Legal Question in Family Law in California

Yes, parties can file their divorce and family law cases without an attorney in the family court in the county where one of you resides. One of you must fulfill the residency requirements, which are that you are resident of CA for 6 months prior to filing, and a resident of the county where you are filing for at least 3 months. Each county in California has a family law facilitator's office, which provides free assistance with completing the forms and learning the process of obtaining a divorce judgment. Their offices are usually located in the building that houses the family court for the county, and they are open during business hours. In addition, you can often obtain self help packets online for family law cases on the Superior Court websites for the individual counties. In addition, there is a site at www.courtinfo.com that provides free California Judicial Council forms, which are required in family law cases in California. If you do resolve your case on an uncontested basis, then an appearance in court is not always needed. Instead, the needed judgment and settlement forms can be submitted for review by a judge without a hearing in many counties.

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