Holidays for San Diego Superior Court: Paternity, Divorce, Legal Separation and Nullity in the San Diego Court Houses: Modified by COVID 19 for Divorce, Paternity & Legal Separation Cases

In San Diego, when someone wants to marry their loved one, there are a lot of legal requirements that they must keep in their minds all the time. Marriage licenses, certificate, and registration in a court and legalizing the marriage are a few of such legalities. But family law courts aren’t available 24/7 to attend to these procedures. Like every other field, Law Courts also have holidays. In San Diego, when someone intends to marry, one thing that they must remember at all the times during their marriage process is the holidays for San Diego Superior Court as the Clerk of the Court will be closed. The Law Office of Doppelt and Forney, APLC is also closed for most of these legal holidays as are many law offices. Other than legal holidays and weekends, during business hours, please feel free to contact their law firm to set up a free in-person or virtual consultation up to 30 minutes by calling 800-769-4748.

At this time, the Court is temporarily closed due to COVID 19 and only limited hearings. These limited hearings, for family law, include temporary restraining orders and ex parte hearings for custody emergencies as well as limited other hearings. The Court Clerk’s Office is also not open for filing at this time. As of the date of preparation of this article, the Court is due to re open for hearings at end of May, 2020 but may not fully reopen then. As with the holidays, which are the subject of this article, make sure to check to see if the Court is open before you go. It is reported the Family Law Clerk’s Office is receiving over 1,000 pieces of mail/correspondence and is holding all pending re opening.

All the matters related to the cases of paternity, divorce, legal separation, and nullity are heard, argued, and decided in the San Diego family courthouses unless an agreement is reached between the parties . In San Diego, the Superior Court closes on specified holidays and doesn’t hear any case or matter on those designated holidays. Some holidays are quite obvious and popular, and most of the people know about them. However, the Superior Court holidays can sometimes surprise too. It sometimes happens that people visit the San Diego Superior Court just to find it closed. These unexpected holidays can affect various matters like deadlines of filings for pleadings. So, to avoid such unforeseen circumstance, it is important to comply with the local rules of San Diego Superior Court, which include such deadlines.

For instance, the matters of responsive pleadings to order to show cause, pre Judgement orders hearings for child visitation, child custody, spousal support, child support, temporary exclusive use of a residence or vehicle, attorney fees and costs, and others are included in such deadlines. If someone fails to comply with these local rules, then the San Diego Superior Court’s Judge ruling on their case may not be what they requested, even if their case has merits. Especially, if you’re filing your case yourself and representing yourself, then it can be pretty disappointing for you to take a day off from your work and visit the Superior Court only to find it closed.

These holidays are consistent and practised across all the courthouses in San Diego. All of these holidays are followed in every major Superior courthouse in San Diego, such as the main family law courthouse situated in downtown San Diego, the Vista courthouse located in the North County, the Chula Vista courthouse which is situated in the South Bay and the El Cajon courthouse which is situated in the east county. If we talk about all of these courthouses, in each of these courthouses, some departments are responsible for dealing with the family law matters. They hear cases pertaining to the matters of divorce, legal separation, paternity, and nullity.

It is always a safe practice to check with a court to know about its open or closed status before visiting it. Before visiting a courthouse in San Diego, you can always check whether it is opened or closed on the official website of the San Diego Superior court.  Family law cases can be very technical and missing a filing deadline can have negative impact on your case. An experienced family law attorney can guide you through the process of divorce, paternity or legal separation and make sure all is timely filed and served. Many attorneys use an attorney service for filing and/or service which assists as the filing procedure can be very time consuming at the Clerk’s Office given the high volume. Doppelt and Forney, APLC can assist you even during COVID 19 with your family law case.