Bakersfield is the seat of Kern County and its largest city by far. Valpro Attorney Services serves legal papers there on individuals and businesses: summonses and complaints, subpoenas, family law papers, unlawful detainer summonses, notices and orders. We also file Bakersfield cases with Kern County Superior Court, either at the counter or by eFiling, and pull court records.
Bakersfield requests are handled from our office at 1520 W El Camino Ave #125, Sacramento, CA 95833, about 263 miles straight-line to the north. Send a Service Request online with up to 5 PDFs, or email the papers to Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com. To talk through a deadline, call 855-582-5776, Mon–Fri 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Two buildings on Truxtun Avenue, two different jobs
Downtown Bakersfield has two courthouses a block apart on Truxtun Avenue, and the one you need depends on the case. The court's office directory sorts them like this:
| Building | Address | Offices listed by the court |
|---|---|---|
| Metro Justice Building | 1215 Truxtun Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93301 | Civil limited, civil unlimited, small claims, unlawful detainer, family law, Family Law Facilitator, mediation and investigations, self-help, small claims advisor |
| Metropolitan Division | 1415 Truxtun Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93301 | Appeals, criminal felony, criminal misdemeanor, exhibits, court reporters, jury services, administration |
The court's civil and small claims page names the Metro Justice Building as its Bakersfield civil location. Older directories, including the Judicial Council's Find My Court data, place civil and small claims at 1415 Truxtun, so check the address on anything you were handed. The court describes the Metropolitan Division as the tall building at Truxtun and Chester Avenue, and the Justice Building as the one at Truxtun and L Street, entered from the south side. Both buildings screen visitors with metal detectors.
Two other Bakersfield sites come up in civil work. The Metropolitan Traffic Division at 3131 Arrow St hosts small claims Night Court. Jury Services is at 1661 L St.
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov locations, courthouse maps and civil and small claims pages, checked October 2026.
Friday at noon is the real deadline
Both Truxtun Avenue buildings list the same public hours:
- Monday through Thursday: 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
- Friday: 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
That half-day Friday applies to the Delano, Lamont, Mojave and Ridgecrest branches too. When a Kern filing is due at the end of the week, get it to us early, or plan on eFiling, which counts any document received by 11:59:59 p.m. on a court day as received that day (Code of Civil Procedure § 1010.6, as quoted on the court's e-filing page).
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov locations and e-filing pages, checked October 2026.
E-filing rules at Kern County Superior Court
The court's e-filing page says mandatory e-filing will be required for represented parties in limited and unlimited civil cases, family law, probate, CEQA matters, civil writ petitions and unlawful detainers. Self-represented litigants can still file on paper.
The court also lists technical specs, and a rejected filing usually comes down to one of these:
- PDF producer. Use a standard producer such as Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word. The court names iTextSharp, NitroPro and ActivePDF as producers that cause errors.
- Page and resolution. 8.5 x 11 inch pages, scanned above 300 dpi, no embedded fonts.
- Size. 50 MB per envelope.
- Exhibits. Bookmarked under California Rules of Court, rule 3.1110.
Some filings can't go in electronically yet, appeals among them. For enforcement, the court accepts writs of execution, writs of possession and abstracts of judgment electronically and returns issued copies the same way, but says they must be printed in color before they go to the levying agency. That's useful to know for a Bakersfield eviction after judgment. See Kern County court filing for how we take filings there.
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov e-filing page, checked October 2026.
Small claims in Bakersfield
Kern's civil and small claims page puts the limit at $12,500 for a claim brought by a natural person, with a lower cap for businesses and other organizations. Only two claims over $2,500 may be filed per calendar year. You can file at the courthouse where the claim will be heard, by mail, or through an e-filing service provider.
Two Bakersfield extras are worth knowing:
- Night Court. Ask the small claims clerk for it when you file. It meets at 3131 Arrow St at 5:15 p.m.
- Small Claims Advisor. Free help from the court, first come, first served, at (661) 610-6518.
The defendant still has to be served before the hearing. If your hearing date is close, choose Rush and call us so we can look at the calendar together.
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov civil and small claims page, checked October 2026.
Papers to serve in Bakersfield?
Copies from a Kern County case file
Kern Superior Court doesn't post case files online. Its court records page says the register of actions, the running list of what was filed and when, can be read through the court's civil case information search. To see the documents themselves, you view the file at the courthouse or ask for copies by mail.
Details from that page worth having before you start:
- No case number? Search at the courthouse yourself at no charge, or pay the clerk a research fee to do it. The court doesn't look up cases by phone.
- Fees. Copies are 50 cents a page. A certified copy of an order is $40 plus 50 cents a page.
- By mail. Send the plaintiff and defendant names, a check payable to Kern County Superior Court and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Depending on workload, allow at least 10 working days.
If waiting on the mail doesn't fit your schedule, put the case number on a request for document retrieval.
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov court records page, checked October 2026.
Appearing remotely in a Kern hearing
The court's remote hearing guidance asks you to pick your courtroom on its Remote Hearings page and join 30 minutes before the start time, so the clerk can check you in. Hearings may be called out of order. Civil Division L takes exhibits electronically three court days before each hearing when the court has ordered it in the case, marked with the case number and no longer than 15 pages. Recording a remote hearing is prohibited without a court order.
Source: kern.courts.ca.gov remote hearing information, checked October 2026.
Bakersfield ZIP Code areas we cover
The city had 403,455 people in the 2020 Census, and the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 estimate is 422,165. These ZIP Code areas overlap Bakersfield:
93301, 93304, 93305, 93306, 93307, 93309, 93311, 93312, 93313, 93314.
Some addresses with a Bakersfield mailing address are in unincorporated Kern County, outside the city limits. For service that changes little: we go to the address you give us. Put the cross street, any gate code and the unit number in the Letter of Instruction. ZIP Code areas are Census approximations of postal ZIP Codes.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2020 Census, Vintage 2025 estimates and the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file.
When the address isn't in Bakersfield
Kern County spreads well past the valley floor. Addresses in Tehachapi, Frazier Park, Lake Isabella or the eastern desert sit far from Bakersfield, and remote areas are subject to different timelines. If the person you need to serve lives up the Kern River canyon or out past Mojave, say so on the request and call 855-582-5776 before you choose Rush.
The court also runs branch courthouses outside Bakersfield, so a case from a farm town may belong at a branch rather than on Truxtun Avenue. Its civil page lists Delano, Lamont, Mojave, Ridgecrest and Shafter as civil locations alongside the Metro Justice Building. The Kern County page has the full branch list.
Serving companies with Bakersfield offices
A company with a Bakersfield store, yard or office is often a corporation or LLC headquartered somewhere else. California entities must name an agent for service of process with the Secretary of State, and that agent is usually the party to serve, even when the business has a local yard or office. Search bizfile Online, send us the agent details, and we'll serve the agent wherever it is. Our guide to serving a corporation in California covers what happens when no agent can be found.
Nearby places we serve
Straight-line distances from Bakersfield:
Farther north in the valley are Delano and Wasco. Up in the mountains is Tehachapi.
More we handle for Bakersfield cases
- Court Filings: paper or eFiling at Kern County Superior Court.
- Document retrieval: copies of filed documents and case files.
- Skip tracing: a new address when the one you have stops working.
- How to serve a subpoena in California: witness and records subpoenas, step by step.
We make no guarantees for service.