Filing an uncontested divorce in Solano County

One court, one family law courthouse

Solano County has a single superior court, and its Family Law division page states that the family law courts have jurisdiction over all cases involving dissolution of marriage, legal separation and nullity, and that they sit at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533. Local rule 5.1(a), in the court's Rule 5 on family law effective July 1, 2026, says that all family law matters are heard principally in the Family Law Division as designated by the Presiding Judge, and rule 5.2 provides for direct calendaring, so a case is assigned to one department and stays there. The court's Setting Guide for family law lists the family law departments as Departments 10, 14, 17, 18 and 20, all of them at the Hall of Justice. Rule 5.1(c) adds that a reference in the rule to a party's counsel includes a self-represented party, which is how you file when the office prepares your documents.

The Family Law Clerk's Office is at the same address. The court's filing-instructions page gives the Family Law Clerk's Office at 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, and the mailing address for the division as 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533. The courthouse building is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., according to the court's location page and its Hours of Operation page. The Family Law division page and the court's Clerk Office Expansion of Services notice give the clerk's drop-in and appointment hours as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the division's telephone answered from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.; the court's location pages give a shorter drop-in window, so the court's own pages differ on this point, and this page prints the Family Law division's hours. The division's clerk telephone is (707) 207-7340, its court services line is (707) 207-7344, and its email is familydivision@solano.courts.ca.gov.

Family law case numbers in this court begin with the letters FFL, as local rule 5.3(a) explains for every family law case filed on or after December 8, 1999. The case number the clerk assigns at filing goes into your portal and onto every later document.

• Hall of Justice (Fairfield Courthouse): 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533. Family Law Division, Family Law Clerk's Office, and the Family Law Facilitator in Room 205. Building open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Vallejo Courthouse (Solano Justice Building): 321 Tuolumne Street, Vallejo, CA 94590. A drop box for family law filing documents, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; the papers are processed in Fairfield. The court's appointment page lists Vallejo for criminal and traffic appointments only.

Filing at the counter, by appointment, by mail or in a drop box

The court's filing-instructions page says the Family Law Division is available by phone, email or in-person appointment, and the Family Law division page lists both drop-in and appointment hours for the clerk, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Filing appointments are scheduled online through the court's Clerk Office Appointments page, which offers appointment times at the Hall of Justice to file family law, probate and adoption documents and has a category named Divorce/Legal Separation/Nullity. The page's conditions are plain: documents for filing must be completed before an appointment is scheduled, and both walk-ins and appointments are limited to half an hour. The office's documents arrive complete, signed where the instruction sheet shows, so the half hour is for the clerk's work and not for yours.

Mail goes to 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533. The court asks a filer who mails or drops documents to securely attach a check, never cash, or to include the Request to Waive Court Fees and Costs in place of payment. For the return of your filed copies, include a self-addressed stamped envelope; if no envelope is provided, the court says the copies wait for thirty days in the pick-up box in the clerk's office.

Two drop boxes take family law papers. One is under the stairs on the second floor of the Hall of Justice in Fairfield, open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; the other is at the Vallejo Branch Court, open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Documents deposited between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. are deemed deposited for filing that day, and anything after 4:00 p.m. is treated as filed the next court day. Papers left in the Vallejo box are processed in Fairfield and returned to Vallejo for pickup the next business day. The Family Law Division accepts cash, check, Visa, Mastercard or Discover at the counter.

Whether you file at the counter, by appointment, by mail or in a drop box, you leave with conformed copies carrying the filing date and the FFL case number and, on an ordinary petition, the issued summons; those go into your portal and the next documents are prepared from them.

The court's fees, item by item

The Solano court publishes no fee schedule of its own for family law. Its Family Law Forms, Fees and Filing Instructions page links the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 under the heading Statewide Filing Fee Schedule, and the copy the court hosts was read on October 18, 2026. That schedule marks with an asterisk the fees that vary by county and names only Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco as the counties where a local surcharge changes them, so the amounts below are the amounts in Solano County. The items that arise in an uncontested divorce:

• 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. That is the amount due when an ordinary petition is filed in Fairfield.
• Item 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, $435, under Government Code section 70670(d). It falls on your spouse only if a response is filed.
• Item 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, other than a summary dissolution, $870, which is both first-paper fees.
• Item 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, $435.
• Item 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a defaulted respondent, no fee. The spouse who signs the agreement without filing anything owes nothing to the court.
• Copies, as the Family Law division page states them: a certified copy of the divorce judgment is $15, by check or money order payable to the Solano Superior Court; an uncertified copy is $0.50 a page.

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, $435; the schedule's item 103 confirms that the agreement a defaulted spouse signs carries no fee. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays items 97 and 98, $870 between the two of you. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays item 99, $870, because 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. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays item 100 once, $435. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Solano County; it pays both first-paper fees.

The office's flat fee is separate from the court's and is paid to the office: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. The fee 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 Solano County, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court returns. If another revision round is needed, the office quotes it before any work begins. 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, in Solano County as everywhere. You file as a self-represented litigant with the attorney's written filing instructions, which the attorney reviews before they are released to you. Only one spouse is the office's client. In the divorce the other spouse is not represented or advised by this office and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court has no separate fee waiver page; its statement is in the FAQ on the Family Law division page, which says that a person who cannot afford to pay the filing fees may request a Request to Waive Court Fees and Costs, forms FW-001 and FW-003, and that the forms are downloadable from the Judicial Council. The court also posts FW-001 among the forms on its Court Forms page. 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 Judicial Council's fee waiver page says a person needs to meet only one of the three grounds, not all of them.

In Solano County the request travels with the papers. The court's filing-instructions page tells a filer who uses the mail or a drop box to attach a check or to include the Request to Waive Court Fees and Costs, so the request goes in the same envelope or the same drop as the petition. The court's Setting Guide for family law lists fee waiver hearings among the family law calendars, which is where a request the court does not decide on paper is heard; the office's instructions tell you what the court has asked for if a hearing is set on yours.

A fee waiver reaches the court's fees and not the office's flat fee. And local rule 20.2(d) warns that a party who has received a fee waiver may still be subject to the processing fees of an electronic filing service provider, so a person with a waiver who wants to avoid every charge files on paper. On a joint petition, Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers, so each spouse who needs one files their own FW-001. The office prepares the request and the order form as part of the flat fee when you ask.

E-filing: required of attorneys, optional for you

The court's Electronic Filing page says it accepts electronically filed documents for all non-criminal case types, family law among them, and that under Local Rule 20, effective January 2, 2025, e-filing is mandatory for attorneys in civil, family and probate cases while self-represented parties and non-parties are exempt but encouraged to participate. Rule 20.2(a) of the local rules effective July 1, 2026 carries the same rule. The page's FAQ answers the question for a person filing their own papers directly: self-represented parties are eligible to use the site for e-filing, it is not mandatory, and they may continue to file by mail or in person. Because the attorney prepares your documents in a limited scope engagement and does not appear in your case, you are a self-represented party for this purpose, and the choice is yours.

E-filing goes through a provider, not to the court directly. The court's page describes selecting a service provider as the second step and links its list of Electronic Filing Service Providers, sorted alphabetically with each provider's web address; the court says the list does not constitute an endorsement of any of them. Providers charge their own fees, which a fee waiver does not cover. A document the court receives electronically between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. on a court day is deemed filed on that court day. Questions about e-filing in a family case go to familydivision@solano.courts.ca.gov.

Two documents in an uncontested divorce cannot be e-filed in Solano County. The court's e-filing page and rule 20.2(j) exempt the family law Request for Entry of Default and the family law Judgment and Notice of Entry of Judgment from e-filing, so the judgment packet goes to the court on paper, by appointment, at the counter, by mail or in a drop box, as the section on the judgment packet below explains. The petition, the proof of service and the disclosure declaration may be e-filed if you choose.

Local rules and local forms

The court's local rules effective July 1, 2026 are posted rule by rule on its Local Rules of Court page. Three concern a divorce: Rule 5, Family Law; Rule 19, Remote Appearances; and Rule 20, Electronic Filing, Service, and Evidence. Within Rule 5, the sections an uncontested divorce meets are 5.1 on matters assigned to the Family Law Division, 5.2 on direct calendaring, 5.3 on the preparation and filing of forms and pleadings, 5.8 on status conferences, 5.40 on calendaring hearings for default or uncontested judgments and 5.41 on the documents needed for a judgment of dissolution. Rules 5.4 and 5.5, on emergency orders and law and motion hearings, and 5.7 and 5.10, on family centered case resolution and settlement conferences, describe proceedings an agreed divorce does not need.

The court's packets and pages read for this page list no local form with the petition itself. Rule 5.3 calls for a local form in two situations only: an application to publish the summons, where the court's local forms index lists Local Form 322, Application / Order for Publication of Summons, and Local Form 323, the supporting declaration, both marked mandatory; and a Request for Order, which rule 5.3(c) says must include a copy of the court's local form Meet and Confer Orders. Neither arises in an uncontested divorce where your spouse can be served and nothing is contested. Rule 5.8 requires a Status Conference Report on the court's local form, listed as Local Form 890, Status Conference Report, Family Law, and the index also lists Local Form 5113, Notice of Case Management Conferences; your filing instructions address what the court sends you about a status conference, and the rule itself is linked below.

The court's Court Forms page posts other family law local forms, such as the Order After Hearing / Stipulation and Order (Local Form 300), the Parenting Orders Attachment (Local Form 304) and the Request for Telephone Appearance (Local Form FL-679). None of them is part of a judgment on a written agreement without children. The Family Law division page also notes, citing rule 5.4, that ex parte applications must be completed and ready for submission before 12:00 p.m. each day; an uncontested divorce has no ex parte application in it.

The judgment packet in Solano County

Local rule 5.41, Documents Needed for Judgments for Legal Separation or Dissolution of Marriage or Registered Domestic Partnership, requires that the person who filed the petition provide the forms listed in the Judgment Checklist, Dissolution/Legal Separation, Judicial Council form FL-182, for the situation that pertains to the case. The rule names no Solano local form for a dissolution judgment, and the court's local forms index lists none. That is the statewide rule as well: California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 makes the checklist the limit of what a court may require, rule 5.411 governs a judgment on a stipulation, and rule 5.415 requires the stamped envelopes, addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address, in which the clerk mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment.

Rule 5.40 states the court's preference: whenever permitted by law, parties are strongly encouraged to submit judgments by affidavit instead of requesting a hearing, and a person who wants a hearing asks for one in writing to the Family Law Clerk's Office. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 of the California Rules of Court are the law that permits it, so a judgment on a written agreement is reviewed on paper and entered without a hearing. The rule also says that documents already filed do not need to be resubmitted.

The packet reaches the court on paper, because rule 20.2(j) exempts the Judgment and Notice of Entry of Judgment and the Request for Entry of Default from e-filing. You deliver it by appointment or drop-in at the Family Law Clerk's Office during its hours, by mail to 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533, or in the Fairfield or Vallejo drop box, with a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of your conformed copies. Should the court return the packet, the first correction is part of the flat fee.

The court's own FAQ puts the result in one sentence: you are not divorced until your judgment is filed and entered by the court. The office prepares the judgment, the notice of entry and the declaration for an uncontested dissolution so that the packet matches the checklist for your situation, with the settlement agreement attached where rule 5.411 calls for it.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement needs no hearing, and local rule 5.40 encourages the judgment by affidavit. If the court sets a hearing anyway, local rule 19.3, Family Remote Appearances, provides that remote proceedings are normally authorized in all family matters, with exceptions for trial management conferences, court trials unless authorized, contempt, adoptions and petitions to declare a minor free from parental custody, and matters where remote appearance was previously denied. The court initiates the remote proceeding itself; rule 19.3 says the proceeding is typically initiated by an email calendar invitation to the party's email address of record, and that Local Form 9000, the Contact Information Form, may be used to update that address with the court.

The court's site has remote appearance pages for its civil and criminal divisions and none for family law; the family law links are on the Setting Guide for family law, which posts a ZoomGov meeting link or a CourtCall login, or both, under each family law department. Rule 19.3 draws the line between the two: a telephone appearance is distinct from a remote appearance and may be made through CourtCall only for appearances authorized in advance. The office does not appear at a hearing; if the court sets one, the court's email invitation and your instructions say what it has asked for.

The Family Law Facilitator and the Solano Legal Access Center

The court's self-help service for family law is the Family Law Facilitator's Office, which the court also calls the Solano Legal Access Center, or SLAC. Its office is Room 205 at the Fairfield Hall of Justice, on the second floor, and help is given first come, first served. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for domestic violence and elder abuse restraining orders only. The court asks visitors to bring their case number, if they have one, and a valid government-issued identification, and it warns that the wait for walk-in service can be significant because of demand. The telephone number is (707) 207-7355; brief legal information is also given by email at flf@solano.courts.ca.gov.

The Facilitator's page is candid about the limits. The staff cannot give legal advice, which the page defines as telling you what to do, but may be able to tell you what your options are; the service is not confidential, and it may help both parties to a case. The page lists matters it does not help with, including complicated divisions of property. For form preparation it links LawHelp Interactive interviews for a divorce petition with financial disclosures and for a response with financial disclosures, and it points to the Judicial Council's self-help site and to the Statewide Self-Help Call Center at (213) 633-6000, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The office's documents are prepared so that the Facilitator is not needed to complete them, and your portal and the office are where your questions go first. The Facilitator's office is the place to ask what the Fairfield clerk expects at the window on the day. Outside the flat fee are 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. 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 FAQ asks whether a divorce is automatically final in six months and answers with an emphatic no: in California there is a minimum time of six months and one day, and the earliest date marital status can end is six months and one day after the responding spouse was served. That is Family Code section 2339, counted as form FL-107-INFO counts it, and the judgment states the date the marriage ends under section 2340. The court enters the judgment when the complete packet has been reviewed; nothing filed in Solano County shortens the wait, and the Judicial Council's finalize-your-divorce page describes the last step the same way, by mailing or bringing the forms and envelopes to the court clerk.

Once the judgment is entered, the clerk uses the envelopes from your packet to mail the Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse. If an agency later needs a certified copy, the Family Law division page says to include a check or money order payable to the Solano Superior Court in the amount of $15; an uncertified copy is $0.50 a page. Where your agreement calls for a transfer of California real property, the office does not prepare or record the deed; that is handled by a title company or another attorney after the judgment.

The residence rule is Family Code section 2320, as the Judicial Council's divorce page repeats it: six months in California and three months in the county before the petition is filed there. The sources below were each read on October 18, 2026; every address, hour, fee, rule number and form number on this page comes from one of them, and what the court's materials did not confirm is not on the page.

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