Filing an uncontested divorce in San Francisco County

One courthouse: the Civic Center Courthouse, Room 402

The Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco files family law papers in one place. Its divorce page is direct about it: file all your forms in the Family Law Clerk's Office at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister Street, Room 402, San Francisco, CA 94102. The Unified Family Court page gives the same room and the telephone number for family law, juvenile dependency and child support, (415) 551-3900, and the courthouse page says the Unified Family Court is on the fourth floor. Local Rule 11.1 of the court's Uniform Local Rules puts it in rule form: the Office of the Court Clerk for the Family Law and Child Support Divisions is located in Room 402 of the Civic Center Courthouse.

Because there is one courthouse, San Francisco has no assignment rule to apply and nothing to confirm about which building is yours; the filing instructions the office prepares for you name Room 402 and the caption of every document names the court. The Unified Family Court, as its page describes it, handles divorce, legal separation and nullity along with parentage, domestic violence restraining orders, child support and spousal support, and the Family Law page lists the filing window as Civic Center Courthouse Room 402 with the same (415) 551-3900 number. The building itself has a general number, (415) 551-4000, and the courthouse page gives its building hours as Monday through Friday, 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The hours of the Room 402 window are a different matter. The court's own pages do not agree: the Unified Family Court page, the Family Law page and the Civic Center Courthouse page each give the same window a different morning closing time and a different start for the afternoon drop box. This page prints none of them, because a reader who relies on the wrong one arrives at a closed window. What the three pages do agree on is that the window is open in the morning on court days and that a drop box takes documents in the afternoon; read the court's pages the day before you go, and your filing instructions say the same.

The court fee and the San Francisco surcharge

The court's Local Fees and Bail Schedules page links one civil schedule, the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, which is the Judicial Council's document as the San Francisco court posts it. It was read on October 18, 2026. Its family law section lists the two fees that matter to an uncontested divorce, and both carry an asterisk. The schedule's first page explains the mark in its own words: fees marked with an asterisk will vary in the counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction.

The appendix at the end of the schedule, titled first paper filing fees under the Uniform Civil Fees in courts with local courthouse construction surcharges, does the arithmetic for San Francisco. In the column for unlimited civil, family and probate cases it shows the statewide uniform fee of $435, a local courthouse construction surcharge of $50, a distribution to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund of nothing, and a total fee of $450. Footnote 12 states the authority: in San Francisco the maximum surcharge allowed by statute is $50, $10 is applied to limited civil cases and $50 to other first paper filings, under Government Code section 70625. Footnote 8 confirms the reach of the appendix figures: these uniform filing fees apply to both first paper filings and response filings in limited, unlimited, family law and probate cases. The court's own divorce page gives no dollar amount; it says only that a filing fee is charged for the petition and sends the reader to the fee schedule. The items, as the schedule prints them:

• Item 97: a petition or other first paper for dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, legal separation or nullity, under Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6, listed at $435 with an asterisk; in San Francisco, with the $50 surcharge of footnote 12, $450. You pay this at Room 402, or through your e-filing provider, when an ordinary petition is filed.
• Item 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, under Government Code sections 70670(d), 70602.5 and 70602.6, listed at $435 with an asterisk; in San Francisco, $450. This fee arises only if your spouse files a response; a spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing is not charged it.
• The appendix row for San Francisco: statewide uniform fee $435, local courthouse construction surcharge $50, distribution to the construction fund $0, total $450. The surcharge is added to the statewide figure, with no offset against it.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays item 97 once, $450. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays item 97 and item 98, $900 between the two of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays $900 as well, because subdivision (h) provides that the joint petition is filed with both first-paper fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers; the surcharge attaches to each first paper, so each half of the joint petition carries it. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 is a single joint petition and pays one first-paper fee for the two of you. The schedule's separate line for that petition was not among the items read for this page, so its amount is not printed here; the court's divorce page says that both parties must qualify for a fee waiver in order for that fee to be waived. The joint petition does not save a court fee in San Francisco; it pays both first-paper fees at Room 402.

None of the court's money goes to the office, and none of the office's goes to the court. The office charges a flat fee, paid to the office, of $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. It covers the preparation and attorney review of every document in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425, the written filing instructions for San Francisco reviewed by the attorney 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 a further revision round is wanted, it is quoted first, and no work on it starts until you agree. The fee is earned in stages; should the representation end early, the part not yet earned is refunded.

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 at Room 402, or electronically if you choose to, as a self-represented party with the attorney's written instructions in hand. The office represents one spouse only. Your spouse is not a client of this office in the divorce, receives no advice from it, and is free to consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The San Francisco court has no fee waiver page of its own. Its divorce page says that a person who is low income and cannot afford the filing fee can file a fee waiver request with the court, names the forms, the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (form FW-003), and links the Judicial Council's self-help page on fee waivers for the rest. The statute 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 page states what follows a denial: if your fee waiver is denied, you have ten days to pay the filing fee or to ask for a hearing on the waiver by completing form FW-006. For a summary dissolution the page is specific that both parties must qualify for a fee waiver in order for the fee to be waived, and the same logic governs a joint petition under section 2342.5(h), which requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers. The Judicial Council's page, the one the court links, says the request may be filed with the divorce petition or with the response, and that a fee waiver expires sixty days after the judgment is entered.

If you e-file, the court's E-Filing FAQs say that applications for waiver of court fees and costs are accepted electronically in cases that are electronically filed, so the request goes in with the petition whichever way the petition goes in. When you ask for it, the request and the order form are prepared as part of the flat fee. The waiver reaches the court's fees and nothing else; the office's fee is not changed by it.

E-filing: mandatory for attorneys, a choice for you

San Francisco is a mandatory e-filing court for divorces, with an exception that covers you. Local Rule 2.11(A)(3) lists the Designated Cases to which the e-filing rules apply and names family law dissolution cases among them, adding in the same breath that no other family law cases are Designated Cases. The court's E-Filing page records when that began: on January 4, 2021 the court expanded mandatory electronic filing to include new complaints in general civil cases as well as family law dissolution cases. The exception is in Rule 2.11(D)(2), and the E-Filing page repeats it: self-represented parties and non-parties are excluded from the requirements of the e-filing rules but are encouraged to comply with them voluntarily. The E-Filing Special Instructions page says it a third way: self-represented parties may continue to file, serve and be served traditionally in paper.

You are a self-represented party for this purpose. The attorney prepares and reviews your documents in a limited scope engagement and does not appear in the case, so the mandatory rule for attorneys does not reach your filing. The choice is yours: the window or the drop box at Room 402, or an electronic filing through a provider. The court's E-Filing FAQs say the court has selected File & ServeXpress as its e-filing manager for general civil, complex civil, family and probate cases, and its E-Filing Service Providers page does not list the providers itself; it sends filers to a list of approved providers on that vendor's website. The court publishes an address for questions about family law filings, UFCEfiling@sftc.org.

Your filing instructions name the method you chose and what to ask for at Room 402. The court's divorce page tells a filer to make two photocopies of each form and to double hole-punch the top of all original forms. Once the petition is filed, the case number and the filing date go into your portal, and the office prepares the service documents from them. Whichever way you file, the papers that carry account numbers stay out of the court file: your preliminary disclosure under Family Code section 2104 is served on your spouse and never filed, and only the declaration that it was served goes to Room 402.

What you bring at each step

At the petition. The originals, double hole-punched at the top as the court's divorce page requires, and two photocopies of each: the Petition (form FL-100) and the Summons (form FL-110) with the court's local form SFUFC 11.17, or the Joint Petition (form FL-700) and its summons, or the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800) with the property settlement agreement and the Judgment (form FL-825); the fee waiver request if you are making one; and the fee. For a summary dissolution the court's page asks for the original and two copies of both forms along with a self-addressed stamped envelope for each party, all to Room 402. If you will use a post office box on your forms, the page says to file the court's form SFUFC 11.9-A, the Declaration Regarding Acceptance of Service at P.O. Box, with them.

At service, on an ordinary petition. The court's page gives the response deadline, thirty days after service, and tells you to submit your original Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115) and one copy to Room 402, where the clerk returns a stamped copy for your records. The page also sets the disclosure clock: you are required to complete and exchange your financial disclosures with the other party within sixty days of filing your case. The Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141) is filed when your disclosure has been served; the disclosure itself is not.

At the judgment. The packet your filing instructions list, with two additional copies of each form and four self-addressed stamped envelopes, two addressed to each party, as the court's divorce page requires, submitted at Room 402. The next section sets out what the local rule asks for inside the packet; California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 limits what a court may require to the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182).

Local rules and the one local form

The court's local rules are the Uniform Local Rules of Court of the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, and the court's rules page links two editions, effective January 1, 2026 and July 1, 2026; this page follows the July 1, 2026 edition. Rule 11 is the family law rule, first adopted in 1998 and revised to July 1, 2026, and the parts an uncontested divorce meets are few: Rule 11.0, general rules, including the envelope rule for every conventionally filed document; Rule 11.1, the Unified Family Court; Rule 11.5, the use of Judicial Council and local San Francisco Unified Family Court forms; Rule 11.14, the default and uncontested calendar; and Rule 11.16, alternative dispute resolution. Rule 11.7 governs law and motion and remote appearances, and Rule 2.11 is the e-filing rule described above.

Rule 11.5 states the court's position on forms: all pleadings must be filed on approved Judicial Council forms, and in addition the local rules require specific local forms. For a divorce the specific local form is one. Rule 11.16(B) names the Notice of Nature and Availability of Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures in Family Law, SFUFC Form 11.17, and says all parties must file and serve it with any petition; the court's divorce page lists it with the petition and the summons as a form to start a case, lists it again with the response, and in a default judgment on a written agreement asks for the responding spouse's signed copy. The local forms page carries it as SFUFC-11.17, revised February 10, 2026. The rule's own text refers once to the form as 11.16, and the local forms page and the divorce page both call it 11.17, so the office prepares it under the number the forms page uses. The table of contents of the same rules says all local forms are optional; this page follows Rules 11.5 and 11.16(B) and the court's divorce page, which list the form with the petition. Rule 11.16(B) also lists the cases the rule does not reach, and the first is cases in which a joint petition is filed, so a joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 is filed without it.

Two more local forms can arise. SFUFC 11.9-A is the post office box declaration described above. SFUFC 11.14-A matters only if someone other than a party is to receive the judgment documents: Rule 11.14(A)(5) says judgment documents will not be mailed to a consulting attorney, mediator or legal document preparer without a fully executed SFUFC Form 11.14-A. The office's engagement is limited scope and the judgment is mailed to you, so your instructions do not include it. Rule 11.14(A)(2) adds that, in addition to the required Judicial Council forms, a judgment checklist may be completed and submitted with a request for judgment of dissolution; the rule calls it optional, and the Judicial Council's own checklist, form FL-182, is the one rule 5.405 names.

One rule looks past the judgment. The court's divorce page says that if you do not finish your case within eighteen months from when you filed, with no judgment, the court will mail you a letter with a court date for a hearing. Your portal shows the date each document was filed, so you can see how much of that time has run.

The judgment packet in San Francisco County

Local Rule 11.14(A) is the court's rule for the default and uncontested calendar, and it opens with how the judgment is decided: requests must be submitted by declaration under Family Code section 2336, and the court may act upon all requests without a court hearing. The court's divorce page says the same for the reader: you may be able to obtain your judgment by paper submission, and you do not have to appear in front of a judge. If the court wants more, Rule 11.14(A)(1)(b) sets the clock: if the moving party does not respond to the court's request within thirty calendar days, the matter will be taken off calendar. The first correction of a packet the court returns is included in the flat fee, and your instructions tell you what to do if the court asks for more.

The court's divorce page lays out three judgment paths and the forms for each: a true default, where your spouse was served and filed nothing and signed nothing; a default with a written agreement, where your spouse filed nothing but signed the settlement agreement; and an uncontested judgment where a response was filed. The Judicial Council forms it lists are the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165), the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution or Legal Separation (form FL-170), the Judgment (form FL-180) and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190), with the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141), the Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150), the Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144) and the Proof of Service by Mail (form FL-335) where they apply, and, on the uncontested path, the Appearance, Stipulation, and Waivers (form FL-130); Rule 11.14(C)(1) says the parties must submit that form in order to obtain a stipulated judgment, and California Rules of Court, rule 5.411 governs the stipulated judgment itself.

Rule 11.14(B) carries requirements of San Francisco's own for a default judgment. Under Rule 11.14(B)(1)(c), the responding spouse's signature on the settlement agreement must be notarized, even if an attorney represents that spouse, and the divorce page repeats it: the written agreement attached to the FL-180 must carry a notarized signature. The office does not provide a notary, so the signing and the notarization happen before the packet goes to Room 402, and your instructions say so. Under Rule 11.14(B)(1)(b) and 11.14(C)(2), a waiver of the final declaration of disclosure under Family Code section 2105(d) must be contained in a separately filed document signed under penalty of perjury, so the waiver goes on form FL-144, a separate document, and not as a line in the agreement. Rule 11.14(B)(2)(d) requires the filing spouse to address the issue of spousal support for both parties in the proposed judgment, and the divorce page adds the court's practice that it will not terminate its jurisdiction over spousal support in a true default case if the marriage is ten years or longer. Rule 11.14(B)(2)(e) requires that all assets and debts to be divided in the judgment be listed in the petition or in a property declaration that was served on the responding spouse; the office prepares the petition with that rule in view.

The envelopes are a rule of their own. Rule 11.14(A)(11) says self-addressed stamped envelopes must be submitted along with each judgment packet, Rule 11.0(C) says that for any document filed conventionally with the court, including judgment documents, self-addressed stamped envelopes of sufficient number, size and postage must be submitted at the same time, and the divorce page counts them: four self-addressed stamped envelopes, two addressed to each party, with two additional copies of each form. Where a Request to Enter Default is in the packet, Rule 11.14(A)(11)(c) requires a separate envelope for it addressed to the responding spouse. Rule 11.14(B)(1)(a) adds a timing option: the Request to Enter Default and the Proof of Service of Summons must be submitted separately from the other documents if the filing spouse wants the default entered within two court days, and the default is entered only after proof of service, the thirty days, and no response. California Rules of Court, rule 5.415 requires the envelopes for the Notice of Entry of Judgment in every county; San Francisco counts them for you.

The packet goes to Room 402. The divorce page says to submit everything at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister Street, Room 402, and no page read for this page says a judgment packet may be mailed, so your instructions send it there in person. The court mails the entered judgment to each spouse in the envelopes you supplied; its page states an average time for the judgment paperwork to arrive by mail, which is the court's estimate of its own work, not a date you can count on, and nothing in it shortens the six months of Family Code section 2339.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement needs no hearing: Family Code section 2336 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409 allow the judgment to be entered on your declaration, and Rule 11.14(A) says the court may act on every judgment request without one. If a hearing is set in your case, the Unified Family Court page says that effective January 2, 2024 the platform for remote court hearings in the Unified Family Court changed to Zoom, and it posts the meeting ID and passcode for each family law department's public hearings; the Family Law page lists Departments 403, 404 and 405 and says for Department 405A to see the notice of hearing for the department number and the Zoom information.

Local Rule 11.7(D)(4)(b) gives the right: parties and attorneys are authorized to appear at a hearing in person or remotely by video or telephone using the court's designated remote appearance platform, unless the court requires an in-person appearance, and no separate request form is needed for a party. The same rule sets the connection windows: for a morning calendar, the party must be continuously connected from 8:20 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. or until the party's hearing is concluded, and for an afternoon calendar from 1:20 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Rule 11.7(D)(4)(a) says the departmental email addresses and the instructions for remote appearances are on the Unified Family Court page. The office does not appear at a hearing. If the court sets one, your portal carries the date and the court's request.

The ACCESS Center and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help center is the ACCESS Center, which the court spells out as Assisting Court Customers with Education and Self-help Services, at 400 McAllister Street, Room 509, one floor above the family law clerk. The Family Law page labels its link to the center Family Law Facilitator and Family Law Self-Help Center, and the Unified Family Court page lists the Family Law Facilitators at the same Room 509 with the same telephone number, (415) 551-0605, so in San Francisco the facilitator and the self-help center are one office. Its flyer says the center can help with divorce, dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, legal separation and nullity of marriage.

The center's page and the courthouse page give three ways to reach it. A live helpline at (415) 551-0605 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.; a LiveChat for dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.; and in-person help on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., which the flyer describes as ticketed, first come first served, with sign-in on the fifth floor at 8:30 a.m. and a limited number of tickets. The page also offers an online tool it calls PARTWAYS, a free multilingual AI-assisted tool to help navigate divorce cases, available around the clock, and an online intake form. The center's closure dates for the year are posted on its page.

The center's limits are stated on its page: it cannot provide legal advice, it is available to help both parties to a case, and it helps with general information and instructions for San Francisco cases only. For judgments it runs what the divorce page calls the Concluding Dissolution Workshop, a case-by-case review process to assist self-represented litigants with the paperwork to request their judgments. The office's documents are prepared and reviewed by the attorney so that you do not need that review, and your portal and the office are where your questions go first; the center answers the questions about a clerk's practice on the day that no outside office can.

Some cases are outside the flat fee: a divorce with minor children, a business to value or divide, a pension that needs an order of its own, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, a spouse who cannot be found, or a disagreement the two of you will not settle in writing. 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 divorce page states the earliest date in plain words: the soonest you can become single is six months and a day from the time the other party was served with your divorce papers. That is the rule of Family Code section 2339, counted the way form FL-107-INFO counts it; under section 2340 the judgment states the date your marriage ends. Nothing filed in San Francisco shortens the wait; a complete packet submitted early waits for the date, and a late one waits for its own review.

The residence rule the court's page states is Family Code section 2320 in the court's words: you or your spouse must physically live in San Francisco for at least the last three months, and in California for at least the last six months. The office confirms the county in the intake, and if you have lived in San Francisco less than three months, the petition is filed where you meet the rule. Deeds are not part of the engagement: if the agreement calls for a transfer of California real property, the deed and its recording are a separate matter after the judgment, and the office does not prepare or record them.

Each source listed below was read on October 18, 2026, and every address, fee, rule number and form number on this page comes from one of them, and anything the court's materials did not confirm, including the hours of the Room 402 window, is not on the page.

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