Uncontested divorce without children in California, step by step

Before the first step: can you file in California, and is it uncontested?

Family Code section 2320 provides that a judgment of dissolution may not be entered unless one of you has lived in California for six months and in the county where the case is filed for three months before the petition is filed. One spouse meeting it is enough. The ground for every California divorce is the same: irreconcilable differences that have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage (Family Code section 2310). Nobody has to prove fault, and the Judicial Council's guide says you do not need your spouse's agreement to get a divorce.

What makes a divorce uncontested is the agreement that follows. You and your spouse have settled how community property and debts are divided and whether either of you will pay spousal support, and your spouse will either sign the agreement and file nothing or file an appearance and sign it. Where you have minor children, a business, a pension that needs its own order, real property outside California, or any term you do not agree on, the case is outside the flat fee, and the screening on the start page says so before you pay.

1. The petition

Family Code section 2330 provides that a dissolution is commenced by filing a petition titled "In re the marriage of" the two of you, stating whether it asks for a dissolution or a legal separation and setting out the date of marriage, the date of separation, the years between them, and the number of children, or a statement that there are none. The Judicial Council's forms are the Petition (form FL-100) and the Summons (form FL-110), and the guide notes that the summons tells your spouse the case has started and that they have 30 days to respond, and carries rules both of you must follow as soon as the case starts.

Those rules are the standard restraining orders of Family Code section 2040, which the summons must contain. They restrain both spouses, among other things, from cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring or changing the beneficiaries of insurance held for the benefit of the two of you, and from creating or changing a nonprobate transfer without the other's written consent or a court order. They do not stop either of you from making or changing a will. The petition also carries the notice of Family Code section 2024 about what a dissolution does to wills, trusts and beneficiary designations.

The attorney prepares the petition and summons from your intake, with the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) if you qualify and ask for it. You sign in ink and file them with the court, in person, by mail, or electronically where your court allows it, paying the court's fee of $435 as of October 17, 2026 in Los Angeles County. The clerk issues the summons, assigns the case number and stamps your copies. You enter the filing date and case number in your portal, and the next set is prepared from them.

2. Service

Your spouse must receive the petition and summons the way the Code of Civil Procedure requires, and you cannot hand them over yourself: the Judicial Council's guide says someone else, like a friend, relative or process server, must do it. Section 415.10 allows personal delivery of the summons and petition, complete at the time of delivery. Section 415.30 allows service by mail with a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (form FL-117), complete on the date your spouse signs the acknowledgment and returns it; a spouse who does not return it within 20 days is liable for the reasonable cost of serving them another way. Section 415.40 allows a spouse outside California to be served by first-class mail with a return receipt, complete on the tenth day after mailing.

In an uncontested case the acknowledgment by mail is the usual course, because your spouse is expecting the papers and signing a form is easier than meeting a server. The server, an adult who is not a party, completes the Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115), which the attorney prepares with the date and time left for the server to enter in ink, and you file it. The day of service, or the day your spouse appears if that comes first, starts the six months of Family Code section 2339, and your portal shows the clock from the day you confirm it.

The 30 days on the summons are your spouse's time to file a Response (form FL-120) if they choose to. In an uncontested divorce most spouses do not: they sign the agreement and file nothing, and the court enters their default. A spouse who files a response or an Appearance, Stipulations, and Waivers (form FL-130) pays the court the first-paper fee of $435 (item 98 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026); a spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing pays the court nothing (item 103). The divorce is uncontested either way.

3. Disclosures

Each spouse must give the other a sworn account of what they own, owe, earn and spend. Family Code section 2104 requires each spouse to serve a preliminary declaration of disclosure on the Judicial Council's forms, including every tax return filed in the two years before it is served, and requires it to identify every asset in which the spouse has or may have an interest and every liability for which they are or may be liable, whatever its character. Subdivision (f) sets the deadline: the spouse who filed the petition serves it with the petition or within 60 days of filing, and the spouse who responds serves theirs with the response or within 60 days of filing it. Perjury on the disclosure may be grounds for setting aside the judgment.

The disclosure is three forms: the Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-140), the Schedule of Assets and Debts (form FL-142) with the statements behind each item, and the Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150) with two months of pay statements. Section 2104(b) provides that the disclosure is not filed with the court; only proof of service is, on the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-141). The guide adds that you do not mail the disclosure yourself; another adult who is not part of the case mails it and is named on the proof.

The attorney prepares your disclosure from the figures you enter in your intake, item by item, nothing estimated, and prepares the proof of service. The preliminary disclosure cannot be waived. The final declaration of disclosure of section 2105 can be: subdivision (d) allows both spouses to waive it in a signed stipulation stating that the preliminary disclosures were exchanged and are complete, and section 2106 provides that no judgment on property is entered until each spouse has served a final disclosure or the waiver is on file. In an uncontested case the waiver, on the Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144), is signed by both of you with the agreement.

The other spouse prepares their own disclosure; the office does not represent them. Where a spouse does not disclose, section 2107 gives the court remedies against them, including money sanctions. The guide says the point directly: if you hide information or leave things out, the judge can take away property you did not list or order you to pay your spouse's attorney's fees.

4. The settlement agreement

The attorney drafts the marital settlement agreement from the terms you and your spouse agreed: who keeps what, who pays what, and spousal support waived, reserved or agreed. Family Code section 2550 requires the court to divide the community estate equally except on the written agreement of the spouses, so an agreement that divides it another way must say so and be signed by both. The Judicial Council's guide warns that there are words and phrases the court expects to see in an agreement and that the court cannot accept one without them; it also notes that agreements about property are very hard to change. The office's page on the settlement agreement describes what it covers.

Both of you sign it in ink before a notary of your own choosing. Where your spouse does not file a response, the guide says their signature on the agreement must be notarized. The notary's certificate is attached to each signature; the guide says the fee is usually $15 a signature. One revision round is included in the flat fee. Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene represents the spouse who engages it only; the other spouse may take the agreement to an attorney of their own choosing before signing, and the agreement says so.

5. The judgment

The attorney prepares the judgment packet to the court's rules. On the usual path, where your spouse signed the agreement and filed nothing, it is the Request to Enter Default (form FL-165), the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (form FL-170), the disclosure declarations (form FL-141, and the FL-144 waiver), the Judgment (form FL-180) with the signed agreement attached, and the Notice of Entry of Judgment (form FL-190). Where your spouse filed an appearance, the FL-130 takes the place of the request to enter default. Family Code section 2336 allows the judgment to be entered on a written declaration rather than at a hearing, and California Rules of Court, rule 5.409 provides that courts must allow it and must not require a hearing in every case.

Three rules govern the packet. Rule 5.401 provides that on proper application the clerk enters the default of a spouse who has not appeared in time, and that a default judgment must dispose of every matter before the court or expressly reserve it. Rule 5.411 requires a stipulated judgment to be attached to form FL-180, to contain the exact terms, and to end with the signature block the rule prescribes. Rule 5.415 requires stamped envelopes addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address and an original and two copies of the FL-190, and provides that the court may refuse to sign a judgment submitted without them. Rule 5.405 fixes the list of forms a court may require, on the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182), and forbids any others.

You sign and submit the packet to the court, in person or by mail, with the envelopes and copies your filing instructions list. The court reviews it; the Judicial Council's guide says the review can take several weeks or even months depending on the court, and that an incomplete packet is returned unsigned with instructions about what needs to be fixed. If the court returns the packet, the first correction is included in the flat fee. When the judge signs, the clerk stamps the Judgment and Notice of Entry of Judgment, mails the filed copies to each of you, and the notice states the date your marriage ends, never earlier than six months from service or appearance (Family Code sections 2339 and 2340).

How your spouse can take part

There are two uncontested ways. The first and most common: your spouse signs the settlement agreement before a notary and files nothing. Thirty days after service the clerk enters their default on your request, the agreement goes in with the judgment, and your spouse pays the court nothing (item 103 of the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026). The second: your spouse files an Appearance, Stipulations, and Waivers (form FL-130) or a Response (form FL-120), pays the court the first-paper fee, and signs the agreement. Either way the divorce stays uncontested and the judgment is the same.

A spouse who files a response that disputes a term has made the case contested, and the engagement with this office ends as the engagement letter provides, with the unearned part of the fee refunded and a lawyer referral for your county in your portal. The office's guide for the other spouse, written for them and not as advice, explains what they will receive and their choices.

Where the time goes

The office's part takes days at each step; the six months belong to the law and cannot be shortened. From filing to service is as long as it takes your spouse to sign the acknowledgment, usually a week or two by mail. Disclosures are due within 60 days of filing and are prepared from your intake as soon as it is complete. The agreement is drafted when the terms are in, revised once if you ask, and signed when both of you have been to a notary. The judgment packet is prepared when the agreement is signed, and the court's review takes what it takes. The marriage ends on the six-month date the judgment states, or on entry if the judgment is entered after that date. Your portal shows which step is open, who it is with, and the six-month clock from the day it starts.

What it costs

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares all five steps for a flat fee of $1,499, attorney-prepared and attorney-reviewed, in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425, plus the court's fee of $435 in Los Angeles County paid by you to the court, and a second $435 paid by your spouse only if they file an appearance. The package includes:

• FL-100 petition and FL-110 summons
• Proof of service or notice and acknowledgment
• Preliminary declaration of disclosure (FL-140, FL-142, FL-150, FL-141)
• Attorney-drafted marital settlement agreement, one revision round included
• Default or appearance path
• FL-180 judgment packet with every attachment
• Filing instructions at each step
• One correction of a rejected judgment packet included

What the office does not do

The office does not serve your spouse: an adult who is not a party does, as the law requires. It does not file the papers or appear in court; in an uncontested divorce on an agreement, nobody appears in court. A case with minor children, a business, a pension that needs its own order, real property outside California, or any term the two of you have not agreed is outside the flat fee; the screening says so before you pay.

What it does is prepare every document the court will see to the court's own rules, review each before it is released, and prepare the next set from the dates and the case number you enter.

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