdivision (h) of that section provides that a joint petition is filed with both first-paper fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers, and the Judicial Council schedule effective January 1, 2026 prints that total at item 99. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Placer County; it pays both first-paper fees. A couple who qualify for summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 file one joint petition and pay a single first-paper fee, $435.

The office's flat fee is a separate charge, paid to the office and not to the court: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. It pays for 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 Placer County that the attorney reviews before they are released to you, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. If the agreement needs a further revision round, the office quotes that round before any of the work on it begins. The fee is earned in stages, and a representation that ends early is followed by a refund of the part not yet earned.

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. You file as a self-represented litigant, which is the term the Placer court's e-filing page uses, with the attorney's written instructions in hand. The office represents one spouse only; the other spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce, is not advised by it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court's statement on fee waivers is on its Family Division page: you may file a fee waiver if you cannot afford to pay the court fees for your case, with a link to the Judicial Council's forms. The Start Your Divorce sheet names them, the Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (FW-003). The statute behind the forms is Government Code sections 68630 to 68634: the court waives its fees for a person who receives a listed public benefit, whose household income is at or below the published limit, or who cannot pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs, and the clerk files the petition while the request is decided.

The court's e-filing FAQs add how the request travels with an electronic filing. The general eFiling FAQ says the initiating document and the fee waiver are processed at the same time, with FW-001 and FW-003 included as separate PDFs. The Family Law eFiling FAQ tells the filer to check the Requesting a Fee Waiver box and to upload FW-001 and FW-003 together, and warns that unless both documents are submitted together the court rejects the submission as an incomplete request. The same FAQ answers the summary dissolution question directly: a fee waiver is available, but because the petition is joint, both parties submit FW-001 and FW-003 and both must qualify for the $435 fee to be waived. Family Code section 2342.5(h) applies the same logic to the joint petition for dissolution, which pays both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers.

A fee waiver in Placer County reaches further than the filing fee. Local rule 10.27(D) says that the fee a filing service provider or electronic filing manager may charge is waived for any litigant who has received a fee waiver, and the court's Remote Family Law Hearings page says the remote appearance fee is waived if a party has a fee waiver for the case. It does not reach the office's flat fee. The office prepares FW-001 and FW-003 as part of the flat fee when you ask.

E-filing: mandatory for attorneys, optional for you

The court's eFiling page states the rule in one sentence: pursuant to Local Rule 10.27, eFiling is mandatory for attorneys and optional for self-represented litigants in Civil and Family Law cases. Rule 10.27(G) provides that use of eFiling is mandatory and that the mandate does not apply to self-represented litigants, government entities, or criminal, traffic, juvenile justice or juvenile dependency cases. The page lists family cases involving divorce (marriage dissolution), legal separation or nullity among the case types that may be e-filed, and says filing is available around the clock through an approved electronic filing service provider. You file the documents yourself, as a self-represented litigant, and e-filing is your choice, not an obligation.

E-filing goes through a provider certified to submit filings to the Placer court. The court's list of Electronic Filing Service Providers, a PDF linked from the eFiling page, names each vendor and its web address; the list includes, among many others, 1 eFile, First Legal, Green Filing, InfoTrack, Journal Technologies and One Legal. The providers charge their own fees. The Start Your Divorce sheet says the service fee for eFiling is paid to the third-party vendor and cannot be waived by the court, and rule 10.27(D) adds that the provider waives it for a litigant who has received a fee waiver. The sheet also sets a format rule for an electronic filing: each form must be a separate PDF.

Rule 10.27(F)(10) lists the family law documents that eFiling does not accept: a Request for Entry of Default, a Notice of Entry of Judgment, an out-of-state judgment to be registered, exhibits to be lodged, the Child Support Case Registry Form and child custody evaluation reports. The first two sit inside an uncontested divorce, which is why the court speaks of e-filing a judgment packet only in part; the section on the judgment packet explains how the court handles that. The petition, the proof of service and the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141) are not on the list and may be e-filed if you choose. Your filing instructions name the method you chose and the courthouse.

Local rules and local forms

The court's Local Rules of Court page posts the edition effective January 1, 2026. Family law is Chapter 30.00. Its rules are 30.1 on mediation, 30.1.1 on referrals to private child custody recommending counseling, 30.2 on mandatory meet and confer requirements, 30.3 on temporary support orders, 30.5.1 and 30.6 on evaluations, 30.7 on adult adoptions, 30.10 on the Family Law Facilitator, 30.13 on Family Centered Case Resolution status conferences, 30.14 on the trial assignment calendar, 30.15 on mandatory settlement conferences, 30.16 on trial confirming conferences, 30.18 on family law settlement services and 30.19 on requests for emergency and expedited hearings. Of these, an uncontested divorce on a written agreement meets 30.13 and may use 30.10 and 30.18; the rules on mediation, evaluations, support orders, settlement conferences and trial describe a case the two of you are not having. Outside the chapter, rules 10.9 on filing documents, 10.10 on place of filing, 10.24 on remote appearances and 10.27 on eDelivery and eFiling govern every family filing.

The Start Your Divorce sheet lists the forms it expects with a new petition, and every one is a Judicial Council form: the Petition (FL-100), the Summons (FL-110) and, in a case with children, the Declaration Under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (FL-105). The court's Financial Disclosures sheet lists FL-140, FL-142 and FL-150 for the disclosure, then FL-141 to show it was served, and tells the filer to file the FL-141 and the FL-150 with the court with one copy of each; Family Code section 2104 is the statute that requires the preliminary disclosure to be served on your spouse within the time the court's sheet repeats, sixty days of filing. The court's packets of divorce forms are available from the Self-Help Center or for purchase at the clerk's counter, and the sheet offers Odyssey Guide and File for filling them in. The office prepares every form in your case, so you need neither the packet nor the interview.

Appendix A to the local rules lists the family law local forms and marks each optional or mandatory. The ones that could meet an uncontested case: PL-FL001, Request for Default Setting, optional, which asks the clerk to set a default hearing of fifteen minutes or less or more than fifteen minutes; PL-FL026, the Divorce Case Flow Chart, optional, discussed below; and PL-FL037, Request to Vacate Hearing(s) Upon Entry of Judgment, optional, which the form says may be submitted with a proposed judgment and which notes that Family Centered Case Resolution conferences are automatically dropped upon entry of final judgment and need not be listed. The mandatory family law forms in the appendix, PL-FL004 and PL-FL013 for emergency hearings, PL-FL009 for a stipulation setting trial dates and PL-FL024T for a settlement services appointment, belong to hearings and settlement sessions an agreed divorce does not need, except that PL-FL024T is the form for the Self-Help Center's video settlement service described below. PL-FL040, Declaration Regarding Due Diligence, and PL-FL041, QDRO Cover Sheet, both optional, belong to a spouse who cannot be found and a pension that needs its own order, each outside the flat fee. The court's Local Forms page posts the same forms with their revision dates.

The status conferences the clerk sets at filing

Placer County puts a calendar on every new dissolution from the first day. Local rule 30.13(B) provides that when a new dissolution is filed, the clerk of the court schedules three Family Centered Case Resolution status conferences, at six, twelve and eighteen months after filing, and gives the petitioner a Notice of them. Rule 30.13(C) requires the petitioner to serve that Notice with the summons and petition, so the Notice goes to your spouse in the same envelope or the same hand delivery as the petition, and your proof of service accounts for it. The court's Family Law eFiling FAQ confirms the clerk's office provides the Notice when it returns the filed Summons and Petition.

For an uncontested case the rule has a quiet ending. Rule 30.13(B) provides that upon entry of final judgment any outstanding status conferences are vacated, and the court's local form PL-FL037 repeats that the conferences are dropped automatically when judgment is entered. Rule 30.13(A) also lets parties present completed judgment paperwork at a status conference for the court's review and processing, which is one way a packet reaches the court if the six-month conference arrives first. A judgment entered before the first conference date ends the calendar.

The judgment packet in Placer County

The forms are the Judicial Council's. The court's Divorce Case Flow Chart, local form PL-FL026 effective January 1, 2024, sends a filer to the Judgment Checklist (FL-182) for the list of needed forms, and the statewide rules do the same: California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 makes that checklist the limit of what a court may require with a judgment, rule 5.411 governs the stipulated judgment both spouses sign, and rule 5.415 requires stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse, with the clerk's return address, for mailing the Notice of Entry of Judgment. The court's Family Law eFiling FAQ asks for the same envelopes in its own words: the Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190) is filed along with copies and envelopes addressed to the parties with postage affixed.

The flow chart adds one Placer requirement on the default-with-agreement path, where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files no response: the respondent's signature on the agreement must be notarized. The office does not provide a notary; you arrange the notarization yourselves.

How the packet reaches the court is governed by rule 10.27 and the court's FAQ together. Rule 10.27(F)(10) keeps the Request for Entry of Default and the Notice of Entry of Judgment off eFiling, and rule 10.27(G)(1)(c) provides that a proposed family law judgment filed with a Request for Entry of Default or a Notice of Entry of Judgment, or both, may be filed through eFiling or at the clerk's office. The Family Law eFiling FAQ translates the rule for a filer: judgment paperwork may be e-filed in part, the FL-190 must be submitted in hard copy with its copies and stamped envelopes, and if the judgment is e-filed, the FL-190, copies and envelopes must be lodged with the court inside the week that follows the electronic submission. As a courtesy, the FAQ says, the court accepts judgment paperwork that includes the FL-190 at the counter, so the whole packet may go to the clerk's office in one visit, during the 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. hours, with a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope under rule 10.9(D) for your own conformed copies.

Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 of the California Rules of Court let the court enter the judgment on your declaration, without a hearing, so local form PL-FL001, which asks the clerk to set a default hearing, is not needed. Should the court return the packet, the first correction is included in the flat fee.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is entered without a hearing, and the three status conferences fall away at judgment. If the court does set something in your case, its Remote Family Law Hearings page describes the Remote Appearance System: video appearances scheduled through CourtCall and held on Microsoft Teams, guided by local rule 10.24, Code of Civil Procedure section 367.75 and California Rules of Court, rule 3.672. The page sorts hearings into two groups. For Request for Order hearings, child support hearings with the Department of Child Support Services, Family Centered Case Resolution conferences, trial assignment and emergency hearings, notice is simplified: no form, and you schedule online at least fifteen hours ahead. For default judgments, trials, evidentiary hearings, contempt, restraining orders, fee waiver hearings, settlement conferences, trial confirming conferences and UCCJEA hearings, written notice is required: Judicial Council form RA-010, Notice of Remote Appearance, and the court's local form PL-CW010A, Attachment to Notice of Remote Appearance, submitted at the same time. The opposition form is RA-015.

The page states a remote appearance fee and a late scheduling fee under rule 10.24, and it says the appearance fee is waived if a party has a fee waiver for the case. The page gives the appearance fee in two different amounts in two places, so this page prints neither; the court's page is linked below and is the place to read it. The page also says that remote appearance links are not provided the same day as the hearing, and gives a remote support line at (916) 408-6000, option 8. A printable summary, Remote Appearances: Family Law and Child Support (DCSS), is linked from the page. The office does not appear at a hearing; if one is set, the court's notice and your instructions say what the court has asked for.

The Self-Help Center and the Family Law Facilitator

In Placer County the Family Law Facilitator and the Self-Help Center are the same office. Local rule 30.10 provides that the Family Law Facilitator, operating as the Self-Help Center, is authorized to perform all duties set forth in Family Code section 10005, and the court's page is titled Self-Help Center (Facilitator's Office). It is at the Howard G. Gibson Courthouse, Bill Santucci Justice Center, 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville, CA 95678, with a recorded information line at (916) 408-6446. Its services are free. The page says the Self-Help Center does not represent people in court, that its services do not create an attorney-client relationship, that they are not confidential, and that both sides of a case are helped equally. The court's appointment page lists family law, including divorce, custody and support, among the case types, and says staff can give general information about court procedures and review your court forms.

Help comes four ways: in person at designated clerk's windows on the first floor of the Gibson Courthouse, where a walk-in takes a kiosk ticket for Self Help Center and a walk-in appointment runs twenty minutes; by telephone or video appointment, reserved through the court's online reservation system from its Schedule Appointments Online page; by Live Chat, which the page offers for divorce, legal separation, small claims and child support cases; and by e-mail to CIC@placer.courts.ca.gov with ATTN: Self-Help in the subject line. The days and hours for each are published in three places, the Self-Help Center page, the court's Self-Help page and a services matrix effective July 6, 2026, and the three do not agree on the Wednesday and Friday schedule, so this page prints no hours; read the Self-Help Center page before you go, which also says walk-in appointments are first come, first served and fill up quickly.

Two of the Center's services speak to an agreed divorce. The court's Respond to a Divorce sheet suggests a Self-Help appointment before a response is filed where the spouses agree, because, in the sheet's words, there may be ways of moving forward with the case by agreement without the expense of filing a Response. And under local rule 30.18 the Center offers free Video Self-Help Settlement Services for a family law case where at least one party is self-represented, requested on mandatory form PL-FL024T by drop box, by mail to P.O. Box 619072, Roseville, CA 95661, through the court's eDelivery portal or by e-mail; the page requires that both parties complete and exchange their preliminary disclosures before requesting it. The court's divorce sheets direct a self-represented filer to the Self-Help Center to learn how to finish the case.

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 are each outside the flat fee. 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 own Start Your Divorce sheet puts the timing plainly: you can be divorced at the earliest six months and one day after your spouse was served with the divorce forms, or six months after a Response is filed. The statute behind the sheet is Family Code section 2339, which runs the six months from service or appearance, and form FL-107-INFO is where the six months and one day come from; under section 2340 the judgment itself states the date the marriage ends. The judgment is entered when the court has reviewed the complete packet, and the status conferences of rule 30.13 are vacated with it. Nothing filed in Roseville, Auburn or Tahoe City shortens the six months.

Once the judgment is entered, the clerk uses the stamped envelopes from your packet to mail the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse. Where your agreement calls for a transfer of California real property, the office does not prepare or record the deed; a title company or another attorney does that after the judgment. The residence rule for filing here is Family Code section 2320: six months in California and three months in Placer County before the petition is filed.

The Placer court's pages and PDFs and the Judicial Council documents listed below were read on October 18, 2026. The addresses, hours, fees, rule numbers and form numbers here are taken from them, and anything those materials left unconfirmed has been kept off the page.

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