Filing a Petition With the California Secretary of State

• 1). Download the brochure titled "Terminating A California Registered Domestic Partnership" from the California Secretary of State Website (See Resources).
  
  
• 2). Read through the entire brochure. Pay particular attention to the section titled "Requirements for Filing a Notice of Termination with the California Secretary of State." Make sure you meet the requirements of all the 13 listed criteria. If you don't meet all of these criteria, you won't be able to file your petition with the California Secretary of State. Instead, you'll need to follow the instructions to file a petition with the California Superior Court.
  
  
• 3). Fill out the blue highlighted portions of the form titled "Notice of Termination of Domestic Partnership," also called form NP/SF DP-2. The form is located on the last page of the brochure you downloaded. You can type your answers directly into these fields.
  
  
• 4). Print a copy of the form.
  
  
• 5). Take the form to a notary public. Have both partners sign the form, and then have the notary fill out the notarization portion of the document, sign and attach the seal. If you don't know how to find a notary, you can run a search on 123Notary to find one close to your location (See Resources). You can search by city, state, county or zip code.
  
  
• 6). Mail the completed form to the California Secretary of State address that's listed at the top of the document. The domestic partnership will automatically dissolve six months from the date filing as long as neither partner revokes the termination.
  
  

Filing a Petition With the California Superior Court

• 1). Download form FL-103 from the State of California Government website (See Resources). This form is the petition for the dissolution of the partnership.
  
  
• 2). Print the form.
  
  
• 3). Fill out the form in its entirety. When you get to the section that starts with "Petition For," check the box next to "Dissolution of Domestic Partnership."
  
  
• 4). Sign and date the bottom of the form.
  
  
• 5). Download form FL-110 from the State of California Government website (See Resources). This form is a summons to give notice to the other partner that a petition has been filed.
  
  
• 6). Fill out the summons form in its entirety.
  
  
• 7). File the completed petition with the California Superior Court. You can search for the Superior Court in your area on the California Government "Find a Court" web page (See Resources).
  
  
• 8). Serve your partner with the summons and petition. You can serve the papers yourself, have a friend or family member serve the papers, or you can hire a professional process server.
  
  
• 9). Wait for the court to contact you with a hearing date. When the hearing date arrives, make sure you arrive in a timely fashion. During the hearing, the court will assess the distribution of assets, make child custody arrangements, determine spousal support, and clear up any other matters related to the dissolution of the domestic partnership. The length of the hearing will vary depending on how complicated your dissolution is in the eyes of the court. Some dissolution's may take many months and several hearings.