Summary dissolution in California: the short marriage divorce

Who qualifies: twelve conditions, all of them

Family Code section 2400(a) provides that a marriage may be dissolved by the summary procedure only if all of the following conditions exist at the time the proceeding is commenced. The Judicial Council's guide puts it the same way: to use the process, all of these must be true, and if even one is not, you cannot use it.

• Residence. One of you has lived in California for six months and in the county where you file for three months (section 2400(a)(1), which adopts the residence requirement of section 2320).
• Irreconcilable differences have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage (section 2400(a)(2)). That is the ground for every California divorce (section 2310).
• No children. There are no children of the two of you born before or during the marriage or adopted during it, and neither of you, to your knowledge, is pregnant (section 2400(a)(3)).
• 5 years or less. The marriage is not more than 5 years in duration as of the date of separation (section 2400(a)(4)). The Judicial Council's guide counts from the date you married to the day you split up, which the law calls your date of separation.
• No real property. Neither of you has any interest in real property anywhere, with one exception: a lease of a home one of you lives in, with no option to buy, that ends within one year of the filing (section 2400(a)(5)).
• Debts. The unpaid debts either or both of you took on after the marriage, not counting anything owed on a car, are no more than $7,000 (section 2400(a)(6), as adjusted; see the next section).
• Property. The community property, not counting cars and not counting what is owed on anything, including any deferred compensation or retirement plan, is worth less than $57,000, and neither of you has separate property, not counting cars, worth more than $57,000 (section 2400(a)(7), as adjusted).
• An agreement, signed. The two of you have signed an agreement dividing the community property and assigning the community debts, and have signed whatever documents, title certificates or bills of sale are needed to carry it out (section 2400(a)(8)).
• No spousal support, ever. Both of you waive any right to spousal support (section 2400(a)(9)).
• No appeal. On entry of the judgment, both of you irrevocably waive the right to appeal and the right to move for a new trial (section 2400(a)(10)).
• The booklet. Both of you have read and understood the summary dissolution brochure, which is form FL-810 (section 2400(a)(11)).
• Both of you want the court to dissolve the marriage (section 2400(a)(12)).

Where the dollar figures come from

The statute itself names $4,000 of debt and $25,000 of property, and section 2400(b) requires those amounts to be adjusted every two years for the change in the value of the dollar, measured by the California Consumer Price Index and rounded to the nearest thousand, and requires the Judicial Council to compute and publish the adjusted amounts. The published amounts are the ones that apply. The current booklet, Summary Dissolution Information (form FL-810, Rev. April 28, 2025), states them: community property not worth more than $57,000, separate property of either spouse not worth more than $57,000, and community debts of no more than $7,000, in each case not counting cars.

The booklet also tells you how to count. Community property is everything the two of you own together, and its value is the money you have as community property plus the fair market value of the possessions you own as community property. The Judicial Council's guide adds the warning most people need: property includes a retirement plan such as a 401(k) or a pension, and those can have a high value. The booklet's worksheets, on pages 6 to 9, walk through the separate property of each spouse and the community property and its division. The office's screening asks the same questions before anything is charged.

Why the limits are tight

A summary dissolution gives up things an ordinary divorce keeps. The booklet says there is no trial or hearing, and that as long as you both agree the court accepts your agreement; the court enters the judgment at six months unless one of you has revoked (section 2403). The law allows that only where there is little at stake: a short marriage, no children, no home, modest property and modest debt. The booklet says so in its own terms and the statute says so in twelve conditions.

If one of you owns a home, or either of you has a retirement account that takes the community total over the limit, or you have a child together, the summary procedure is not available however much you agree. The ordinary uncontested divorce is, on a joint petition at $999 or an ordinary petition at $1,499, with the same agreement and the same six months. The office's screening offers the path that fits.

How it works

Both of you read the booklet. Section 2401 provides that the proceeding is commenced by filing a joint petition for summary dissolution on the Judicial Council's form, signed under oath by both spouses, stating that every condition of section 2400 has been met as of the filing, giving the mailing address of each spouse, and stating whether a spouse wants a former name restored. The form is the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-800).

With it goes the property settlement agreement dividing what you own and owe, and the Judgment of Dissolution and Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-825). The booklet says you file the joint petition with the superior court together with the judgment form and the property settlement agreement, and that the divorce will be final six months after the filing. The office prepares all three and your declaration of disclosure; the Judicial Council's guide describes the process as gathering and sharing your financial information, filling out the forms and writing up the agreement, and filing the forms with the court and paying the fee.

Both of you sign the petition and the agreement in ink. You exchange disclosures. You file the set together with the court's fee and two stamped envelopes addressed to each of you, so that the clerk can mail the entered judgment. Nobody is served, because both of you signed the petition; nobody appears at a hearing, because there is none. The clerk stamps your copies and gives you the case number.

Six months after the filing, section 2403 provides that the court shall, unless a revocation has been filed, enter the judgment dissolving the marriage. The judgment restores to each of you the status of a single person, and either of you may marry after it is entered. The clerk sends a notice of entry of judgment to each of you at your last known address, which is why the mailing addresses on the petition matter and why you tell the court if yours changes.

The court fee: one first paper

A summary dissolution is one filing by the two of you, and the court charges one first-paper fee for it. In Los Angeles County that fee is $435 as of October 17, 2026, and the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists the joint petition for summary dissolution at that amount, item 100. Government Code section 70670(b) sets the base fee for the first paper in a dissolution; the court's schedule shows the additional amounts the Government Code adds to it. Compare the joint petition for an ordinary divorce, where Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees, $870 (item 99 of the same schedule): the summary dissolution is a single joint filing under a different chapter, and the schedule charges it once.

If you cannot afford the fee, the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) asks the court to waive it. The office prepares the request as part of the flat fee when asked, from the figures in your intake; the court decides it. The page on the court fee waiver explains who qualifies.

Stopping it: either of you can, until the end

Section 2402 provides that at any time before the application for judgment, either spouse may revoke the joint petition for summary dissolution by filing a notice of revocation with the clerk of the court where the case was filed, and must send a copy of the notice to the other spouse by first-class mail at their last known address. The form is the Notice of Revocation of Petition for Summary Dissolution (form FL-830). The Judicial Council's guide explains the effect: the notice cancels the summary dissolution case and the judgment, and if either of you still wants a divorce you file for a regular one.

Because the court enters the judgment on its own at six months, a revocation is a one-sided act with a six-month window. One spouse who changes their mind in the fifth month ends the case for both. The office tells you this before you choose the path, because it is the price of a procedure with no hearing: the agreement rests on both of you staying agreed until the day the judgment is entered.

Disclosures still apply

Family Code section 2104 requires each spouse in a dissolution to serve the other with a preliminary declaration of disclosure, and the booklet's worksheets exist because a summary dissolution rests on both of you knowing what there is to divide. The booklet names the forms: the Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150) with your tax returns, and either the booklet's worksheets or the Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-140) with the Schedule of Assets and Debts (form FL-142) or Property Declaration (form FL-160). The office prepares yours from the figures you enter, nothing estimated. The other spouse prepares their own; the office does not represent them.

Section 2104 also says why this is not a formality: perjury on a declaration of disclosure may be grounds for setting aside the judgment, in addition to every other remedy the law provides. In a summary dissolution the agreement cannot be appealed, which makes the disclosure that precedes it the one protection each of you has.

What the office prepares, and what it costs

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares the Summary Dissolution Package for a flat fee of $599, attorney-prepared and attorney-reviewed, in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425: the office drafts the documents and you file them, with written filing instructions for your county. The court's fee of $435 in Los Angeles County is paid by you to the court. The package includes:

• Eligibility screening
• FL-800 joint petition
• Property and debt division agreement
• FL-810 compliance
• FL-825 judgment and notice of entry, filed with the petition
• Filing instructions

What the office does not do

The office represents one spouse only. The other spouse signs the joint petition and the agreement but is not a client of this office in the divorce and may consult an attorney of their own choosing before signing. The office does not provide a notary, does not file the papers, does not pay the court's fee and does not appear in court, because in a summary dissolution nobody does. It does not prepare a summary dissolution for a marriage that does not meet every condition of section 2400; the screening checks each one before you pay, and a marriage that does not fit is offered the ordinary uncontested divorce instead.

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