Legal Question in Family Law in California

No, you can file by mail or hire a court runner.

Ms. Bridgford is correct. If you have enough time before the deadline, you can mail them. Check with the court how many copies they need, and then include one more with a stamped self-addressed envelope for them to send you back a copies with the official "Filed" stamp on them. In addition to mail or a court runner service, some counties, such as Alameda allow direct fax filing. For counties that do not, you can use a fax filing service, where you fax to them and they take it to court. Fax and File, which is now online as OneLegal.com is one such service, and the one I use almost exclusively.