To fill out Form FL-100, the California divorce petition, you identify yourself and your spouse, choose whether you’re asking for dissolution, legal separation, or nullity, enter your dates of marriage and separation, list any minor children, and characterize your property as community or separate. The form itself is only part of the filing: FL-100 has to travel to the clerk with a Summons (FL-110), a custody jurisdiction declaration (FL-105) if you have children, and the $435 statewide filing fee.1California Courts. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026 Download the current version of the form directly from the California Courts self-help site before you start, because older PDFs floating around the internet may not match what the clerk will accept.2Judicial Branch of California. Petition – Marriage/Domestic Partnership (Family Law) (FL-100)
Confirm You Can File in California, and That FL-100 Is the Right Form
California requires that at least one spouse has lived in the state for six months and in the filing county for three months before the court can grant a dissolution.3California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2320 If you moved recently and don’t meet those thresholds, you can either wait, file where your spouse lives if they qualify, or file for legal separation first (which has no residency requirement) and convert it later.
FL-100 is also not the only petition form. If your marriage was short and simple, you may qualify for a summary dissolution, which uses Form FL-800 instead. To use it, all of the following must be true: the marriage lasted less than five years, you own no real estate, combined debts (excluding car loans) are under $7,000, community property is worth less than $57,000, each spouse’s separate property is under $57,000, and both spouses agree on how to divide everything.4Judicial Branch of California. Find Out if You Qualify for Summary Dissolution Miss any one requirement and you’re back to FL-100.
Filling Out FL-100 Section by Section
Your Information and Your Spouse’s Information
The top of the form is the caption. Enter your name, address, and contact information as the petitioner, then your spouse’s name as the respondent. If you’re representing yourself, write “self-represented” or “in pro per” where an attorney’s name would go. The county and courthouse address for the Superior Court where you’re filing go in the caption block.
What You’re Asking the Court to Do
FL-100 asks you to check what you want: dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or nullity. Dissolution ends the marriage. Legal separation lets the court make orders about property, support, and custody without terminating the marriage itself. Nullity asks the court to declare the marriage was never valid, on grounds like bigamy or fraud. Pick one; these aren’t interchangeable, and picking the wrong one restarts your case.
Dates of Marriage and Separation
You’ll enter your date of marriage and your date of separation. These are not administrative details. They control which assets count as community property and can influence how long spousal support lasts. California defines the date of separation as the point when one spouse expressed the intent to end the marriage and acted consistently with that intent.5California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 70 If you and your spouse disagree on when the split happened, this single date can become one of the most contested issues in the case, so pick it carefully and be ready to explain it.
Residency
You’ll check a box confirming that you or your spouse meets the six-month state and three-month county residency requirements. If neither of you does yet, you cannot ask for a dissolution here.
Minor Children
List the full names and birthdates of all minor children of the marriage. If a spouse is pregnant, or if you and your spouse had children together before the marriage, those details go in this section too. This is what gives the court authority to make custody and child support orders in the case.
Property and Debts
FL-100 asks whether you want the court to decide how to divide property and debts, or whether you’ll attach a separate schedule. Community property generally means anything either spouse earned or acquired during the marriage. Separate property means what you owned before the marriage, acquired after separation, or received as a gift or inheritance at any time.6Judicial Branch of California. Property and Debts in a Divorce – Section: Two Types of Property: Community and Separate You don’t have to list every asset on FL-100 itself, but you do need to accurately mark what’s community and what’s separate. The court uses these answers as its starting framework, and a full asset schedule comes later in your financial disclosures.
Signature
Sign and date the petition. Your signature is under penalty of perjury, so read what you’ve entered before you sign.
The Forms That Have to Go With FL-100
If you take only FL-100 to the clerk, your filing will be rejected. Prepare these companion documents in the same package.
Form FL-110: Summons
The Summons formally notifies your spouse that a case has been filed. Filing it also triggers automatic restraining orders that bind both spouses immediately: neither of you can remove minor children from the state, cancel or change insurance coverage, or transfer or hide assets.7California Courts. FL-110 Summons These orders remain in effect until the court enters a judgment or makes further orders.
Form FL-105: Custody Jurisdiction Declaration
If you have minor children, file Form FL-105 with your petition. It tracks where the children have lived for the past five years so the court can confirm California has jurisdiction over custody decisions.8California Legislative Information. California Family Code 3429 It also asks you to disclose any other court proceedings involving the children, such as restraining orders or dependency cases. Skipping FL-105 when children are involved will delay your case.
Filing the Package and Paying the Fee
Bring the original plus two copies of the entire package to the clerk of the Superior Court in your county. Most courts accept filings in person, by mail (include a self-addressed stamped envelope for return copies), or through electronic filing systems.9Judicial Branch of California. Start a Divorce Case – Section: Step 1: Fill Out and File Forms The statewide filing fee is $435.1California Courts. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026 Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco counties add a local surcharge for courthouse construction, so the total runs slightly higher there.
Can’t afford the fee? File Form FW-001 with your petition. You can qualify for a fee waiver if you receive public benefits like Medi-Cal or CalWORKs, if your household income falls below certain thresholds, or if you can’t cover both your basic needs and court costs.10Judicial Council of California. FW-001 Request to Waive Court Fees
The clerk reviews the package, stamps a filing date, and assigns a case number. That case number goes on every document you file for the rest of the case. You’ll get two stamped copies back: one for your records and one to serve on your spouse.
What Comes Next: Service and Disclosures
Filing FL-100 opens the case; it doesn’t complete it. You now have to get the filed papers into your spouse’s hands, and you cannot deliver them yourself. Someone at least 18 years old who is not a party to the case must hand-deliver them, mail them with a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (Form FL-117) that your spouse signs and returns, or (as a last resort, with the court’s permission) publish notice in a newspaper if your spouse genuinely can’t be located.11California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 414.10 Whoever serves the papers completes Form FL-115, Proof of Service of Summons, which you then file with the court.12Judicial Branch of California. Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115) Your spouse then has 30 days to file a Response (Form FL-120).7California Courts. FL-110 Summons
Within 60 days of filing FL-100, you also have to serve your spouse with a preliminary declaration of disclosure. This is not optional and cannot be waived by agreement.13California Courts. FL-140 Declaration of Disclosure14California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 110115California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2122