Uncontested divorce in California at a flat fee. Attorney-prepared. Cost shown up front.

Three packages, one way of working

Every package is the same kind of engagement: Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews every document in an uncontested California divorce without minor children, for a flat fee stated before you pay, and you file the documents with the court yourself with written instructions for your county. The difference between the packages is the procedure the court offers for your marriage, and the screening on the start page tells you which fits before anything is charged. Here is what each is for, in the court's own terms.

Summary Dissolution Package, $599. For a marriage of 5 years or less to the date of separation with no children together, no real property, community debts of no more than $7,000, community property under $57,000 and separate property of either spouse under $57,000, not counting cars, where both of you give up spousal support and the right to appeal (Family Code section 2400; form FL-810). One joint filing, no service, no hearing, and the court enters the judgment on its own six months after the filing (section 2403).

Joint Petition Uncontested Divorce, $999. For spouses who agree on every term and will both sign one joint petition (form FL-700) under Family Code section 2342.5, operative January 1, 2026. Nobody is served, both of you appear when it is filed, and the six months run from that day. The court charges both first-paper fees on it (section 2342.5(h)). There is no limit on the length of the marriage or the value of the property; the agreement and the judgment are the ordinary ones.

Uncontested Divorce, No Minor Children, $1,499. For spouses who agree on every term where one of you files a petition (form FL-100) and the other either signs the settlement agreement and files nothing, which the court enters as a default with an agreement, or files an appearance and signs it. The ordinary five steps: petition, service, disclosures, agreement, judgment.

What every package includes

Each package lists its own documents above. Every one includes the screening that decides it fits; the engagement letter the law requires; your financial disclosure prepared from the figures you enter, item by item, with nothing estimated; the fee waiver forms if you qualify and ask; the settlement agreement or property agreement drafted by the attorney from the terms the two of you agreed, with one revision round; the judgment packet prepared to the court's rules, with the first correction of a packet the court returns; filing instructions for your county at each step; a portal that shows which step is open, who it is with, and the six-month clock; and the attorney's review of every document before it is released to you.

What is the same across all three: one attorney prepares and reviews everything, every figure is one you entered, the settlement agreement uses your names rather than the court's role labels, and the court's fee is stated separately beside each price on this page.

The court's fee on each path

The court's fee is set by the Government Code and the court's own schedule, and is paid by you directly to the court. Government Code section 70670(b) sets the base fee for the first paper in a dissolution at $355 and subdivision (d) the same for the first paper of the spouse who responds; the court's schedule adds the amounts other sections allow. In Los Angeles County the Superior Court charges the amounts the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026, lists: item 97, a petition or other first paper, at $435, and item 98, a response or other first paper in response, at $435. A joint petition pays both first-paper fees, $870, which the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists at item 99. Item 103 lists a settlement agreement signed by a spouse who has not responded and included in the judgment at no fee.

So the court's fee is charged once on a summary dissolution; once on an ordinary petition where your spouse signs the agreement and files nothing; twice on an ordinary petition where your spouse files an appearance; and twice on a joint petition, because Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses have fee waivers. The table above shows each total; the court's fee is not lower on a joint petition.

When the fee is earned, and what is refunded

Business and Professions Code section 6148 requires a written fee agreement where the total expense to a client is reasonably foreseeable to exceed $1,000, stating the basis of the fee, the nature of the services and the responsibilities of each side, with a signed copy to the client. The engagement letter you sign in your portal before paying is that agreement. It states the flat fee for your package, what is included and what is not, that the office represents you only, that the engagement is for an uncontested divorce, and when the fee is earned.

The fee is earned in stages: 25 percent when the engagement begins and your intake questionnaire is opened to you; 75 percent when the first stage of documents (the petition and summons, the joint petition and joint summons, or the joint petition for summary dissolution) is approved by the attorney and released to you; and the whole fee when the last stage of documents is approved by the attorney and released to you. If the representation ends before a stage is reached, the unearned part is refunded. A matter that stops being uncontested ends the engagement the same way, with the same refund. Your portal shows the stage the fee has reached and the amount that would be refunded.

What is outside the flat fee

The flat fee covers an uncontested divorce without minor children. Outside the flat fee, and the screening says so before you pay: a case with minor children; a business; a pension that needs its own domestic relations order; real property outside California; a spouse who disputes a term or who cannot be found; and a legal separation or an annulment. The screening names the lawyer referral service for your county where a case falls outside.

Within the flat fee two things have a limit: one round of revisions to the settlement agreement, and one correction of a judgment packet the court returns. A further revision round is quoted before any work is done and begins when its fee is paid. Nothing else is billed: there are no hourly charges, no charge for a message in your portal, and no charge for the fee waiver forms.

Paid to others, not to the office: the court's fee; a notary for the agreement, usually $15 a signature according to the Judicial Council's guide; postage for the envelopes rule 5.415 requires with the judgment; copies; a certified copy of the judgment if an agency asks for one; a process server if you use one rather than a friend; and the recording fee and the deed itself where a home is awarded to one spouse, which the two of you arrange through a title company, an escrow company or a real property attorney.

The two add-ons

Expedited document turnaround, $300. The office prepares each document stage ahead of its ordinary turnaround. The six-month waiting period set by California law is not affected. It is bought through the same payment system as the flat fee.

Former name restoration after judgment, $200. An ex parte application to restore a former name after the judgment has been entered, where it was not requested in the judgment. During the case, a former name is restored in the judgment itself at no charge, from your intake, so this add-on is for the client who decides afterwards.

How payment works

Nothing is charged until you have read and signed the engagement letter in your portal. Then you pay the flat fee by card through the office's payment processor, and your intake questionnaire opens as soon as the payment is recorded. The office never sees or stores your card number; its privacy policy says what the processor collects. A client who prefers to pay another way may say so in a message from the portal.

The court's fee is paid separately, by you to the court, when you file. A fee waiver request is filed with the petition, and the clerk files the petition without payment while the court decides (Government Code section 68634(c)).

What the fee buys, and what it cannot

What the fee buys is a set of documents prepared by one California attorney who reads your facts, reviewed before each is released, and prepared to the court's own rules for a judgment packet (California Rules of Court, rules 5.405, 5.411 and 5.415), with the first correction included if the court returns it. What no fee buys is time: Family Code section 2339 requires six months between the day your spouse is served or appears and the day your marriage can legally end, and nothing shortens it.

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene is a law firm. The engagement letter you sign creates an attorney-client relationship between you and the firm for the limited scope it describes, under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425. The other spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce and is not advised by it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing before signing anything.