How to Fill Out and File California Form FL-220: Response, Service, and Deadline

California Form FL-220 is the Response to Petition to Determine Parental Relationship, the document you file in superior court after being served with a parentage petition. You have 30 days from the date of service to file it, serve the other parent, and get a Proof of Service back to the court. Miss that window and the judge can decide parentage, custody, and child support without hearing from you.¹ The filing fee is $435 in most counties.²

What to Gather Before You Open the Form

Pull out the Summons and Petition you were served with. You’ll copy the case number from the top right of the Summons, along with the court’s name and address and the petitioner’s name spelled exactly as it appears. A mismatch between your papers and theirs can slow processing. For each child in the petition, you need the full legal name, date of birth, age, and sex.³

Two other forms get filed with FL-220:¹

Form FL-105, Declaration Under UCCJEA, which tells the court where the children have lived for the past five years. Required in every parentage response.
Form FL-150, Income and Expense Declaration, which lays out your income, monthly expenses, and assets. Required whenever child support is on the table.

Download the current versions from the California Courts website or pick them up at your county courthouse’s self-help center.⁴

Filling Out FL-220

The form runs 14 numbered items. Most of the early items are housekeeping: copying the caption from the petition, listing the children, and confirming the children’s connection to California and the filing county.⁵ A handful of items ask you to make real decisions, and those are where attention matters.

Item 8: Your Position on Parentage

Item 8 is the heart of the form. Three checkboxes:

8a — you (or the petitioner) are the parent of the children.
8b — you (or the petitioner) are not the parent.
8c — you request genetic testing.

Checking 8c triggers a court-ordered process. Under California Family Code Section 7551, the court can order the mother, the child, and the alleged parent to submit to DNA testing. Refusal can be treated as evidence of parentage, and the order is enforceable by contempt.⁶ A separate limit applies if the parents were married and living together at the time of conception: California law conclusively presumes the child is a child of the marriage, which can block a parentage challenge.

If parentage was already established in another case or through a voluntary declaration, say so in Items 5 and 6 and attach any voluntary declaration you have.⁵

Item 9: Custody and Visitation

Item 9 is where you propose how legal custody, physical custody, and visitation should be arranged. For each one you check petitioner, respondent, joint, or other. Item 9d gives you space to explain why your proposal fits the children, or to reference an attached declaration.

The judge decides custody under the “best interests of the child” standard in Family Code Section 3011, weighing the child’s health and safety, any history of abuse, the amount of contact with each parent, and any pattern of substance abuse.⁷ If you want joint custody, check the box. The judge will not assume it is your preference.

Items 10 Through 14: Money and Everything Else

The remaining items handle financial requests and anything that doesn’t fit above:⁵

Item 10 asks the court to allocate pregnancy and birth expenses between the parties.
Item 11 asks for attorney fees and expert costs.
Item 12 asks the court to change a child’s name; list both current and proposed names.
Item 13 is a catch-all for other orders.
Item 14 is notice that the court can order child support and issue an earnings assignment without further notice. It is not optional. The court is required to set support based on both parents’ incomes, and support normally continues until the child turns 18.

Sign and date at the bottom. Your attorney, if you have one, signs as well.

Filing With the Clerk

File the original FL-220 along with your FL-105 and, if support is in play, your FL-150 with the court clerk in the same county that issued the petition. The fee is $435 in most counties, with a slight local surcharge in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco.² Make at least two copies of everything before you reach the clerk’s window: one for your records, one for the petitioner.

If the fee is out of reach, file Form FW-001, Request to Waive Court Fees, at the same time. You qualify if you receive certain public benefits, your household income is low enough, or you lack sufficient income to cover both basic needs and court costs.⁸

Serving the Other Parent

Filing is only half the job. The petitioner (or their attorney) needs a copy of your filed response, and you cannot deliver it yourself. California requires the server to be at least 18 and not a party to the case.⁹ A friend, relative, coworker, professional process server, or the county sheriff all qualify. Process servers typically charge between $45 and $100.

Service can be personal (handing the papers to the petitioner) or by mail. After serving, the server completes a Proof of Service: FL-330 for personal service, FL-335 for service by mail.¹⁰ The server signs it under penalty of perjury, stating when, where, and how the papers were delivered.¹¹ File the completed Proof of Service with the court. Without it, there is no record that the petitioner ever received your response.

The 30-Day Deadline

You have 30 calendar days from the date you were served to file your response and serve the petitioner.¹ If day 30 falls on a weekend or court holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day. The window is the same whether you were served in person or by substituted service.

What happens if you don’t file in time? The petitioner can submit a Request to Enter Default (Form FL-165). A default closes the door. The court will not accept a late response without special permission, and the judge can decide parentage, custody, and child support based solely on what the petitioner asked for.¹² Setting aside a default after the fact is substantially harder than filing on time.

What Happens After You File

Your filed response makes the case contested, meaning both sides have stated positions and the court has to resolve the disagreements. If custody or visitation is disputed, California requires both parents to attend mediation through Family Court Services before a judge will hold a hearing.¹³ The mediator helps parents reach an agreement on parenting time and decision-making. If no agreement comes out of mediation, a judge decides.

If you asked for genetic testing in Item 8c, the court will usually order testing before ruling on parentage. Both parents and the child provide DNA samples, and the results either establish or rule out a biological relationship. Custody, visitation, and support all hinge on that outcome.

Child support is calculated using both parents’ incomes and the amount of time each parent spends with the child. Skip the FL-150 and the court will calculate support using only the petitioner’s figures. Filing your own financial information gives the judge both sides of the picture and protects you from an order based on incomplete data.

1
California Courts. Respond to Parentage Papers
2
Superior Court of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule
3
Superior Court of California, County of Fresno. Instructions for Responding to Petition to Establish Parental Relationship
4
California Courts. Response to Petition to Determine Parental Relationship (Uniform Parentage) (FL-220)
5
Judicial Council of California. FL-220 Response to Petition to Determine Parental Relationship
6
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 7540
7
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 3011
8
California Courts. Request to Waive Court Fees
9
California Courts. Serving Court Papers
10
California Courts. Proof of Personal Service (FL-330)
11
Judicial Council of California. Proof of Personal Service
12
California Courts. Finish Your Parentage Case in a Default
13
Judicial Branch of California. Family Court Services