Cal. Rules of Court, rule 5.68 · Article 4. Manner of Service
Manner of service of summons and petition; response; jurisdiction
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Service of summons and petition
The petitioner must arrange to serve the other party with a summons, petition, and other papers as required by one of the following methods:
(1) Personal service (Code Civ. Proc., § 415.10);
(2) Substituted service (Code Civ. Proc., § 415.20);
(3) Service by mail with a notice and acknowledgment of receipt (Code Civ. Proc., § 415.30);
(4) Service on person outside of the state (Code Civ. Proc., § 415.40);
(5) Service on a person residing outside of the United States, which must be done in compliance with service rules of the following:
(A) Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters; or
(B) Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory and the Additional Protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory.
(6) Service by posting or publication (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 415.50 and 413.30).
(b) Service of response to petition
A response to a family law petition may be served by the methods described in (a) but may also be served by mail without notice and acknowledgment of receipt.
(c) Continuing jurisdiction
The court has jurisdiction over the parties and control of all subsequent proceedings from the time of service of the summons and a copy of the petition. A general appearance of the respondent is equivalent to personal service within this state of the summons and a copy of the petition upon him or her.
(d) Service of pleading revoking joint petition
If either party revokes a joint petition under Family Code section 2342.5(b), the revoking party must serve a copy of the following documents on the other party in the same manner as service of a notice or motion (Code Civ. Proc, § 1010 et seq.):
(1) A completed and filed pleading revoking the joint petition (amended Petition—Marriage/Domestic Partnership (form FL-100) or amended Response—Marriage/Domestic Partnership (form FL-120)); and
(2) A completed and filed Notice of Revocation of Joint Petition (form FL-720).
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
(Subd (a) amended effective January 1, 2014.)
(Subd (d) adopted effective January 1, 2026.)
Rule 5.68 amended effective January 1, 2026; adopted effective January 1, 2013; previously amended effective January 1, 2014.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/five/rule5_68
- Text hash
- sha256 5a7044d4cac3a5f94eb3aa96a3df44248903d6d80d3832e94d807ac9edacf6b2
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
- The Judicial Council's PDF of Title 5 (last modified July 20, 2026) prints this rule differently: where this page prints “upon him or her” the PDF prints “on the respondent. (Subd (c) amended effective January 1, 2026”. The rule page's text is shown.
This rule cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Code of Civil Procedure
- Code Civ. Proc., § 413.30Printed as Code Civ. Proc., §§ 415.50 and 413.30
- Code Civ. Proc., § 415.10Printed as Code Civ. Proc., § 415.10
- Code Civ. Proc., § 415.20Printed as Code Civ. Proc., § 415.20
- Code Civ. Proc., § 415.30Printed as Code Civ. Proc., § 415.30
- Code Civ. Proc., § 415.40Printed as Code Civ. Proc., § 415.40
- Code Civ. Proc., § 415.50Printed as Code Civ. Proc., §§ 415.50 and 413.30
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.