Filing an uncontested divorce in Sacramento County

The Ridgeway courthouse on Power Inn Road

The court's Family Court page says the Family Court handles matters related to divorce and dissolution, legal separation and parentage, and lists one location for it: the William R. Ridgeway Family Relations Courthouse, 3341 Power Inn Road, Sacramento, CA 95826, telephone (916) 875-3400, option 1. The court's facility directory says the building houses the Family Law and Probate Divisions, the Family Law and Probate Self-Help Center, Family Court Services and the Family Law Facilitator's Office, and that Departments 120 through 135 sit there. The court's Local Rules page refers to the family law filing counter at this courthouse by the same address.

The directory gives the building's hours as Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding court holidays, and its business hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It publishes no separate hours for the family law filing counter, so your filing instructions for Sacramento County give the business hours and nothing narrower.

Getting there, as the directory describes it: visitor parking is a paid city lot east of the courthouse, at $2 for the first two hours, $1 for each additional hour, and a daily maximum of $8, and a free shuttle runs from the Power Inn light rail station to the courthouse.

Which courthouse is yours, and whether Sacramento is your county

In Los Angeles County the first question is which of thirteen courthouses the court assigns to your address. In Sacramento County there is no such question: the court's pages name the Ridgeway courthouse as the Family Court's location and no other, so every petition the office prepares for this county names that courthouse in its caption. The office still confirms the courthouse with you before the petition is prepared, because the rule is confirmed for each client, not assumed.

The question that does arise is whether Sacramento is the county to file in at all. Family Code section 2320 requires that one spouse has lived in California for six months and in the county where the petition is filed for three months before it is filed; the Judicial Council's divorce page, which the court's own Family Court page points to, states the same three-month rule. If neither of you has lived in Sacramento County for three months, the petition is filed in a county where one of you has, or waits until the three months have passed. The intake asks the dates, and the office checks them before anything is drafted.

A spouse who lives elsewhere does not change the answer. Either spouse's residence satisfies the rule: the petition is filed in a county where you or your spouse has lived for three months, and the other spouse is served, or signs the joint petition, wherever they are. 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.

The court's fees, item by item

The Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento, publishes its fees as the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, and its home page says the schedule was updated to match the Judicial Council's. The Judicial Council's own Statewide Civil Fee Schedule for the same date carries the same two first-paper line items at the same amount.

The schedule is linked as "Fee Schedule" from the court's Forms and Fees page, and it is the document your filing instructions cite for the amount you pay at the counter. Read on October 18, 2026, the items that arise in an uncontested divorce are these.

• Item 97: 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. This is paid when the petition is filed.
• Item 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, $435, under Government Code section 70670(d). Your spouse pays it only if they file a response or an appearance.
• Item 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, other than a summary dissolution, $870. The schedule says this fee covers the appearance of both petitioners; it is the two first-paper fees of items 97 and 98 paid together, as Family Code section 2342.5(h) provides.
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent and included in a judgment of dissolution, no fee. The spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing is not charged.
• No local surcharge. The schedule's asterisk note says the starred fees vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local courthouse construction surcharge; Sacramento is not among them, and the court's own list of additional local fees contains only copy, media and postage items.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 is one joint petition and one judgment, and it pays one first-paper fee, $435, item 100 of the Judicial Council's statewide schedule. An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays item 97 once, and item 103 says the agreement itself carries no fee. An ordinary petition where your spouse files an appearance pays items 97 and 98, $870 between the two of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays item 99, $870, which the court states as one line because section 2342.5(h) requires the fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) to be paid with the joint petition unless both spouses hold fee waivers. The joint petition does not save a court fee, in Sacramento County or anywhere; the cost page compares the three paths.

The office's fee is separate from every court fee and is paid to the office, not the court: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition, each a flat fee for preparing and reviewing every document in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425. The fee is earned in stages, and the unearned part is refunded if the representation ends early. The court's fee is paid by you at the filing counter, or waived by the court on your request, and the office handles neither the money nor the filing.

One revision round of the settlement agreement is included, as is the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. If a further revision round is needed, the office quotes it before any work is done.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court's Fee Waivers page says its forms and information are for applying for a waiver of court fees under California Rules of Court, rules 3.50 to 3.58, and it asks for an original and one copy of the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (form FW-003). Government Code sections 68630 to 68634 set who qualifies: a person receiving a listed public benefit, a household at or below the income limit the Judicial Council publishes on form FW-001-INFO, or a person who cannot pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs. The clerk files the petition while the court decides.

The Sacramento page adds a deadline worth knowing before you file. If the court denies the request, you have ten days from notice of the denial to pay the fee, to supplement the application, or to request a hearing; the page says that if none of those is done within ten days, the documents you filed are voided. Your filing instructions repeat the ten-day rule.

On a joint petition the rule is stricter: Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses have fee waivers, so one waiver does not reduce item 99. The office prepares your FW-001 and FW-003 as part of the flat fee when you ask; the fee waiver page explains the rest. A waiver covers the court's fees and not the office's.

Filing on paper in Sacramento County

The court's E-Filing page, read on October 18, 2026, lists the case types that may be filed electronically: civil, criminal, probate, small claims and unlawful detainer. Family law is not on the list, and Local Rule 1.20 allows electronic filing only for the case types listed on the court's website. The office's filing instructions for Sacramento County are therefore written for paper: you bring the documents to the family law filing counter at the Ridgeway courthouse, and the instructions name what to hand over and what to ask the clerk for.

Local Rule 5.21, in the family law chapter, says documents that are not filed by fax or electronically must include original signatures. The office prepares your documents for signature in ink, the instruction sheet marks where, and a copy of a signed page is not an original. Because you sign as a self-represented party and the office does not appear in the case, the signature on each form is yours.

The clerk keeps the original, stamps your copies with the filing date and the case number, and on an ordinary petition issues the summons. Local Rule 1.16 describes a drop box for filing documents with the court, time-stamped on deposit and filed on the date of deposit if stamped before 5 p.m., and it says the box is not to be used for documents that must be filed in a specific department; the rule is a general one for every division, and your instructions say which method applies to each document you file. You enter the filing date and the case number in your portal, and the next set of documents is prepared from them.

The family law local rules that touch an uncontested case

Chapter 5 of the court's Local Rules, rules 5.00 through 5.38, is the family law chapter, effective July 1, 2026. Six of its rules bear on an uncontested dissolution, four of them on the documents themselves, and the office prepares to each.

A local rule of this kind does not change what the statewide forms ask; it changes how a signature is taken, what a caption says and what is served with the summons.

• Rule 5.10: every pleading or form shows the hearing date, time and department under the case number, and if no hearing is set it bears the words "No Hearing." An uncontested divorce on an agreement sets no hearing, so the documents the office prepares for Sacramento County carry that caption where the rule requires it.
• Rule 5.12: the signature of a defaulted self-represented party to an agreement or stipulation must be subscribed by a notary public. On the ordinary path where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing, your spouse's signature on the agreement is notarized before it goes to the court. The office does not provide a notary; the instructions say so, and the agreement is drafted with the acknowledgment the notary completes.
• Rule 5.21: original signatures on every document not filed by fax or electronically, as the paper filing section above explains.
• Rule 5.34: on filing a dissolution the court sets three status conferences, and the spouse who files receives a notice to serve with the petition and summons; the next section describes it.
• Rule 5.11: an ex parte application to restore a former name after judgment, on form FL-395, is submitted with a single copy of the judgment that was entered. A former name requested in the petition and granted in the judgment needs no separate application.
• Rule 5.26: a trial is set by a Memorandum to Set on local form FLE-LP-625, filed only after the preliminary declaration of disclosure has been served. None of the office's three paths sets a trial; the judgment is entered on your declarations under Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409.

The status conferences the court sets, and the notice served with the petition

Local Rule 5.34, Family Centered Case Resolution, adopted January 1, 2026, says that when a dissolution is filed the court schedules three status conference dates, at six, twelve and eighteen months after filing, and gives the spouse who filed a Notice of Family Centered Case Resolution Status Conference. Subdivision (C) requires that notice to be served on the other spouse at the same time as the petition and summons. The notice is issued by the court when you file, not downloaded; the office's filing instructions for Sacramento County tell you to collect it from the clerk, and the service instructions list it with the petition and summons for your server.

Subdivision (D) says that on entry of final judgment the court vacates any outstanding status conferences. A case whose judgment is entered before the first conference date has no conference to attend, because entry of the judgment vacates it. The first conference date and the earliest date a judgment can end the marriage both fall around six months, the one measured from filing and the other from service or appearance under Family Code section 2339, so the two can arrive in either order. If a conference date arrives before the judgment is entered, your portal tells you, and the office's instructions tell you what the notice asks of you.

Local forms: what the court publishes for family law

The court's Family Law local forms folder held twenty-eight items when it was read on October 18, 2026. They are forms for case management, mediation and court services, among them the Memorandum to Set (FLE-LP-625), a Family Law Case Participant Enrollment Form (FLE-LP-665) and an Authorization for Non Attorney Court Document Preparer (FLE-LP-609). The folder lists no local form for a petition for dissolution, for a default or for a judgment packet, and the family law chapter names none for those steps.

The Judicial Council's guide to filling out divorce forms says some courts require local forms and tells readers to check their court's website, which is what the office does for each county before its filing instructions are released. For Sacramento County the petition set is the statewide set: the Petition (form FL-100) and Summons (form FL-110), or the Joint Petition (form FL-700) and its summons (form FL-710), or the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the Judgment (form FL-825), each with the court's "No Hearing" caption where rule 5.10 applies.

The form for a non-attorney document preparer is not one the office uses. Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene is a law office, and the attorney prepares and reviews your documents in a limited scope engagement under rule 5.425; the documents say so where the rules require it, and the attorney does not appear in the case.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. The documents the office released to you, in the originals and copies your instruction sheet lists, signed in ink where it shows; the Notice of Family Centered Case Resolution Status Conference is collected from the clerk at this visit; the fee of $435, or $870 on a joint petition, or the FW-001 and FW-003 in an original and one copy if you are asking for a waiver.

At service, on an ordinary petition. Your server delivers the petition, the summons and the court's status conference notice to your spouse, and signs the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115); or your spouse signs the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (form FL-117). The signed proof is filed with the court. The preliminary declaration of disclosure under Family Code section 2104 is served on your spouse and never filed; the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141) is filed to prove it was served. Family Code section 2106 ties a judgment on property to the disclosures having been served, with the final disclosure waivable under section 2105, so the FL-141 for each spouse is part of what the court looks for.

At the judgment. The judgment packet your instructions list, and nothing the court has not asked for, because California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 fixes the required documents on the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182) and bars a court from requiring anything beyond it. The next section lists what Sacramento County's own rules add to the signatures inside the packet.

The judgment packet in this county

The statewide rules set the packet. Rule 5.405 fixes its contents on form FL-182. Rule 5.411 governs a stipulated judgment, the form a judgment on a signed settlement agreement takes, and rule 5.415 requires the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) with stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse so the clerk can mail the entered judgment. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 let the judgment be entered on your written declaration without a hearing.

Sacramento County's rules add three things inside the packet, none of them a form. Under rule 5.12, where your spouse signed the settlement agreement as a defaulted self-represented party, the signature is notarized. Under rule 5.21, every signature on the paper packet is an original. Under rule 5.10, each form carries "No Hearing" under the case number. The office prepares the packet to all three, and the first correction of a packet the court returns is included in the flat fee.

The court's Self-Help Center runs two programs for the end of a Sacramento divorce. Its Judgment Workshop, held every fourth Thursday of the month by appointment, is for people who started a divorce or legal separation case in Sacramento County, have satisfied the financial disclosure requirements and are ready to finish the case. Its One Day Divorce Program, in the court's words, assists parties with Sacramento County divorce cases that are ready to be finalized and have a judgment entered the same day by a judge; the court asks you to contact the center through e-Correspondence to learn whether your case is eligible. The office's packet is prepared to be submitted without either program, and whether to use one is your choice; the six months in Family Code section 2339 run from service or appearance whichever way the judgment is entered.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on an agreement needs no hearing. If the court sets one, its Family and Probate Remote Appearances page says each family department, 120 through 135, has its own Zoom link on the court's zoomgov site and a toll-free telephone line, (833) 568-8864, with a meeting ID for each department, and Local Rule 5.24 confirms the court uses Zoom for remote proceedings. The page tells a party who wants to appear remotely to file and serve a Notice of Remote Appearance (form RA-010) as soon as possible before the proceeding.

For an evidentiary hearing, a trial or a default judgment, the page says the other side may oppose a remote appearance on form RA-015, and the court rules on form RA-020. When the court sets a hearing, the instructions in your portal say what it has asked for and which department's link applies; the office does not appear at it.

Help the court itself offers

The Family Law and Probate Self-Help Center and Family Law Facilitator's Office are one office at the Ridgeway courthouse, on the third floor in Room 314, reached through the court's main line, (916) 875-3400. The court says the center gives free assistance to people without an attorney in divorce, legal separation and nullity cases among others; its staff provide legal and procedural information and forms, answer questions about family law procedure and review completed forms, and the court is plain about the limit: the center cannot provide legal advice or strategy, and its staff do not represent anyone. In-person help is first come, first served, appointments are booked online, and the center also helps remotely through a Virtual Front Counter on Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., through Zoom workshops, and through written e-Correspondence.

Two of its workshops bear on an uncontested case. The Financial Disclosure Workshop, on Zoom on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month with check-in at 8:45 a.m., is for parties with a Sacramento divorce or legal separation case; the Judgment Workshop is described above. A Community Resource Room off the center's lobby is open Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The court has no page of its own about divorce; its Family Court page sends readers to the Judicial Council's self-help site for divorce information.

The office's documents are prepared to be filed without the center's help, and your portal and the office are the place to ask first. The center answers the questions only the court can, such as what the clerk at the counter asks for on the day. A case with minor children, a business, a pension that needs its own order, real property outside California, a spouse who cannot be found, or a case that is no longer uncontested is 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 clerk mails the entered judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190) to each spouse in the envelopes you supplied under rule 5.415. The judgment states the date the marriage ends (Family Code section 2340), and under section 2339 that date is no earlier than six months after the other spouse was served or appeared; form FL-107-INFO puts the earliest date at six months and one day. Nothing in Sacramento County's rules, programs or workshops shortens that period, and the One Day Divorce Program enters a judgment, not an earlier end date.

On entry of judgment the court vacates the status conferences it set under rule 5.34(D), so a notice for a conference that no longer applies is answered by the entered judgment. A former name restored in the judgment is changed on your identification with a certified copy of the judgment, as the Judicial Council's guide to what happens after a divorce explains. A former name not requested before judgment is restored afterward under rule 5.11 on form FL-395, with one copy of the judgment.

The office releases filing instructions for a county only after it has read the court's own materials for that county. Sacramento County's were read on October 18, 2026, and the sources are listed below with that date.

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