Filing an uncontested divorce in San Joaquin County

One court, one family law courthouse

San Joaquin County has a single superior court, and its Court Location and Contact page describes how it is laid out: court proceedings are conducted at the Stockton Courthouse, at the Juvenile Justice Center in French Camp, and at branch courts in Manteca and Lodi. Family law lives in Stockton. The Family Law and Support page states that the court accepts filings relating to dissolution of marriage, custody and visitation, parentage and family support, and gives the clerk's office on the fourth floor, Suite 413, of the Stockton Courthouse at 180 East Weber Avenue, Stockton, CA 95202 as the place family law documents are filed. The court's own local form SJ-FL-005 prints the same address with the suite number in its caption, and the Stockton Courthouse page gives 180 East Weber Avenue as both the physical and the mailing address.

The two branches are described by what they hear. The Lodi Courthouse page lists Department L-1 at 217 West Elm Street, second floor, for criminal, civil name changes, small claims, civil harassment, municipal codes and some probate, and Department L-2 at 315 West Elm Street for probate. The Manteca Branch page, 315 East Center Street, lists telephone lines for criminal, traffic, civil harassment and unlawful detainer. Neither page names family law, and no court page read for this page says a divorce may be filed at a branch counter. Your petition therefore goes to Stockton, and because the county has one family law filing location there is no assignment rule to apply; your filing instructions name the Stockton Courthouse.

The Family Law and Support page gives the clerk's telephone number, (209) 992-5690, with regular phone hours Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., subject to the same notice page described below, and names the family law departments, 4A, 4B and 5A, where court begins at 8:15 a.m. The court announces changes to its counter hours on a notice page on its website, which also states the regular clerk's office hours as 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday; read that page before you go, because the court uses it for temporary schedules while it changes its systems, and the hours it shows on a given day govern the counter and the telephone line.

The first-paper fee, from two schedules

The court does not print family law fees on its own site. Its Court Fee Schedule page links the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule, and the copy it posts is the version effective January 1, 2024, read on October 18, 2026. That copy lists a petition or other first paper for dissolution at $435 as item 96 (its parenthetical "including a joint petition" predates the joint petition of Family Code section 2342.5), and a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition at $435 as item 97. The Judicial Council's own fees page names the current schedule as the one effective January 1, 2026, and that schedule, also read on October 18, 2026, lists the same two papers at the same amount as items 97 and 98. The two schedules agree on the figure, and the court's Family Law and Support page adds the practical rule: the filing clerk tells you the fee at the time of filing, and the page points you to the schedule or to (209) 992-5690 for a question about it.

Both schedules mark the dissolution fees with an asterisk, and the footnote explains it: fees so marked vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction. San Joaquin is not named in that footnote, and the court's fee page states no local amount; the figure printed here is the statewide amount the schedules show. The items from the statewide schedule effective January 1, 2026 that an uncontested divorce meets:

• 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 (item 96 of the court's posted 2024 copy). This is paid when an ordinary 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) (item 97 of the court's posted copy). Your spouse pays it only by filing a response.
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent and included in a judgment of dissolution, no fee (item 100 of the court's posted copy). No fee is charged to a spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing else.
• The court's Default (No Hearing) packet page states that there is no filing fee for the forms it lists: FL-141, FL-165, FL-170, FL-180 and FL-190.
• A certified copy of a divorce judgment from the court's Records Management office, $15.00, by check payable to Superior Court with the words not to exceed $25.00 written in the memo line, as the court's Divorce or Separation page instructs.

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, and the stipulation the spouse signs is filed at no charge under item 103. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays two, $870 between the two of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays both first-paper fees, $870, because subdivision (h) of that section provides that a joint petition is filed with both fees under Government Code section 70670(b) and (d) unless both spouses have fee waivers. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays the first-paper fee once, $435. The joint petition does not save a court fee in San Joaquin County; it pays both first-paper fees at the fourth floor counter.

What you pay the office is a separate flat fee, not a court fee: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition, $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 the Stockton Courthouse, 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 needed, it is quoted first, before any work on it begins. The flat fee is earned in stages; should the representation end early, the part not yet earned is refunded.

Filing, serving your spouse, appearing in court, notarizing and preparing or recording deeds are not things the office does. You file as a self-represented litigant with the attorney's written instructions. One spouse is the office's client, and only one: in the divorce the other spouse is not a client of this office and receives no advice from it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court's Fee Waiver form packet page lists three Judicial Council forms, the information sheet FW-001-INFO, the Request to Waive Court Fees, FW-001, and the Order on Court Fee Waiver, FW-003, and it states a rule a couple should read together: each person requesting a fee waiver must file their own request. The page asks for the original plus one copy, and for a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of your copy, or you pick it up at the Security Desk in the Stockton Courthouse. The Family Law and Support page says the same forms may be downloaded from the California Courts website and submitted with your filing. Government Code sections 68630 to 68634 set the grounds: a listed public benefit, a household income at or below the published limit, or an inability to pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs, and the clerk files the petition while the request is decided.

Two local provisions bear on a waiver here. Local Rule 6, paragraph 8, provides that a party with an active fee waiver on file, or who is granted one, is exempt from the fees and costs of electronic filing, so a filer with a waiver who e-files owes the provider nothing. Paragraph 8.C of the same rule provides that where a fee waiver is denied on an e-filed document, the filer has 10 days to comply with the Order on Fee Waiver or the filing is voided, which is the reason a filer who asks for a waiver watches for the order.

On a joint petition, section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers, and the court's rule that each person files their own FW-001 is how two waivers come to be. The office prepares the request and the order form within the flat fee when you ask. A waiver reaches the court's fees and not the office's.

E-filing: what the court says, and what was not read

The court's notice page on clerk's office hours states that eFiling services remain available for civil, family law and probate matters and sends readers to the court's eFiling webpage at appfile.sjcourts.org for more information. That site refused the connection when it was read for this page on October 18, 2026, so what it says about who may e-file, whether e-filing is required or optional in family law, and which electronic filing service providers the court accepts is not known to this page and is not stated here. Nothing on the court's other pages answers those questions.

What the court's Local Rules do say, in Rule 6, Electronic Filing, is this: since January 1, 2020 the court allows electronic filing for specific case types listed on its website; the filing of electronic documents must be made through the court's electronic service provider; every e-filed document must be a text-searchable PDF, with exhibits bookmarked; the provider may charge a fee and the court adds no administrative fee of its own; and a party with a fee waiver is exempt from those fees and costs. Rule 6 does not itself say that e-filing is mandatory for family law or for a self-represented party.

The court's form packets for a dissolution, a response and a default describe paper: submit the original plus one set of copies, the dissolution packet says, for your records. Your filing instructions follow the paper route the court's own pages describe. Whichever way a document reaches the court, your financial disclosure is exchanged with your spouse and not filed, as the court's summary dissolution packet says of the disclosure forms; only the declaration that it was served, form FL-141, goes to the court.

Filing on paper: the fourth floor counter, the drop box and the mail

The court's Fourth Floor Filing Guidelines govern the Family Law and Support counter. New cases and ordinary documents are filed at the windows, with a kiosk ticket, and the guidelines set limits: no more than three new cases and five miscellaneous documents per ticket, no tickets issued after 4:00 p.m., and under Local Rule 3-100 the clerk conforms no more than two copies. The guidelines also draw a line that matters later in your case: family law requests for default, judgments, dismissals, writs, abstracts, requests for order with temporary orders, at-issue memorandums and findings and orders after hearing are not processed at the counter. They are taken in and returned through the pick-up box or by mail in a self-addressed envelope you supply. Self-represented filers pick up returned documents at the clerk's windows between 8:00 a.m. and noon and between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., and documents not picked up within 30 days are destroyed.

The court maintains a Family Law and Probate drop box. Its notice states that the box is available from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday except court holidays; that documents placed in the box by 4:00 p.m. and accepted for filing after the clerk's review are deemed filed that day; that a self-addressed stamped envelope with up to two copies must be included; and that fees are paid by check, money order or the court's credit card authorization form, with no cash. The authorization form, for Visa or MasterCard, is published for civil, family law and probate matters with instructions in English and Spanish. The court's notice page places the Stockton Courthouse box inside the main lobby. It lists boxes at the other buildings as well, but no page read says a family law document may be left at a branch, so your instructions name the Stockton box.

By mail, the address is Superior Court of California, County of San Joaquin, 180 East Weber Avenue, Suite 413, Stockton, CA 95202, the address the Divorce or Separation page gives for Records Management and the one the Family Law and Support page gives for the clerk. The court's format rules, printed on its fee schedule page, apply to every paper filing: recycled 8.5 by 11 inch paper with 28 numbered lines, holes punched at the top, double spaced. The packet instructions add blue or black ink, no lined or colored paper, the original plus one copy, and a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your copy mailed back; copies left without an envelope go to the clerk's pickup cabinet and may be destroyed after 30 days. The office prepares your documents to those rules, and your instructions list what to bring, what to pay, and what to ask the clerk to conform.

What you bring to file the petition is the original and the copies your instruction sheet names of each document the office released, signed in ink where shown: the Petition, form FL-100, and the Summons, form FL-110, with the other forms your case needs, 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. What comes back from the fourth floor is a conformed copy with the filing date and the case number and, on an ordinary petition, the issued summons. Those two details go into your portal, and every later document is prepared with them in the caption.

Local rules and local forms

The court's Local Rules are revised each January 1 and July 1, and the edition read for this page took effect July 1, 2026. Rule 7 is Family Law, and Rule 6 is Electronic Filing. The Rule 7 provisions an uncontested divorce can meet are few. Rule 7-107, Defaults, provides that the clerk shall not enter a default in a dissolution or legal separation unless a Declaration of Disclosure has been served at least 30 days before, or unless the parties have filed a Marital Settlement Agreement. Rule 7-112 lists the duties of the Family Law Facilitator. Rules 7-115 and 7-116 govern video conference and remote appearances. Rule 7-108, At-Issue Memorandums, applies to a case being set for trial and requires a served settlement proposal, a current Income and Expense Declaration and a completed Declaration of Disclosure first; an uncontested divorce on a written agreement is not set for trial.

The court offers local forms, and none of its dissolution packets calls for one. Its Local Forms page lists a Marital Settlement Agreement with children, SJFL-100, and a Marital Settlement Agreement with no children, SJFL-101; Sup. Ct. 71, Request to Set Default or Uncontested Matter for Hearing, which names default dissolution and appearance and waiver dissolution among the proceedings it sets; Sup. Ct. 43, At-Issue Memorandum; and Sup. Ct. 125, Declaration of Mailing or of Inability to Ascertain Address. The office prepares your settlement agreement; the court's agreement forms are offered and not required, and nothing in the court's packets calls for them. Sup. Ct. 71 exists for a filer who wants a hearing on a default or an appearance and waiver; a judgment on a written agreement is submitted on declarations instead, under Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409, and needs no request for a hearing.

The court's packets and pages read for this page list no local form with the petition, the default or the judgment. The court's packets list Judicial Council forms only. The dissolution packet holds FL-107-INFO, FL-100, FL-105 and FL-105(A), FL-110, FL-300-INFO, FL-300, FL-303, FL-305, FL-150, FL-160, FL-142, FL-140, FL-115, FL-141, FL-120, FL-320-INFO and FL-320; the response packet holds FL-120, FL-105 and FL-105(A), FL-150, FL-160, FL-142, FL-140 and FL-141 with forms for other matters; the summary dissolution packet separates the forms you file, among them FL-810, FL-800, FL-825 and FL-830, from the forms you complete and exchange with each other and do not file, FL-150, FL-160, FL-142 and FL-140. A Declaration of Disclosure packet is listed on the court's packet index as well. The office does not hand you a packet; it prepares the forms your case needs, and the packets are named so you can see what the court expects of a filer and that none of them adds a local form.

The judgment packet in San Joaquin County

The statewide rules fix the contents. California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 limits what a court may require to the Judgment Checklist, form FL-182, and the forms it names; rule 5.411 governs a judgment entered on the parties' stipulation; and rule 5.415 requires stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse, with the clerk's return address, for the Notice of Entry of Judgment. The court's own Default (No Hearing) packet is a short list of Judicial Council forms, FL-141, FL-165, FL-170, FL-180 and FL-190, filed without a fee. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 allow the judgment to be entered on your declaration without a hearing.

The one local rule the packet meets is Rule 7-107. The clerk will not enter a default in a dissolution unless the Declaration of Disclosure was served at least 30 days before the request, or the parties have filed a Marital Settlement Agreement. The Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure, form FL-141, states the date your disclosure was served, and the Request to Enter Default, form FL-165, is not filed until that 30-day mark has passed; where your spouse signs the settlement agreement, the agreement goes in with the packet. Family Code section 2104 requires the preliminary disclosure of each spouse, and section 2105 permits the final disclosure to be waived in writing; the packet carries the waiver where the two of you sign one.

How the packet reaches the clerk follows the fourth floor guidelines: a request to enter default and a judgment are not processed at the counter, so a packet handed in at the window is taken in and returned through the pick-up box or by mail in the self-addressed envelope you supply, and the drop box in the Stockton lobby accepts documents until 4:00 p.m. with a self-addressed stamped envelope and up to two copies. No court page read for this page says a judgment packet may be e-filed, because the eFiling site was not read, and none says in so many words to mail a judgment packet, although the clerk's mailing address is published; your filing instructions set out the route the court's pages support. The guidelines allow 30 days to pick up returned documents before they are destroyed. If the clerk returns the packet with a correction to make, the first correction is part of the flat fee.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is decided on paper, and no hearing is set in the ordinary course. If the court sets one, its Family Law and Support page describes a telephone bridge line rather than a video product: you call (209) 992-5590 a few minutes before the hearing time and follow the prompts with the bridge number and PIN the page lists for each department, 6950 and 8348 for Department 4A, 6944 and 1475 for Department 4B, 6942 and 4178 for Department 5A. The page says law and motion and ex parte matters may be heard remotely under Local Rule 7-116 and that other hearings need the court's approval under Local Rule 7-115.

Local Rule 7-116, paragraph 4, provides that for evidentiary hearings, requests for order, mediations, settlement conferences, trials and orders to show cause, the parties must appear in person unless the party requests and receives express written authorization from the judicial officer to appear remotely, by an Ex Parte Application for Remote Appearance at Hearing and Order, local form SJ-FL-005, filed at least 10 court days before the hearing. That form, marked mandatory and revised February 2025, lets a party ask to appear by telephone or by video. Local Rule 7-115 treats a video conference appearance at trial as disfavored, granted only in unusual circumstances, on local form SJ-FL-004 at least 20 days before. Court begins at 8:15 a.m. in every courtroom. The office does not appear at hearings. If the court sets one, your portal shows the date and what the court has asked for.

The Self-Help Center and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help service is called Self-Help, or the Self-Help Center, and its page notes that it was previously known as the Pro Per Clinic. It is free to people without a private attorney, and its page lists the family law matters it helps with: dissolution, legal separation, nullity or annulment, responses and responsive declarations, declarations of disclosure, summary dissolution, and the preparation of judgments and orders as time allows or by court order. Its limits are stated plainly: the staff do not provide legal representation or legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed. The Divorce or Separation page adds that the clinic can review completed paperwork and provide guidance on filing and service.

The Self-Help Center is at 180 East Weber Avenue, Suite 105, Stockton, CA 95202, telephone (209) 992-5283, open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., closed on court holidays. On Wednesdays calls are answered or returned between 1:00 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.; on the other days calls are returned as time allows. A Lodi location is listed at 217 West Elm Street, Lodi, CA 95240, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The page describes a weekly divorce workshop with same-day sign-up, first come first served, and an online self-paced workshop of videos for new divorce, legal separation, nullity and custody cases and for responding to a divorce, applied for through a form on the court's site; the day, time and response period are on the page.

San Joaquin's Local Rule 7-112 sets out the duties of the Family Law Facilitator, including drafting stipulations for self-represented parties and preparing formal orders after hearing when both parties are unrepresented, in addition to the duties the Family Code assigns to facilitators, which the rule cites. No court page read for this page names the facilitator, an office, a telephone number or hours, so none is printed here; the Self-Help Center is the court contact the court publishes. The office's documents are prepared so that you do not need the center to complete them, and your portal and the office are where your questions go first; the center is where to ask what the fourth floor clerk expects on the day.

Outside the flat fee are a case with minor children, a contested case, a business, a pension that needs an order of its own, real property outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, and a spouse who cannot be found. 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 or Separation page tells you not to assume you are divorced until a judgment has been filed and entered by the court, and it gives the earliest date your marriage can end as six months and one day after service. That is Family Code section 2339, which the Judicial Council's form FL-107-INFO counts the same way: six months from the day your spouse is served or appears, and the earliest date is six months and one day. The judgment states the date your marriage ends (section 2340), and the clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment, form FL-190, to each spouse in the envelopes your packet supplied. Nothing filed in San Joaquin County shortens the wait.

The same page states the residence rule: to file for a dissolution you must have lived in California for at least six months and in the county where you file for at least three months, which is Family Code section 2320. It states that California is a no fault state and that your spouse's consent to the divorce is not needed. A certified copy of the judgment comes from the court's Records Management office at 180 East Weber Avenue, Suite 413, for $15.00 by check, and the page explains how to request it; an agency that later asks for proof of the divorce is given that copy. Because the office does not prepare or record deeds, any transfer of California real property your agreement calls for is handled separately once the judgment is entered.

The sources listed below were each read on October 18, 2026, and each address, fee, hour, rule number and form number on this page comes from one of them; what the court's materials did not confirm, including anything on its eFiling site, is left off the page.

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