In California family law, a Request for Order, or RFO, is the standard motion you file to ask a judge to make or change orders in your case. It goes on Judicial Council form FL-300, puts your request on the court’s calendar, and gives both sides a hearing to present their positions.1California Courts | Self Help Guide. Request for Order (FL-300) Whether your divorce is active or finished years ago, an RFO is how you bring a family law dispute back in front of a judge.
What You Can Ask For
An RFO covers most contested matters that come up in a California family case. The common ones are child custody and visitation schedules, child support, and spousal support.2California Courts. Ask for or Change a Custody and Visitation (Parenting Time) Order You can also use the same form to ask for attorney fee contributions, temporary control of community property, or orders about debts and bills while the case is pending.
If you need both a custody order and a support order, you can usually combine them on one FL-300. That saves a filing fee and lets the judge handle both at a single hearing.2California Courts. Ask for or Change a Custody and Visitation (Parenting Time) Order An RFO filed during an active case produces temporary orders that remain until the divorce is finalized or a later order replaces them. An RFO filed after a final judgment is the vehicle for modifying existing orders.
Asking for Attorney Fees
Under Family Code Section 2030, a judge must look at whether one party has significantly greater access to funds to pay a lawyer, and whether the other party can afford to pay for both sides. When there’s a real disparity, the court is required to order the higher-earning party to contribute a reasonable amount toward the other side’s legal fees.3California Legislative Information. California Family Code Section 2030 A self-represented party who can’t afford counsel can use the same provision to request funds to hire one.
Modifying an Existing Order
If a final custody or support order is already in place, you can’t simply ask the judge to revisit it. You have to show a substantial change in circumstances since the last order. Typical examples are a major shift in income, a parent’s relocation, a child’s changing needs with age, or a safety concern like substance abuse.
For custody, proving changed circumstances is only half the job. The judge must then decide whether the new arrangement is in the child’s best interest. Family Code Section 3011 lists the factors: the child’s health and safety, each parent’s history of abuse or substance use, the nature of the parent-child relationship, and the child’s ties to school and community.4California Legislative Information. California Family Code Section 3011 A parent with a documented history of domestic violence within the past five years faces a legal presumption against receiving custody, which they can rebut only with strong evidence that the arrangement would still serve the child’s best interest.5California Legislative Information. California Family Code FAM 3044
The Paperwork and the Filing Fee
The main document is the FL-300. It identifies what you’re asking for and includes space for a written declaration under penalty of perjury. The declaration is your one real chance to explain the facts before the hearing. Vague statements like “the other parent is unfit” don’t carry weight. Specific facts with dates do.
When money is involved — support, fees, or anything financial — you also file an Income and Expense Declaration (FL-150) or a Simplified Financial Statement (FL-155).1California Courts | Self Help Guide. Request for Order (FL-300) Attach the exhibits that support your story: pay stubs, tax returns, school schedules, medical records, text messages, whatever is relevant. Forms are available on the California Courts website and at your local court clerk’s office.
The filing fee is $60. If your motion seeks to modify or enforce a custody or visitation order, there’s an added $25 charge, for a total of $85.6Judicial Branch of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule If you can’t afford it, file a Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001). You qualify if you receive certain public benefits, your household income falls below the threshold, or paying the fee would prevent you from covering basic needs.7California Courts | Self Help Guide. Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001)
Serving the Other Party
Once the clerk stamps your paperwork and assigns a hearing date, you have to formally deliver copies to the other party. Service rules are strict. Someone who is at least 18 and not a party to the case must hand the papers to the other side.8Judicial Council of California. Proof of Personal Service (FL-330) Personal service has to happen at least 16 court days before the hearing. If you serve by mail, add five calendar days for California addresses, ten for out-of-state, and twenty for international.9California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 1005
After service, the person who delivered the papers fills out a Proof of Service — FL-330 for personal delivery, FL-335 for mail — and files it with the court.10California Courts | Self Help Guide. Proof of Personal Service (FL-330) Missing this step or the deadline usually means the judge continues the hearing to a later date.
Responding to an RFO
If you’ve been served with an RFO, you have until nine court days before the hearing to file and serve a Responsive Declaration. Court days exclude weekends and court holidays. There’s no filing fee to respond unless this is your first filing in the case.11California Courts | Self Help Guide. Request for Order (Form FL-300) – Respond
Responding is optional but strongly advised. If you don’t file anything, the judge still holds the hearing and still issues orders — just without your input.
Mediation Before the Hearing
If your RFO involves contested custody or visitation, the judge won’t hear it until you’ve been through court-ordered mediation. Family Code Section 3170 requires it whenever the paperwork shows the parents disagree about custody or parenting time.12California Legislative Information. California Family Code FAM 3170 Mediation runs through the court’s Family Court Services at no cost.
The mediator is neutral. They help the parents try to reach a voluntary agreement, but they won’t take sides, give legal advice, or decide anything for you. An agreement gets written up and submitted to the judge for approval as an order. No agreement, and the matter goes to the judge for a contested hearing. Cases involving domestic violence follow a separate protocol.12California Legislative Information. California Family Code FAM 3170
The Hearing
Both parties appear on the scheduled date. The judge has already read the declarations and financial documents, so the hearing isn’t the moment to retell your whole story. It’s the moment to clarify key points and respond to the other side.
Under Family Code Section 217, the judge must receive relevant live testimony at an RFO hearing unless both sides agree to waive it or the court finds good cause to decide on the papers and states those reasons on the record.13California Legislative Information. California Family Code FAM 217 If you plan to call witnesses other than yourself, file a witness list with a brief description of their expected testimony before the hearing. Surprise witnesses tend to produce continuances, not rulings.
After both sides are heard, the judge rules from the bench. That ruling is immediately binding. One party is usually directed to prepare a Findings and Order After Hearing (FL-340), which puts the judge’s spoken orders into a signed written document.14California Courts | Self Help Guide. Findings and Order After Hearing (FL-340) The FL-340 is what you’d hand to an enforcement agency or bring back to court if the other party doesn’t follow it.
When You Can’t Wait: Emergency Orders
Some situations don’t survive the weeks a standard RFO takes. If a child is in immediate danger, property is about to be lost or damaged, or another true emergency exists, you can request temporary emergency orders under California Rule of Court 5.151. The standard is high. You have to show irreparable harm or immediate danger based on facts, not just urgency or inconvenience.15California Courts. Rule 5.151 Request for Temporary Emergency (Ex Parte) Orders
The paperwork is heavier than a standard RFO. You file the FL-300 along with FL-305 (the proposed temporary order), FL-303 (a declaration about notice to the other side), financial declarations if money is at issue, and detailed written declarations describing the emergency based on what you personally witnessed.15California Courts. Rule 5.151 Request for Temporary Emergency (Ex Parte) Orders You also have to disclose any prior ex parte requests on the same issue and whether any orders were issued.
You generally have to give the other party notice before seeking emergency orders, including what you’re asking for and when and where you’ll present the application. If you couldn’t reach them despite genuine effort, your declaration needs to describe exactly what you tried. Judges look closely at these applications because they bypass the normal notice and response timelines. Using the ex parte process without a real emergency can backfire; the court can award the other side attorney fees to undo whatever you obtained.
Enforcing the Order
A family law order only matters if it’s enforceable. When one party ignores an order — refusing to pay support, withholding custody time, violating property restrictions — the other party can file a contempt action. Penalties escalate with each finding, and can include community service, jail time, or probation of up to one year for a first finding, two years for a second, and three for a third or later violation.16California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1218 The court can also order the person in contempt to pay the other side’s reasonable attorney fees for bringing the action. Contempt is one of the few places in family law where someone can actually end up incarcerated, so courts take it seriously and so should anyone with an order to follow.