Filing an uncontested divorce in Ventura County

One family law clerk, at the Hall of Justice in Ventura

The court's Family Law division page gives one address for family law filings, including a petition for dissolution: the Hall of Justice, Room 210, 800 South Victoria Avenue, Ventura, CA 93009, telephone (805) 289-8610. The clerk's office and its telephone line are open Monday through Friday, except holidays, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the page says plainly that to file in person you go to Room 210 of the Ventura courthouse. The Hall of Justice location page lists Family Law among the case types heard in the building, alongside appeals, civil, criminal, domestic violence, small claims and traffic, and gives the building's hours as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The court's other two courthouses do not hear family law. The East County Courthouse at 3855-F Alamo Street in Simi Valley lists criminal, small claims and traffic on its location page. The Juvenile Justice Center at 4353 E. Vineyard Avenue in Oxnard lists conservatorships, guardianships, juvenile matters, probate, small claims, traffic, adoption and civil harassment restraining orders, and the Family Law division page sends civil harassment restraining order filings there. No court page read for this page assigns a family law filing by the part of the county a person lives in; the division page gives Room 210 as the place to file.

A petition may also be mailed. The division page gives the address: Ventura Superior Court, Attn: Family Law Clerk's Office, PO Box 6489, Ventura, CA 93006. Because the county has a single family law filing office, your filing instructions name the Hall of Justice and the post office box and do not need a courthouse confirmed; what the office confirms with you in the intake is the county itself, because Family Code section 2320 requires six months of residence in California and three months in the county before the petition is filed there.

The court's fees, item by item

The court does not print a dollar figure on its Family Law division page; the page says the fee for filing a petition is listed on its fee schedule, except for domestic violence, for which there is no fee. The schedule is on the court's Fee and Bail Schedules page, which posts the Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 together with the court's own Addendum to the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective September 1, 2026. Both were read on October 18, 2026. The statewide schedule marks the fees that vary by county with an asterisk and states that they vary in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge; Ventura is not among the three, and the court's addendum adds nothing to a dissolution petition or response. The lines that arise in an uncontested divorce:

• Line 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. This is the fee for an ordinary petition.
• Line 98: a response or other first paper filed in response to a petition for dissolution, $435, under Government Code section 70670(d). Your spouse pays it only by filing a response or an appearance.
• Line 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, other than a summary dissolution, $870.
• Line 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution, $435.
• Line 103: a settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment signed by a respondent who has defaulted, no fee. A spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing is not charged.
• The court's addendum, effective September 1, 2026: an e-filing fee of $1.75 and an e-delivery fee of $1.75 under Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, and a credit card convenience fee of $5 a transaction. These are the court's own charges; the addendum sets no fee on the petition or the response.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files nothing pays line 97 once, $435, and line 103 confirms that the signed agreement carries no fee. If your spouse files a response, or an Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (form FL-130) without having appeared before, a second first-paper fee is due: the court's sheet of reasons judgments are rejected states that when a party who has not made an appearance files that form, a fee of $435 must be collected, so the two of you pay $870 together. A joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 pays line 99, $870; subdivision (h) of that section 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, and the statewide schedule's line 99 is that sum. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays line 100 once, $435. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Ventura County; it pays both first-paper fees, whoever signs.

The office's flat fee is paid to the office and is separate from every figure above: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition and $1,499 for an ordinary petition. The attorney prepares and reviews every document in a limited scope engagement under California Rules of Court, rule 5.425, and the fee includes the written filing instructions for Ventura County, 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. Should you want a further revision round, it is quoted before any work on it begins. The fee is earned in stages; if the representation ends early, the unearned part is refunded.

In Ventura County as in every county, the office does not file the documents, does not serve the spouse, does not appear in court, does not provide a notary, and does not prepare or record deeds; you file as a self-represented litigant, carrying the attorney's written instructions. The office represents one spouse only. The other spouse is not this office's client in the divorce and receives no advice from it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court keeps its fee waiver information in a PDF rather than a web page: the Fee Waiver Packet for Family Law and Civil Cases, revised February 20, 2026, linked from the Family Law division page, from the Form Packets page under the heading Request to Waive Court Fees, and from the Civil Self-Help Center page. The packet says its forms are used to request to waive court fees and lists the Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) and the Order on Court Fee Waiver (form FW-003). The division page adds that you may ask the clerk for an application for waiver of court fees and that there is no cost for the form. The packet points readers to the Judicial Council's self-help guide, Ask for a fee waiver, 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. 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 submits their own FW-001. The court's judgment packet information sheet notes that a respondent may owe a filing fee at the judgment stage in some circumstances and may apply for a waiver with the same two forms.

Ask, and the office prepares both the request and the order form within the flat fee. A waiver reaches the court's fees only; the office's fee is not changed by it.

No e-filing for family law, and what eDelivery is instead

Ventura is one of the counties where a divorce cannot be e-filed. The court's eFiling page states that electronic filing is mandatory for documents filed by attorneys in unlimited civil, limited civil and probate case types, and that electronic filing is not yet available for filings in family law cases. The court's mandatory e-filing notice of February 26, 2025 exempts self-represented parties in small claims, civil and probate cases and says nothing about family law, because family law is not in the system at all. The court's list of electronic filing service providers serves the case types where e-filing exists; it is not a route for a petition for dissolution. Whether you are represented or not makes no difference here, and the office's documents are prepared for paper filing.

What the court offers family law filers is eDelivery. The court's eDelivery page describes it as a service that allows for the electronic submission of filing documents in family law, and it is careful about what that means: documents submitted through eDelivery are not automatically filed; they are received and processed by the clerk. The court's eDelivery FAQ says that eDelivery is not mandatory and that court documents may still be filed in person, through the court's drop boxes and through U.S. Mail. The Family Law division page says that filings, apart from the ones the local rule excludes, can be submitted through eDelivery, which is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., excluding holidays, and local rule 4.05.D provides that a family law document received through eDelivery between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on a court day is deemed filed that day. The service runs through the court's public portal, operated for the court by Journal Technologies.

eDelivery has its own costs, which the FAQ lists: a court transaction fee of $1.75, a convenience fee of $4.95 paid to the vendor, and 2.75 percent of any filing fee or first-paper fee paid through the service. It also has limits. Local rule 4.05.E lists the documents that may not be electronically submitted, and three matter in a divorce: any family law document over 200 pages, all restraining order documents, and the family law Request for Entry of Default, the Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment. The forms that end your case are therefore paper filings whatever you choose for the petition.

The paper routes are three. At the counter in Room 210, the division page asks for an original and two copies of each form, with the original two-hole punched and every set stapled in the left-hand corner, signed in blue or black ink, and limits counter filings to three per visit; forms may be handwritten if legible, and the court reserves the right to reject a document it finds illegible. In the drop box outside Room 210, a filing deposited before 4:00 p.m. on a court day is filed that day and a later deposit is filed the next business day. By mail, the filing goes to the post office box above. Your filing instructions name the route for each step and what to hand the clerk. What comes back is a set of copies stamped 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 carries them.

Local rules and the optional VN forms

The Local Rules of the Superior Court of California, County of Ventura are revised effective July 1, 2026, and the court's rules page says they are revised on January 1 and July 1 of each year. Chapter 9, Family Law Rules, governs a divorce: rule 9.00 on application, 9.01 on the matters assigned to the family law department, 9.03 on vertical case management, 9.03.2 on service of process, 9.08 on required pleadings, 9.14 on the form of orders, 9.19 on family law trials including, at part B, uncontested or default trials, and 9.20, which says the county maintains an office of Family Law Facilitator under Family Code section 10000 and following. Rule 4.05, in the chapter on pleadings and document format, is the eDelivery rule described above.

Rule 9.14 is the one that shapes a judgment on paper. It requires every judgment, stipulation and order and findings and order after hearing to be submitted in legible form, hand printed or typewritten, and a document of more than one page that needs the court's signature to carry the case name, case number and the document's title on the signature page. The office prepares the judgment to that layout.

The court's petition packet lists no local form with the petition. The court's own petition packet information sheet, revised February 20, 2026, lists Judicial Council forms only: the Summons (FL-110), the Petition (FL-100), the Declaration under the UCCJEA (FL-105) where there are minor children, the attachment form MC-025 if needed, and the Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115). At the judgment stage the court's Local Forms page offers four forms of its own, none marked mandatory: VN-131, Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure; VN-185, Marital or Partnership Settlement Agreement, an attachment to the judgment; VN-186, Attachment to Family Law Judgment for property and debt; and VN-120, Proof of Service for family law. Rule 9.19.B.2(d) says local form VN-131 may be used to satisfy the waiver requirement for the final disclosure in a default matter, and the court's judgment packet information sheet lists VN-131 and VN-185 next to the Judicial Council forms with the caveat that some forms are required only in some circumstances.

The other family law VN forms on the court's list, several of them marked mandatory, belong to contested or calendared matters: the ex parte notice declaration (VN-028), the settlement conference request and statement (VN-086 and VN-219), the request for continuance (VN-230), the status conference milestones form (VN-263), the stipulation for a commissioner to act as temporary judge (VN-189) and the Family Court Services intake questionnaire (VN-163). An uncontested divorce decided on declarations meets none of them. The office prepares the judgment on the Judicial Council forms, with the settlement agreement attached.

The judgment packet in Ventura County

Ventura's clerk does not take a judgment packet at the counter. The Family Law division page lists the documents that must be dropped in the drop box for filing, and judgment packets, except requests for entry of default, are on the list. The court's Limitation on Counter Filings notice, revised December 15, 2025, states the same rule and adds a condition: a filing dropped in the drop box or mailed must include a stamped, self-addressed return envelope or an attorney service mailbox number, and a filing received without one is placed in the public pick-up bin and, if not picked up in thirty days, discarded. Because local rule 4.05.E.11 excludes the Request for Entry of Default, the Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment from eDelivery, the packet goes in the drop box outside Room 210 or in the mail to the post office box, and your filing instructions say which and what the envelope must carry.

What the packet holds is set by the statewide rules and the court's own rule 9.19.B. California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 limits what a court may require to the Judgment Checklist (form FL-182); rule 5.411 governs a stipulated judgment; rule 5.415 requires the Notice of Entry of Judgment to be submitted with stamped envelopes addressed to each party. Rule 9.19.B.4 to 6 lists what the clerk needs for an uncontested or default matter decided without a hearing: the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (FL-141) for the preliminary disclosure and for the final disclosure or its waiver, the Appearance, Stipulations and Waivers (FL-130) or a joint declaration in an uncontested case, the Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (FL-170), the Judgment (FL-180) with the settlement agreement or stipulated judgment signed by both parties, and, in the rule's words, the Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190) with 2 envelopes with sufficient postage addressed to the parties or their attorney of record. In a default with a settlement agreement, the rule requires the respondent's signature to be notarized.

The court's Summary of Forms Packets handout gives the envelope count: the Request to Enter Default (FL-165) with one self-addressed stamped envelope addressed to the respondent and carrying the court's address as the return address, the Notice of Entry of Judgment with two stamped envelopes addressed to the parties with the court's address as the return address, and an extra copy of the judgment with a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want a conformed copy returned by mail. The notary point matters for the office's clients: the court's sheet of reasons judgments are rejected says both parties must sign the agreement and the respondent's signature must be notarized, citing Family Code section 2338.5(a), and the office does not provide a notary, so a spouse who signs the agreement without filing a response arranges one.

That rejection sheet, revised April 2017, is worth reading before the packet goes in the box. Its other reasons: an attachment the FL-170 or FL-180 calls for is missing, such as form FL-192 when item 4H of the judgment is checked; the FL-141 or the VN-131 is missing; the FL-130 is missing in an uncontested case; the child support language Family Code section 4065(a) requires is missing from an agreement with children; a bifurcation order is missing. Rule 9.14's legibility and signature-page requirements apply to the judgment as well. The office prepares the packet to the checklist and to rule 9.19.B, and the first correction of a packet the court returns is included in the flat fee. No county cover sheet for a family law judgment appears on the court's Local Forms page.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is decided on the papers. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 let the court enter the judgment on your declaration without a hearing, and rule 9.19.B says uncontested or default matters without hearing may be processed through the clerk at the family law filing window. If the court does set a hearing, its Remote Appearances page says the court offers the opportunity to appear remotely for civil, probate, family and juvenile cases, other than criminal, through Zoom. Each courtroom has its own link, meeting ID and passcode, and the family law courtrooms 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 each list a live session link on the page. The page tells a person to read California Rules of Court, rule 3.672 and Code of Civil Procedure section 367.75 before appearing remotely.

The Family Law division page states that the court sets Request for Order hearings for self-represented litigants on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. in courtrooms 31, 32, 33 and 35, and links the Remote Appearances page from its contact block. The office does not appear at hearings. If the court sets one, the date and what the court has asked for appear in your portal.

The Family Law Self-Help Center and the Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help service for divorce is the Family Law Self-Help Center, with two offices. The Ventura office, which the court also calls the Family Law Facilitator's Office, is at the Ventura courthouse, 800 South Victoria Avenue, third floor, Room 30. The Oxnard office, which the court calls the Family Resource Center, is at the Juvenile and Probate Courthouse, 4353 E. Vineyard Avenue, Room 206, in the El Rio area of Oxnard. Local rule 9.20 establishes the Family Law Facilitator under Family Code section 10000 and following. The court's phone directory lists the center at (805) 289-8732, and the center's schedule flyer, which says its information is subject to change, gives the hours the line is answered and asks callers to have the case number ready; read it before calling.

The flyer, revised July 2026, gives the pattern of walk-in service and says the information is subject to change, so read the flyer before you go. Appointments, in person or by video, are made through the link on the flyer and open seven days in advance. For judgment help the flyer asks visitors to bring blank No. 10 envelopes and Forever stamps; for a divorce filing, the marriage certificate.

The center's page lists the topics it helps with, among them divorce, legal separation and annulment, child and spousal support, requests for orders, custody and visitation, finalizing a divorce, and domestic violence restraining orders. It states what the center can do, including provide general legal information and your options and assist with selecting appropriate court forms, and what it cannot: fill out forms or draft documents for you, or give you legal advice. Questions may be sent through an intake form, and the page says staff respond within five court days, excluding court closures and holidays. The page also lists weekly webinars, with filing for divorce among the topics, and links the court's video Starting a Divorce or Legal Separation and the Judicial Council's guide, Divorce in California.

The office's documents are prepared and reviewed 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 answers the questions about a clerk's practice on the day that an outside office cannot. Outside the flat fee are 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, and any case the two of you stop agreeing on. The Ventura County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service, at 805-650-7599, can refer you to a family law attorney.

After the judgment, in this county

The court's own FAQ page says that a dissolution of marriage is the same as divorce, that divorce in California is no-fault and does not require the consent of the other party, and that after a six-month waiting period your marital status can officially end, with the six months running from what the court calls the jurisdiction date. That is Family Code section 2339: the marriage cannot end earlier than six months from the date your spouse was served or appeared, and form FL-107-INFO counts the earliest date as six months and one day. The judgment states the date the marriage ends (Family Code section 2340), and nothing filed in Ventura County shortens the wait. The court's FAQ also notes that a respondent who does not respond may be defaulted after 30 days.

The clerk mails the entered Judgment and the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse in the envelopes the packet carried, and returns a conformed copy of the judgment to you if the packet carried the extra copy and the self-addressed stamped envelope the court's handout describes. If the agreement calls for one spouse to transfer California real property to the other, the office does not prepare or record that deed; a title company or another attorney prepares and records it after the judgment.

The court's Form Packets page lists its dissolution packets, each from the Family Law Facilitator's Office and revised February 20, 2026: the petition packet, the response packet, the declaration of disclosure packet, the judgment packet and the summary dissolution packet, with the Summary of Forms Packets handout and the rejection sheet beside them. The office does not hand you those packets; it prepares the forms your case needs. They are named here so that you can see what the court expects of a filer and check the office's instructions against the court's own words. The sources below were each read on October 18, 2026, and anything the court's materials did not confirm is not on this page.

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