How to File a Request for Order (RFO) in California Family Court
In a California family case you do not “file a motion” the way you would in a civil lawsuit. You file a Request for Order — Judicial Council form FL-300 — and the clerk assigns a hearing date. The RFO is the vehicle for nearly every order a family court makes before judgment, and for most changes after it: custody, parenting time, child support, spousal support, attorney fees, and control of property. The rules are specific about what you file, how long it can be, and how and when it is served.
What an RFO is and what it can ask for
The Rules of Court treat a request for order as the family-law equivalent of a noticed motion. Form FL-300 is required unless the Judicial Council has adopted a different form for the particular request (contempt, for example, has its own). It can be filed with the petition that opens the case or at any point afterward, including years after judgment.
The form is a menu. You check the orders you want — child custody, visitation (parenting time), child support, spousal or partner support, attorney fees and costs, property control, or “other” — and explain in a declaration the facts that justify each one. An RFO is not the vehicle for a domestic violence restraining order, which has its own forms, or for an agreement, which is submitted as a stipulation.
The declaration and the ten-page limit
The declaration is the heart of the filing, and it is capped. Under rule 5.111, the declaration supporting an RFO must not exceed 10 pages; the responsive declaration is also limited to 10 pages, and a reply declaration to 5. The limits do not apply to expert declarations, and the court can grant permission to exceed them, but do not count on it.
The rule also requires that a declaration be based on personal knowledge, explain how the declarant acquired that knowledge, and contain statements that would be admissible in evidence. In practice that means dates, events, and what you saw or heard, not characterizations of the other parent. Attach the documents that matter — the school schedule, the pay stub, the text message — and keep the narrative to the facts the judge has to find.
The supporting forms that ride along
Depending on what you check on FL-300, other forms are mandatory:
- Any support or fee request: a current Income and Expense Declaration, FL-150. “Current” means completed within the past three months with no changed facts.
- Custody or visitation: the Child Custody and Visitation (Parenting Time) Application Attachment, FL-311, which spells out the schedule you want, plus the UCCJEA declaration (FL-105).
- Attorney fees: FL-150 plus a Request for Attorney’s Fees and Costs Attachment (FL-319) and a Supporting Declaration (FL-158), or comparable declarations covering the attorney’s hourly rate, experience, and the fees incurred or anticipated. Fee awards in family cases generally turn on one party’s need and the other’s relative ability to pay.
Filing, fees, and fee waivers
The package is filed with the clerk in person, by mail, or electronically where the court accepts e-filing, and comes back with the hearing date, time, and department. Under the 2026 statewide fee schedule, a motion in a family law matter carries a $60 filing fee, plus $25 when the request is to modify or enforce custody or visitation; some support-only requests are treated differently, so confirm with the clerk.
If you cannot afford the fee, file a Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) with the RFO. You qualify if you receive public benefits such as Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI, or CalWORKs, if household income is below the threshold printed on the form, or if paying would leave you unable to cover basic needs. The court can later order repayment if your finances improve or you receive money through the case.
Service and response: sixteen court days, then nine
Someone who is at least 18 and not a party must serve the filed RFO and supporting papers, with a blank FL-320 (and a blank FL-150 if you served one), on the other party at least 16 court days before the hearing. Court days exclude weekends and court holidays. For mail within California, add 5 calendar days; add 10 for mail to another state and 20 for mail outside the United States.
Personal service is required when the court ordered it, when the court granted temporary emergency orders with the RFO, and when the other party has not yet been served with the summons and petition or appeared in the case. After judgment, a request to change custody, visitation, or child support may be mailed if you have verified the other party’s current address; a request on other issues, including spousal support, may still need personal service. When in doubt, serve personally.
The server completes a Proof of Personal Service (FL-330) or Proof of Service by Mail (FL-335), which you file at least 5 court days before the hearing. Under rule 5.94, if the RFO is not properly served and no order rescheduling it is obtained, the request and any emergency orders attached to it expire on the hearing date.
The other party answers with a Responsive Declaration to Request for Order, FL-320, stating what they agree to and what they contest, with their own 10-page declaration and a current FL-150 if support or fees are at issue. It must be filed and served at least 9 court days before the hearing; the self-help materials direct adding 5 calendar days for mail. A reply is due 5 court days before the hearing, limited to 5 pages.
The FL-300 warns what happens otherwise: the court may make the requested orders without you if you do not respond and appear. The clerk cannot reject late papers, but the judge may decline to consider them.
Custody requests go to mediation first
When an RFO shows on its face that custody or visitation is contested, the Family Code requires the court to send those issues to mediation before or alongside the hearing. How that works varies by county. Some courts use confidential mediation, where nothing said reaches the judge; others use child custody recommending counseling, where the counselor writes a recommendation the judge reads before the hearing.
Santa Clara County’s Family Court Services runs the confidential model: what is discussed with the mediator is not shared with the court, subject to mandated-reporting exceptions. Each parent completes an online orientation before the appointment, the session is at no cost, and a no-show or cancellation on less than 48 hours’ notice carries a $100 fee. An agreement can be written up as an order; without one, the judge decides at the hearing.
Emergency orders are a separate track
An ordinary RFO takes weeks. If the situation cannot wait — immediate danger or irreparable harm to a party or the children, imminent loss of or damage to property, or a genuine need to shorten time — rule 5.151 lets you ask for temporary emergency (ex parte) orders that last until the noticed hearing. The request goes on the same FL-300, with proposed Temporary Emergency Orders (FL-305) and a declaration about notice (FL-303). The applicant must make an affirmative factual showing of the emergency.
Notice to the other side must be received by 10:00 a.m. on the court day before the matter is considered, unless the court excuses it for good cause, such as a showing that notice would defeat the purpose of the order. If emergency orders are granted, the RFO and those orders must then be personally served for the hearing.
What happens at the hearing
Bring at least two copies of everything you filed, including the filed proof of service. Family Code section 217 requires the court to receive live, competent testimony that is relevant and within the scope of the hearing unless the parties stipulate otherwise or the court finds good cause on the record. That is why a Witness List (FL-321) should be filed and served beforehand: if it was not, the court may grant a short continuance and make temporary orders in the meantime.
The judge may rule from the bench, take the matter under submission, continue it, or make interim orders and set a longer hearing. Whatever is ordered must be reduced to a written Findings and Order After Hearing (FL-340), prepared by one side, filed, and served. That written order is what gets enforced.
For what the judge is weighing when custody is at issue, see How California Courts Decide Child Custody. For the formula behind any support number an RFO produces, see How Child Support Is Calculated in California.
Have a custody, support, or fee issue that can’t wait for the end of the case? Ask a legal question.