Filing an uncontested divorce in Yolo County

One courthouse: 1000 Main Street, Woodland

Yolo County has a single superior court and a single courthouse. The court's Location and Contact Information page lists Yolo Superior Court at 1000 Main Street, Woodland, CA 95695, and no other courthouse; the two other pins on its map are parking lots on 6th Street. Local Rule 2.1 says the same thing in a sentence: the court is located in the City of Woodland, and the website carries the exact locations and the telephone directory. The Judicial Council's newsroom gives the same street address for the county and the court's web address, www.yolo.courts.ca.gov. Because there is one building, there is no courthouse to choose and no venue declaration to prepare; the petition is filed in Woodland.

The Family Division page carries its own contact block at the same address: 1000 Main Street, Woodland, CA 95695, telephone (530) 406-6704, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. The Location page gives the clerk's phone and window hours the same way, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and lists (530) 406-6704 as the line for civil, probate, juvenile, small claims and family matters, with (530) 406-6700 as the court's main line. The Family Division page names dissolution of marriage, annulment and separation among the case types heard in the Family Law Department. Local Rule 2.2 provides that all documents, for whatever department, are filed with the appropriate clerk, so your filing instructions name the courthouse and the clerk.

The court's Judicial Assignments page posts a 2026 calendar with two family law departments, Department 3 labeled FAMILY ODD and Department 4 labeled FAMILY EVEN, and a 2027 calendar effective January 4, 2027 with the same two departments. The page carries no legend for the words ODD and EVEN, and the local rules read for this page say nothing about assignment, so this page does not say how your case will be placed. Family law case numbers for a dissolution, nullity or separation take the form FL-Year-Number, as the court's Case Code Description page shows with its example FL-2020-100.

Filing in person, by mail or electronically

The Family Division page, in a FAQ answer about support cases, says filing may be done in person, by mail, or via e-filing. In person means the public service windows at 1000 Main Street during the 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. window hours the Location page publishes. The court's pages give one address, 1000 Main Street, Woodland, CA 95695, and no separate mailing address. Electronic filing is the subject of its own section below, because the court's rule on it treats a person without an attorney of record differently from an attorney.

Two small practices appear on the court's pages. First, Local Rule 11.4 says that anyone submitting documents for filing who wants stamped copies returned must give the clerk a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope of sufficient size; the rule sits in the civil chapter and states the practice for every filer who wants conformed copies back, so a filing by mail travels with that envelope. Second, the court's Court Forms and Filing page asks that forms be converted to PDF before they are uploaded, which matters when a document goes in electronically.

The same forms page says that form packets, collections of related forms, are sold at the Public Service Windows for a nominal fee and that a limited number can be downloaded. The court's divorce page describes what the papers do: one spouse files a petition and pays the filing fee, the other spouse may respond and pay a separate fee, and non participation may lead to a default judgment, not to a dismissal of the divorce request, in the court's words.

The court's fees, item by item

The Yolo court's Fee and Bail Schedules page prints no family law fee of its own. It links the Judicial Council's Civil Statewide Fee Schedule, and the Judicial Council's civil fees page identifies the current edition as the Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026, which is the schedule read for this page on October 18, 2026. The schedule marks the fees that vary by county with an asterisk and says in its footnote that those fees vary in the counties of Riverside, San Bernardino and San Francisco because of a local surcharge for courthouse construction; Yolo County is not among the three, so the figures below are the Yolo figures. The court's own divorce page repeats them in plain words: a filing fee of $435 for the spouse who starts the case, a separate filing fee of $435 if the other spouse responds, and two filing fees of $435 each, $870 in all, for a joint petition. The items that arise in an uncontested divorce:

• Item 97 prices the petition or other first paper in a dissolution, legal separation or nullity of a marriage or domestic partnership at $435, citing Government Code sections 70670(b), 70602.5 and 70602.6. The clerk collects it when an ordinary petition is filed in Woodland.
• Item 98 prices the response, or any other first paper answering the petition, at $435, citing Government Code section 70670(d). Your spouse owes it only if a response is filed, which the court's divorce page states in its own way.
• Item 99: a joint petition for dissolution or legal separation, other than a summary dissolution, $870; the schedule says the fee covers the appearance of both petitioners.
• Item 100: a joint petition for summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership, $435, one first-paper fee.
• Item 103 charges no fee for a defaulted respondent's signed settlement agreement or stipulation for judgment that is made part of the dissolution judgment. The spouse who signs the agreement and files nothing pays the court nothing.
• E-filing carries a separate charge that is not a court fee. The court's eFile page says certain fees for eFiling are applicable, and Local Rule 7.6 relieves a party with a fee waiver of them, as the fee waiver section explains.

How many first-paper fees each path pays here

An ordinary petition where your spouse signs the settlement agreement and files no response pays item 97 once, $435, and item 103 attaches no fee to the agreement the defaulted spouse signs. An ordinary petition where your spouse files a response pays item 97 and item 98, $870 between the two of you, which is how the court's divorce page describes it when it says a separate filing fee arises if the other spouse responds. On a joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5 the charge is item 99, $870; subdivision (h) has the joint petition filed with the first-paper fees of both Government Code section 70670(b) and (d), unless both spouses have fee waivers, and the court's divorce page arrives at the same total. A summary dissolution under Family Code sections 2400 to 2403 pays one first-paper fee, $435, item 100. The joint petition does not save a court fee in Yolo County; it pays both first-paper fees.

The court's divorce page states who may use the joint petition in its own terms: both spouses agree, or plan to agree, on all issues in the case, and the forms cannot be used if the spouses disagree on any legal issue. The page lists the summary dissolution qualifications as well, ceilings on property and on debt among them, and it says the summary process is not available for the dissolution of a domestic partnership, although the statewide schedule's item 100 names a summary dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership; this page does not reconcile the two. The statute behind both lists, Family Code sections 2342.5 and 2400 to 2403, is in the sources below.

What you pay Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene is a flat fee, separate from the court's: $599 for a summary dissolution, $999 for a joint petition, $1,499 for an ordinary petition. The fee pays for 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 Yolo County, which the attorney reviews before they are released to you, one revision round of the settlement agreement, and the first correction of a judgment packet the court sends back. A further revision round is quoted before the office starts it. The fee is earned in stages, and if the representation ends early the part not yet earned is refunded.

The office does not file documents, does not serve your spouse, does not appear in court, does not provide a notary and does not prepare or record deeds, in Yolo County as in every county. You file in Woodland, by mail or electronically, as a self-represented litigant holding the attorney's written instructions. The office represents one spouse and no one else in the divorce; the other spouse is not this office's client, receives no advice from it, and may consult an attorney of their own choosing.

If you cannot afford the fee

The court's Fee and Bail Schedules page states the fee waiver practice in two sentences. A request to waive court fees must be filed with the first document the litigant presents for filing a case, and the judge signs an order either granting the fee waiver or denying it, with the page adding that a clerk may also grant a fee waiver based on certain information. Local Rule 7.6 names the forms, an Application for Waiver of Court Fees and Costs on Judicial Council forms FW-001 and FW-002, and provides that a party who has received a fee waiver is not required to pay any fee for electronic filing and service. So in Yolo County the request goes in with the petition, whether at the window, in the mail or as part of the electronic submission, and a waiver granted there means no fee for electronic filing and service under Rule 7.6.

The statute is Government Code sections 68630 to 68634: the court waives its fees for a person who receives a listed public benefit, a person whose household income is at or below the limit the Judicial Council publishes, or a person who cannot pay the fee and still meet the household's basic needs, and the petition is filed while the request is decided. The Judicial Council's Ask for a fee waiver page says a fee waiver lets you file your papers for free and may also cover some other court costs.

A waiver reaches the court's fees and the e-filing charge under Rule 7.6; it does not reach the office's flat fee. On a joint petition, Family Code section 2342.5(h) requires both first-paper fees unless both spouses hold waivers, so each spouse who qualifies files a request of their own. The office prepares the request and the order form as part of the flat fee when you ask.

E-filing: mandatory for attorneys, exempt for you

The court's eFile Court Documents page says that the court requires legal documents to be submitted electronically in civil, family and probate cases, and in the next breath that pro pers are exempted from eFiling but strongly encouraged to use the File at Home and eFile tools. Local Rule 7.2 carries the rule: all documents filed in civil, probate and family law cases are filed and served electronically, except when personal service is required, and subdivision (c) exempts self-represented parties and non-parties from the mandatory electronic filing and service requirements while encouraging them to participate. You file the documents yourself, as a self-represented party under Rule 7.2(c), and paper filing at the window or by mail remains open to you. Subdivision (f) adds that self-represented parties must be served conventionally, which is how your spouse is served in any event.

If you choose to e-file, the court's page says a party must select an electronic filing service provider, and its Get Started link opens the provider list the court publishes for the purpose; Local Rule 7.4 requires that documents be electronically filed through one of the court's approved providers and says the list is on the court's website. The court's page says certain fees for eFiling are applicable, without saying whose, and Rule 7.6 says a party with a fee waiver pays no fee for electronic filing and service. Rule 7.5 sets the filing time: an electronically filed document filed before midnight on a court day is deemed filed as of that day. Rule 7.9(a) asks that exhibit attachments to an e-filed pleading be separated by a single page with a title identifying the sequence of the exhibit.

The court also offers File at Home, which its page describes as answering online questions to prepare your case, automatically creating legal documents and filing the case online, with divorce, legal separation or nullity among the case types; the court's divorce page lists File at Home under its Ready to begin heading beside Interactive Legal Help and the Self-Help Center workshops. File at Home drafts forms from your answers. The office's documents are already drafted and reviewed, so File at Home is not the route your instructions describe, and this page says no more about it than the court's page does.

Local rules and local forms

The edition in force is the Yolo Superior Court Local Rules Effective 01-01-2023, adopted January 1, 2023 to replace the rules the court had before, and posted on the court's Local Rules, News, Notices, Orders and Policies page. That page says that, in general, the local rules do not contain rules duplicative of state statutes or the California Rules of Court, and much of what governs an uncontested divorce in Yolo County is the Family Code and the statewide rules cited on this page. The family law chapter is Chapter 4: Rule 17, General Family Law, with sections on law and motion, bench trial continuances, custody evaluations and the complaint process; Rule 18, Child Custody and Child and Spousal Support; and Rule 19, Settlement and Trial of Family Law Matters, with 19.1 on mandatory settlement conferences and 19.2 on a good faith attempt at informal resolution.

Rule 19.1(a) says every family law matter is scheduled for a settlement conference before proceeding to trial unless the judge expressly exempts it. An uncontested divorce on a written agreement is not proceeding to trial, so that rule describes a case other than yours. Rule 18.1(a) explains that Yolo Superior Court is a recommending court in child custody matters, meaning the counselor prepares a written recommendation if the parties do not agree. Outside Chapter 4, the rules that reach a divorce filing are Rule 2.2 on filings and mailed filings, Rule 2.4 on remote appearances, Rule 7 on electronic filing and service, and Rule 11.4 on self-addressed stamped envelopes.

Appendix 1 of the local rules lists the court's local forms. Its family law entries are two: the Family Law Settlement Conference Statement, CV0240, and the Family Law Stipulation and Order, CV0220, each marked Optional. The court's Court Forms and Filing page, filtered to Family, shows the Settlement Conference Statement (CV-0240), an Orientation to Child Custody Recommending Counseling, and a stipulation and order form tagged Family. Those are the family law local forms the court's lists contain; none of them is a petition, default or judgment form, and the instruction sheet for the Settlement Conference Statement says it is required of family law litigants who have been assigned settlement conference and trial dates. The forms in your petition and judgment are the Judicial Council's, prepared by the office. Family Code section 2104 requires each spouse to serve a preliminary declaration of disclosure, which the office prepares with the petition.

The judgment in Yolo County

The court's divorce page describes the last step plainly: one of the parties has to prepare the judgment form with the appropriate attachments and submit it for signature, and a formal judgment signed by a judge, stating the date the marriage ends, must be filed with the court before the divorce is final. The Family Division FAQ adds a caution for a petitioner who has not received a judgment: check with the clerk to make sure that all paperwork has been filed that is needed to complete your divorce. Those two sentences are what the court's pages read for this page say about submitting a judgment in a dissolution; the local rules' family law chapter addresses settlement conferences, custody and support, and the rule on envelopes is Rule 11.4.

The statewide rules supply the rest. California Rules of Court, rule 5.405 limits what a court may require with a judgment to the Judicial Council's Judgment Checklist, form FL-182, for the situation the case presents; rule 5.411 governs a judgment entered on the spouses' stipulation; and rule 5.415 requires the stamped envelopes, one addressed to each spouse with the clerk's return address, in which the clerk mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment. Family Code section 2336 and rule 5.409 allow the court to enter the judgment on the petitioner's declaration, so an uncontested divorce on a written agreement is reviewed on paper and the judgment is entered without a hearing. The office prepares the judgment, the notice of entry and the declaration to match the checklist for your situation, with the settlement agreement attached as rule 5.411 directs.

The packet reaches the court by the routes the Family Division page lists, in person at the window, by mail to the court's one address, or electronically through a provider if you have chosen to e-file. With a paper submission goes the Rule 11.4 envelope for the return of your stamped copies, in addition to the two rule 5.415 envelopes. If the court returns the packet, the first correction is part of the flat fee.

Appearing remotely, if a hearing is ever set

An uncontested divorce on a written agreement has no hearing in it, and Family Code section 2336 with rule 5.409 is why. If the court sets one anyway, the court's Video Appearances page says Yolo Superior Court offers video remote appearances to promote access to justice and save you time, and it lists a join link and a passcode for each department, including Departments 3 and 4, the two family law departments on the assignments calendar, with a telephone dial-in number and meeting ID beside them. The platform is Lifesize; the court's hearing page points to a Lifesize guest guide for detailed instructions. The page is linked below and its links are not reprinted here, because the court maintains them.

Local Rule 2.4, effective January 1, 2022 and amended through January 1, 2023, is reproduced on the court's Video Appearances local rules page. It authorizes but does not mandate remote appearance for all civil proceedings, subject to judicial authority to require in-person appearance, and subdivision (c) defines civil proceedings by reference to rule 3.672(c)(1) of the California Rules of Court; whether that reaches a hearing in a dissolution is a question this page leaves to the court. For non-evidentiary hearings the rule lets a notice of intent to appear remotely be given orally at the start of the hearing and cover the duration of the case, with no form; evidentiary hearings and bench trials are held remotely unless the court orders otherwise. The court's day-of-hearing page asks you to join at least five minutes before your scheduled time, to type your full name, and to expect a waiting room before you are admitted; its Video Appearances page says that reproducing, broadcasting or transmitting any court proceeding is prohibited by rule 1.150 and that you should dress as you would for the courtroom. The office does not appear at hearings. Should the court set one in your case, the notice the court sends states the date, the department and the way to appear.

The Self-Help Center and Family Law Facilitator

The court's self-help service is the Self-Help Center and Family Law Facilitator, on the second floor of the courthouse at 1000 Main Street, Woodland, CA 95695, telephone (530) 406-6794. Its page says the Center assists with divorce, parentage, child custody and visitation, child support and more, that all services are free of charge, and that the Self-Help Center does not represent anyone. The court's Self-Help Topics page lists Divorce, with filing procedures, forms and requirements, among the subjects it covers, and the Family Division FAQ sends a person with divorce paperwork questions to the Facilitator through the Self-Help tab of the court's site.

Help comes through several channels, and the court's page sets them out: email, telephone, walk-in hours, workshops and limited in-person appointments booked online. Walk-in assistance is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; the page asks a walk-in visitor to sign in at the kiosk immediately to the right of the entrance and says no ticket is issued. Telephone assistance is available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at (530) 406-6793, and a voicemail is returned as soon as possible. The Center also runs a live chat on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in a morning and an afternoon block, and its page says those times may change depending on staff availability, so read the page for the current hours rather than this one. The workshops are described as aimed at assisting litigants in completing necessary steps within a family law case type; the court's divorce page lists them, with Interactive Legal Help and File at Home, under Ready to begin, and the Interactive Legal Help page lists a Disso interview among its tools.

Some cases are beyond the flat fee in Yolo County: any case involving minor children, a contested divorce, a business, a pension that requires its own order, real property located outside California, a legal separation or an annulment, and a case where the other spouse 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 page says it takes at least six months for the divorce to become final. The six months are Family Code section 2339's, counted from the day your spouse is served or appears, and form FL-107-INFO counts the earliest end of the marriage as six months and one day from that day; the judgment states the date the marriage ends under section 2340. The court enters the judgment when the papers are complete and reviewed, and nothing filed in Woodland shortens the wait. Once it is entered, the clerk mails the Notice of Entry of Judgment to each spouse in the rule 5.415 envelopes your packet supplied and returns your stamped copies in the Rule 11.4 envelope.

Where your agreement transfers California real property, the office does not prepare or record the deed; a title company or another attorney does that after the judgment is entered. The residence rule is Family Code section 2320, and the court's divorce page states the county half of it in its own words: to file in Yolo County, one party must have lived in Yolo County for the three months immediately preceding the filing of the petition. The statute also requires six months in California. The court's page links the Judicial Council's Divorce in California guide for the statewide steps, and that guide is listed below with the court's pages.

Each of the court's pages and Judicial Council pages listed below was read on October 18, 2026. Each address, hour, telephone number, fee item, rule number and form number on this page comes from one of them, and what the court's materials did not confirm, including the meaning of the ODD and EVEN labels on the assignments calendar and any Yolo-specific requirement for a judgment packet, is left off the page rather than supplied from another county.

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