Insights for California Family Lawyers
FL-700 joint petitions (2026): what family law software has to do now
As of January 1, 2026, agreeing spouses may start with FL-700 and FL-710 instead of FL-100 and FL-110. That filing starts the case; it does not finish it. You still need disclosures, a UCCJEA, and a judgment. You cannot seek temporary orders on the joint petition. Software that only knows FL-100 is already stale.
· FamilyLawyer.software
If your software still treats every California dissolution as Petitioner versus Respondent — FL-100, FL-110, serve the other side — it is already behind the Judicial Council’s 1 January 2026 forms cycle. Senate Bill 1427 did not invent a new kind of divorce. It added a joint filing path, with its own forms, caption conventions, dead ends, and a revocation procedure that dumps the parties back into an ordinary case.
What SB 1427 actually changed
As of 1 January 2026, spouses or registered domestic partners who intend to resolve everything by agreement may start with one joint filing. The Judicial Council’s self-help joint petition page is the cleanest official statement: it starts the case; it does not finish it.
You do not need a signed marital settlement agreement on day one. You do need both signatures on Joint Petition FL-700 and Summons FL-710, and you need to list the issues you plan to work out. If you do not think they will agree on everything by judgment, do not start here. File a regular dissolution. Residency did not go away: Family Code section 2320 still requires six months in California and three months in the county for a dissolution. The joint petition is a filing vehicle, not a new substantive divorce statute.
Petitioner 1 and Petitioner 2 are not a naming gimmick
The joint petition lists the parties as Petitioner 1 and Petitioner 2. That is the only California dissolution or legal-separation case that starts that way. On later forms — the UCCJEA, the disclosure set, the judgment set — Petitioner 1 is captioned Petitioner and Petitioner 2 is captioned Respondent. The self-help page is explicit about that remap. Software that cannot do it will generate garbage captions and rejected packets. Your client might be Petitioner 2. On FL-105 they will still be the Respondent.
What filing does on day one
Once FL-700 and FL-710 are filed, the case starts. Both parties have submitted to the court’s jurisdiction; you do not serve an FL-110 on an opposing party, because there is not one yet. For dissolution, the six-month clock in Family Code section 2339 starts running. Legal separation has no waiting period. The automatic temporary restraining orders in FL-710 attach immediately, and they stay in place even if someone later revokes the joint petition.
The Judicial Council self-help page currently lists the filing fee as $870. If you cite a fee, cite that page and re-check it — some consumer write-ups are already publishing a different number. Fee waivers are still FW-001. If both need a waiver, each files their own.
The form set software has to ship
The Judicial Council publisher list effective 1 January 2026 and the self-help latest-changes table are the dated sources. FL-700, FL-710, and FL-700-INFO are new on that 1 January cycle. FL-720 was revised then, and revised again effective 1 July 2026. A library that stopped at last year’s FL-100 is not current. A library that shipped FL-720 in January and never picked up the July revision is not current either.
| Form | Job in a joint-start case | JC status (dated) |
|---|---|---|
| FL-700 | Joint petition — starts the case | New, effective 1 January 2026 |
| FL-710 | Summons — joint petition; ATROs | New, effective 1 January 2026 |
| FL-700-INFO | Optional information sheet | New, effective 1 January 2026 |
| FL-105 | UCCJEA if a child is under 18 | Existing; P1 = Petitioner, P2 = Respondent |
| FL-720 | Notice of revocation of joint petition | Revised 1 January 2026; revised again 1 July 2026 |
| FL-100 | Amended petition after revocation (Petitioner 1) | Existing ordinary petition |
| FL-120 | Response after revocation (Petitioner 2) | Existing ordinary response |
| FL-140 / FL-141 / FL-142 / FL-150 | Disclosure set (FL-160 when used) | Still required |
| FL-170 / FL-180 / FL-190 | Judgment set | Still the finish line. FL-190 revised 1 July 2026 |
| FL-311 / FL-341 / FL-351 | Custody attachments when needed | FL-311 and FL-341 revised, FL-351 new, 1 January 2026 cycle |
County local forms sit on top of that statewide set. Ask the vendor, then the clerk. “All Judicial Council family forms” is not an answer to “do you have current FL-720 and this county’s cover sheet.”
What the joint petition does not do
- Finish the divorce. Disclosures, a written agreement on every issue, a Judgment, and the six-month wait (for dissolution) remain. The self-help page says so in those words.
- Authorize temporary orders. You cannot ask for pendente lite custody, visitation, or support on the joint petition. Need an RFO? You are in the wrong procedure.
- Replace Summary Dissolution. That track still exists. Different forms, different eligibility, different revocation.
- Waive the UCCJEA. Minors under 18 still require FL-105 at filing.
If a vendor demo says “one interview, one filing, done,” close the tab. That is a B2C smell, and it is wrong on the law.
After you file: disclosures, UCCJEA, judgment
The workflow is the ordinary uncontested path with a different front door: file FL-700 + FL-710 (and FL-105 if there are minors) plus local cover sheets; exchange preliminary disclosures; work the agreement; file the Judgment; wait out six months on a dissolution. “FL-700 software” that only emits FL-700 and FL-710 is a toy. The joint start is the easy page. The disclosure set and the judgment set are still the work. See FL-150 / FL-142 from client intake for the disclosure mechanics.
File FL-105 with the joint petition if a child is under 18. On that form Petitioner 1 is Petitioner and Petitioner 2 is Respondent. Custody attachments (FL-311, FL-341, new FL-351) still attach when the facts require them. No judgment, no divorce: the same data set that filled FL-700 still has to produce FL-180, or you will re-key the case six months later.
Revocation: FL-720, then FL-100 or FL-120
Either party can end the joint process at any time before judgment is final. Asking for temporary orders also ends it. The case does not close. The case does not restart. The ATROs stay. The original filing date is the filing date.
The packet is Notice of Revocation FL-720 (current revision, not the January draft you cached); an amended Petition FL-100 if you are Petitioner 1; a Response FL-120 if you are Petitioner 2; ordinary service and proof; then, and only then, temporary orders if that is why you revoked. Software that cannot produce that off-ramp will strand you the first time a “simple joint” grows a support fight.
Summary Dissolution is a different track
Do not conflate FL-700 with Summary Dissolution. Summary Dissolution still exists. It still uses FL-800 (revised 28 April 2025), the FL-810 booklet, Judgment FL-825, and revocation on FL-830. Eligibility is the short list you already know: five years or less, no children of the relationship, limited property and debt, no support asked.
The revocation consequences are not the same. FL-830 stops a summary dissolution and the parties are still married. FL-720 converts a joint ordinary case into a regular dissolution; the case continues. A questionnaire that offers “joint petition” as one button, without distinguishing FL-700 from FL-800, will put the wrong family on the wrong track. That is a competence problem. See using divorce software under California ethics rules.
What software must not promise
- Temporary orders on the joint petition. The court has already said no.
- Statewide e-filing. Self-help says e-file if your court allows it. We are not going to invent which of the 58 counties take family e-filing this week.
- “File this and you are divorced.” False. Disclosures and judgment remain.
- Unaudited form coverage. “All 58 counties” is a vendor sentence until you have tested your counties.
Ask whether FL-700 / FL-710 / current FL-720 ship already mapped; whether Petitioner 1 / Petitioner 2 remap onto later forms without a second interview; whether the same data set produces disclosures, FL-105, and the judgment batch; whether revocation into FL-100 or FL-120 is the same matter; whether Summary Dissolution stays a separate path; who owns the 1 January / 1 July revisions; and whether the client can download and file. If the client can push papers to court, you are looking at a form mill with a login screen.
Existence proof: a California-native tool already ships the FL-700 batch
This site’s product, Online Divorce Lawyer, is a white-label uncontested work-product tool for California lawyers. The vendor FAQ states that the app handles FL-100 and FL-700 procedures, Summary Dissolution, and that if the matter is an FL-700 joint petition the lawyer can download the entire prepared set. The client does not get download access. The lawyer reviews before anything is filed.
That is a vendor claim, not an independent audit of form coverage or county depth. It is existence proof of a narrower point: a California-native interview tool could ship the 2026 joint-petition set when the forms went live, instead of waiting for a national library to notice that FL-100 is no longer the only front door. If you already run a PMS and a guideline calculator, this is the layer that sits beside them. See the 2026 California stack if you are still mixing those jobs. The statutory question is simpler: if agreeing spouses can start on FL-700 as of 1 January 2026, your software has to know that.