A more practical family law & divorce guide for San Francisco, California: parenting schedule, the practical order that keeps the file usable, and local sequence

Family law matters in San Francisco are heard by the SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT's UNIFIED FAMILY COURT at the CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE, 400 McAllister Street, a block from City Hall — the single courthouse for divorce, custody, support, and domestic-violence restraining orders in this CONSOLIDATED CITY AND COUNTY. California is a NO-FAULT DISSOLUTION state: Family Code 2310 requires only that one spouse cite IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES, with no need to prove wrongdoing, so a San Francisco divorce turns not on blame but on dividing property, setting support, and arranging custody. The mandatory SIX-MONTH WAITING PERIOD under Family Code 2339 runs from the date the respondent is served, not the filing date, and even a fully agreed case cannot be final before it elapses. Each case begins with an FL-100 petition and FL-110 summons; the responding spouse files an FL-120, and either party moves the case forward with a REQUEST FOR ORDER (form FL-300) for temporary custody, support, or exclusive use of the home while the divorce is pending. To file for dissolution here you generally must have lived in California for six months and in the county for three. The court's FAMILY LAW FACILITATOR and SELF-HELP CENTER at the Civic Center Courthouse assist self-represented San Franciscans with the Judicial Council forms at no cost — a heavily used resource in a city where a large share of family filings are handled without a lawyer, and where the cost of retaining counsel for a contested high-asset case can itself become a point of leverage between the spouses.

California is a COMMUNITY PROPERTY state, and this is where a San Francisco divorce diverges sharply from the equitable-distribution regimes of most of the country: under Family Code 760, everything acquired by either spouse during the marriage — earnings, savings, real estate, retirement, and business value — is presumptively owned FIFTY-FIFTY and divided equally at divorce, while separate property (owned before marriage, or received by gift or inheritance) stays with its owner if it can be traced. In a tech-and-finance capital, the hardest fights are over EQUITY COMPENSATION: STOCK OPTIONS, RESTRICTED STOCK UNITS (RSUs), and pre-IPO shares granted during the marriage are community property to the extent earned during the marriage, apportioned by time-rule formulas the California courts developed in cases like Hug and Nelson depending on whether a grant rewarded past work or incentivized future service. The DATE OF SEPARATION under Family Code 70 becomes pivotal because it fixes when the community stops sharing in a spouse's rising equity and salary, and San Francisco's extreme home values make the residence — often the couple's largest asset — a central battleground over MOORE/MARSDEN reimbursement of separate-property contributions. RETIREMENT accounts and pensions earned during the marriage are community property too, divided through a QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDER (QDRO) that splits a 401(k), an IRA, or a public pension without triggering tax. Privately held business interests — a founder's stake in a startup, a professional practice — require valuation and often a buyout of one spouse's community share. Post-separation the community keeps accounting: EPSTEIN credits reimburse a spouse who pays community debts with separate funds, and WATTS charges make a spouse who has exclusive use of the home account for its rental value, both routinely litigated while a San Francisco house sits unsold in a slow market.

Child custody follows the BEST-INTEREST standard of Family Code 3011, and before any contested custody hearing San Francisco requires CHILD CUSTODY RECOMMENDING COUNSELING under Family Code 3170 — a session with a court counselor from Family Court Services whose recommendation goes to the judge, making that meeting one of the most consequential steps in a disputed case. A documented history of domestic violence triggers a REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION against awarding custody to the abusive parent under Family Code 3044. Child support is set by the statewide GUIDELINE FORMULA under Family Code 4055, applied through DissoMaster-style software using each parent's net income and timeshare, and the SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES establishes and enforces orders, including wage assignments, without either parent needing private counsel. Spousal support comes in two forms — TEMPORARY support during the case, set by a local guideline calculation, and LONG-TERM support after judgment, set by weighing the Family Code 4320 factors (marital standard of living, earning capacity, duration, and more) with no formula — a distinction that matters enormously in high-earner San Francisco cases. RELOCATION disputes are common in a transient city where a laid-off tech worker may want to move a child out of the expensive Bay Area: a MOVE-AWAY request is governed by Family Code 7501 and the California Supreme Court's Burgess and LaMusga decisions, which turn on whether the moving parent has primary custody and on the move's effect on the child's stability and relationship with the other parent. Because the Child Custody Recommending Counselor's report so strongly shapes the outcome, preparing for that session — and, where allowed, understanding whether it is confidential or recommending — is a priority a knowledgeable San Francisco practitioner addresses early.

San Francisco's domestic-violence response is dense and specialized. The SAN FRANCISCO FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER co-locates advocates, and the COOPERATIVE RESTRAINING ORDER CLINIC helps survivors prepare DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESTRAINING ORDER paperwork — forms DV-100 and DV-109 — for filing at the Civic Center Courthouse, where a judge can issue a same-day or next-day temporary restraining order and set a full hearing within roughly 21 days. A granted order can remove an abuser from a shared home, set temporary custody and support, and — under Family Code 6389 — require the surrender of firearms. The city's survivor network includes W.O.M.A.N. INC., LA CASA DE LAS MADRES, the ASIAN WOMEN'S SHELTER, and the RILEY CENTER, providing shelter, safety planning, and courthouse accompaniment in multiple languages, reflecting the city's Latino, Chinese, and broader immigrant communities. These services matter because a DV finding reshapes custody through the 3044 presumption and can accelerate the timing of temporary orders in an otherwise slow-moving dissolution. In an emergency outside court hours, the SFPD can obtain an EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE ORDER from an on-call judge that lasts up to a week, bridging the gap until a survivor can file a DVRO at the Civic Center Courthouse. For non-citizen survivors, the abuse itself can open independent immigration relief — a U visa for crime victims who cooperate with police, or a VAWA self-petition for spouses of citizens and permanent residents — none of which requires the abuser's cooperation, and seeking a restraining order does not compel disclosure of a survivor's own status.

Legal help for San Francisco families is anchored by BAY AREA LEGAL AID and the JUSTICE AND DIVERSITY CENTER of the Bar Association of San Francisco, both handling divorce, custody, and restraining-order matters for income-qualifying residents, alongside the court's Family Law Facilitator for form preparation. San Francisco carries a distinctive family-law history: the city issued the nation's first same-sex marriage licenses in 2004 under Mayor Gavin Newsom, litigation that fed into In re Marriage Cases and eventually nationwide marriage equality, so the city's family courts routinely handle same-sex dissolutions, registered DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP terminations, and the property and parentage questions that follow. The practical playbook: gather account statements, equity-grant agreements, and vesting schedules early; pin down the date of separation; use the Facilitator and Self-Help Center if you cannot afford counsel; complete the mandatory financial disclosures (FL-140 series — the declaration of disclosure, income-and-expense declaration, and schedule of assets and debts) honestly, since concealment of an asset can later void the entire judgment under Family Code 2100 and following; consider mediation or a collaborative process to control cost and privacy where the relationship allows; and, in any case with abuse, seek a restraining order and connect with a survivor organization before custody is decided. San Francisco's family bench sees a high volume of sophisticated financial cases, so credible forensic accounting and clean documentation carry real weight.