How to File for Summary Dissolution in California

To file for a summary dissolution in California, you and your spouse must jointly submit Form FL-800 (Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution) along with a signed written agreement dividing your property and debts, pay the filing fee at the superior court in your county, wait six months, and then file Form FL-825 to enter the judgment. The process only works if you meet every eligibility condition in Family Code Section 2400, and both of you must give up spousal support and the right to appeal in exchange for the shortcut.

Who Qualifies

At least one spouse must have lived in California for the past six months and in the filing county for the past three months.¹ A narrow exception exists for domestic partnerships registered in California and for same-sex couples who married in California but live somewhere that won’t grant them a divorce.²

Every one of the following must also be true on the day you file:³

Your marriage is five years old or less, measured from the wedding date to the date of separation.
No minor children were born to or adopted by the two of you during the marriage, and neither spouse is pregnant.
Neither spouse owns any interest in real property, anywhere. A residential lease is allowed only if it has no purchase option and expires within one year of filing.
You have signed a written agreement dividing all assets and debts, and both of you waive spousal support.
Your community property, separate property, and community debt all fall under the dollar limits below.

Miss one condition and summary dissolution is off the table. A standard dissolution becomes your only route.

The Dollar Limits

The financial thresholds are adjusted every odd-numbered year based on the California Consumer Price Index. As of the most recent adjustment:⁴

Community property, valued at fair market value minus what you owe on it and excluding cars, must total less than $57,000.
Each spouse’s separate property, again excluding encumbrances and cars, must be less than $57,000. Separate property is what you owned before the marriage, acquired after separation, or received as a gift or inheritance.
Community debt, meaning unpaid debt you took on between marriage and separation and excluding car loans, must be less than $7,000.

Retirement accounts are where couples most often get tripped up. The statute counts deferred compensation and retirement plans toward the community property total.³ Even a short marriage can push a 401(k) past the limit. Cars, by contrast, are excluded from both property and debt calculations. The next adjustment takes effect January 1, 2027, so these figures apply through the end of 2026.

Preparing Your Paperwork

Before filing, both spouses must read the Summary Dissolution Information booklet (Form FL-810) and sign under oath that they have done so.³ The booklet contains worksheets for tallying property, which double as a practical check on whether you actually meet the financial limits.

Pin down your date of separation before you file anything else. California defines it as the date one spouse communicated the intent to end the marriage and began acting consistently with that intent.⁵ That date sets both your five-year calculation and the cutoff between community and separate acquisitions. Get it wrong and your entire eligibility analysis is off.

You also need a written property agreement that lays out who gets what and who takes on which debts. It becomes an enforceable court order once judgment is entered, so treat it like a contract. Both spouses must exchange preliminary declarations of disclosure listing income, expenses, assets, and debts.⁶ Final disclosures, which a standard divorce requires, are waived in a summary dissolution.

Filing the Joint Petition

The central document is the Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution, Form FL-800.⁷ Both of you sign it under penalty of perjury, confirming every eligibility condition is met. File it, along with your written property agreement, at the superior court clerk’s office in your county.

The fee is $435 in most counties and $450 in counties with a courthouse construction surcharge, including Riverside and San Francisco.⁸ If you can’t afford it, submit a Request to Waive Court Fees (Form FW-001).⁹

The Six-Month Wait

Once the clerk accepts your petition, a mandatory six-month waiting period begins. It applies to every California divorce.¹⁰ Either spouse can end the summary dissolution during that window by filing a Notice of Revocation (Form FL-830), with no explanation, no consent from the other party, and no court hearing.¹¹ The clerk mails a copy to the other spouse and the case is done.¹²

If revocation happens and you still want a divorce, you’ll need to file a regular dissolution using Form FL-100. Time already spent waiting can count toward the new case’s six-month clock, but only if the standard dissolution is filed within 90 days of the revocation.¹³

Entering the Judgment

After the six months pass without a revocation, the court enters the judgment dissolving the marriage.¹⁴ File the Judgment of Dissolution and Notice of Entry of Judgment, Form FL-825, along with your property settlement agreement.¹⁵ Both parties return to the legal status of single persons and are free to remarry. The clerk mails a notice of entry of judgment to each party’s last known address.

If either spouse wants to restore a former name, they can ask for it directly on the joint petition (FL-800, item 15), and the restored name will appear in the FL-825 judgment. If you missed it on the petition, you can still request it later with an Ex Parte Application for Restoration of Former Name (Form FL-395).

What You Permanently Give Up

The shortcut carries trade-offs that don’t unwind once the judgment is entered. Both spouses waive all rights to spousal support, and that waiver is permanent.³ You also waive the right to appeal the judgment and the right to request a new trial. A spouse in a standard dissolution who later finds hidden assets or believes the division was unfair has legal recourse; in a summary dissolution, you do not. If there is any chance your spouse isn’t disclosing everything, or that you might need support down the road, use the standard process instead.

The Domestic Partnership Route

Registered domestic partners who meet the same eligibility standards have an extra option married couples don’t: they can terminate the partnership through the California Secretary of State using a separate set of forms, with no court filing fee.¹³ If you’re ending both a marriage and a domestic partnership at once, each must have lasted five years or less.

1
Justia Law. California Code Family Code 2320-2322 – Residence Requirements
2
Judicial Council of California. FL-810 Summary Dissolution Information
3
California Legislative Information. California Code Family Code 2400 – Summary Dissolution
4
California Courts. Find Out if You Qualify for Summary Dissolution
5
California Legislative Information. California Code Family Code FAM 70 – Date of Separation
6
Judicial Council of California. FL-140 Declaration of Disclosure
7
California Courts. Joint Petition for Summary Dissolution FL-800
8
California Courts. File Your Divorce Forms
9
California Courts. Request to Waive Court Fees FW-001
10
California Courts. The Divorce Process
11
California Legislative Information. California Code Family Code 2402 – Summary Dissolution
12
Judicial Council of California. FL-830 Notice of Revocation of Petition for Summary Dissolution
13
Orange County Superior Court. Summary Dissolution of Marriage or Domestic Partnership Self-Help Information
14
Justia Law. California Code Family Code 2403 – Summary Dissolution
15
Judicial Council of California. FL-825 Judgment of Dissolution and Notice of Entry of Judgment