Corte Madera is an incorporated town of 10,222 people at the 2020 Census, with a Census Bureau estimate of 9,929 for July 1, 2025. It has about 3.2 square miles of land and about 1.2 square miles of water, so water makes up more than a quarter of its total area. It is governed by its own Town Council, with Town Hall at 300 Tamalpais Drive.
For papers headed here, two things stand out. The ZIP Code and the town line up almost exactly, so an address that reads Corte Madera usually is Corte Madera. And the town is close to the courthouse, which makes a same-day serve-and-file job practical when the timing works. This page covers four kinds of papers in detail: restraining orders, subpoenas, probate notices and ordinary civil summonses. We coordinate the work from Sacramento, about 72 miles away in a straight line.
One town, one ZIP Code
The Census Bureau's 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file shows ZIP Code area 94925 with about 3.2 square miles of land. About 98% of that land is the Town of Corte Madera. The remaining 2% or so belongs to the City of Larkspur. Read from the town's side, about 99.8% of Corte Madera's land lies in 94925.
GNIS, the federal place-name database, lists Chapman and Meadowsweet as populated places, and both fall inside town limits by the Census Geocoder. If the papers use one of those names, it's still a Corte Madera address.
Neighbors that aren't Corte Madera
The towns and communities around Corte Madera are close enough that addresses get mixed up:
- Larkspur is about 1.4 miles from Corte Madera's Census center point and shares a sliver of 94925.
- San Quentin, also about 1.4 miles away, is an unincorporated GNIS populated place in ZIP 94964. The Census doesn't publish a population for it.
- Greenbrae is about 1.5 miles away. Its GNIS point falls inside the Kentfield Census-designated place, in ZIP 94904, not in any city.
- Paradise Cay, a GNIS populated place on the bay side about 2.2 miles from the town's center point, isn't in 94925 at all. It falls in 94920, the ZIP Code area that also covers Tiburon, and outside any city.
For an individual, the municipality doesn't change how service works. For a claim against a local government, it decides which one is the defendant. A dispute about a road or a permit just across the line could belong to Larkspur, Tiburon or the County of Marin rather than the town.
The shortest trip to the Hall of Justice
Marin Superior Court's only filing location is the Hall of Justice at the Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael. From Corte Madera's center point it's about 4.7 miles north in a straight line. The Sheriff's civil office at 1600 Los Gamos Drive is about 6.4 miles away.
The Clerk's Office is in Room 113, open 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. The Legal Self-Help Center is in Room C-44 and keeps its own hours, 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on weekdays. Represented parties e-file under Local Rule 1.51(B)(1). A short distance helps when a filing and a service have to happen on the same day, but only if the papers reach Room 113 before the cutoff for the kind of filing involved. Our Marin County court filing service handles both counter and electronic filings.
Restraining orders for Corte Madera residents
Restraining orders run on the tightest clock of any papers we serve, and Marin has specific rules for them.
Domestic violence. The court's family page says self-represented parties can submit temporary restraining order papers at Room 113 before 10:00 a.m., through ePortal, or by eFiling before 10:00 a.m. on a weekday. Represented parties use eFiling. Papers filed in person are picked up at the clerk's office at 3:00 p.m. A request turned in after the 10:00 a.m. deadline is reviewed the next business day. Temporary orders take effect immediately but aren't enforceable until they're served on the restrained person.
Civil harassment and workplace violence. These petitions are filed at the Civil Clerk's Office in Room 113.
Who serves. An adult who isn't a party must serve the papers. The Marin County Sheriff will attempt service if it has a Marin County address, and it adds the order to the statewide CLETS system so other law enforcement agencies know about it. The Sheriff waives its fee for domestic violence and elder or dependent adult abuse orders. For other restraining orders it charges $50 unless the court waived the filing fee. If a private server reaches the restrained person first, the Sheriff asks to be told and to get a copy of the proof of service, and the original proof still has to be filed with the court.
When you send restraining order papers to us, include the hearing date, a recent photo, a vehicle description and the places the person is likely to be. A restrained person who lives in Corte Madera may work elsewhere in Marin or across the bridge in San Francisco.
Papers to serve in Corte Madera?
Subpoenas and witness fees
A subpoena orders a witness to appear, and a subpoena duces tecum orders a witness to bring records. Marin's small claims procedures page spells out how they work in that court:
- Issuing. The court issues small claims subpoenas without a fee.
- Delivery. The copy must be delivered to the witness personally. Anyone may deliver it, including the party who asked for it.
- Fees. A witness may ask for $35 a day and 20 cents a mile each way. Peace officers are entitled to more. If the witness asks and isn't paid, they don't have to come.
- Records. A subpoena duces tecum must be served with the declaration describing the documents sought.
- Afterward. The completed proof of service and the original subpoena go to the judicial officer at the hearing, not to the Clerk's Office.
Outside small claims, records produced under a subpoena can't be e-filed in Marin. Local Rule 1.51(B)(2) puts subpoenaed documents on its list of papers that must be filed on paper. Our post on how to serve a subpoena in California covers the general rules. General information, not legal advice.
Civil summonses at a Corte Madera home
Most civil cases start with a summons and complaint, and the server's first goal is to hand them to the defendant personally. When that can't be done with reasonable diligence, CCP § 415.20(b) allows substituted service: the papers are left at the person's home or usual place of business with a competent adult, who is told what they are, and a copy is then mailed by first-class mail to the same address. Service is complete on the 10th day after the mailing. The statute rules out a U.S. Postal Service post office box as the place to leave papers.
At a condo or apartment, that adult has to be a competent member of the household, not a neighbor across the hall. For a business at a commercial address, it's the person apparently in charge of the office. The server's proof of service names or describes the person who took the papers and gives the date of mailing, which is what the court checks if the defendant later says they weren't served. General information, not legal advice.
Estates, wills and probate notices
When a Corte Madera resident dies, the court's probate page says the will must be lodged within 30 calendar days of the date of death. Wills, codicils and probate bonds are on the eFiling page's list of papers that can't be e-filed. Probate filings received at the counter after 3:30 p.m. are stamped that day and processed the next court business day. Probate ex parte papers are due by 10:00 a.m. two court days before the hearing, a day earlier than civil and family matters.
A probate case can require notice to several people at different addresses. Send each person's name and address, the hearing date and the kind of notice, and we'll serve each one and return a separate proof.
Sheriff service compared with a private server
The Marin County Sheriff's Documentary Services / Civil Division serves process too. It asks for two copies of the papers for each person to be served, a completed SER-001 with at least one Marin County address, and payment up front by cash or check. Most service costs $50 under its fee schedule effective January 1, 2024. For small claims and restraining orders filed in Marin, the Sheriff files the proof of service with the court itself. For other papers, it returns the original proof to you. When it can't serve, it sends an Attempt Service Return listing the dates and times it tried.
The Sheriff also says it doesn't research addresses, and it needs at least one Marin County address to serve. A private server can follow a person who has moved, and skip tracing can look for a new address first. Our guide on who can serve papers in California explains the options.
From January 1, 2027, AB 747 amends CCP § 415.20(b)(2) so that three good-faith attempts at personal delivery, on 3 different days and at 3 different times, show reasonable diligence before substituted service. The same law makes the county clerk's register of process servers public. See our AB 747 guide. We make no guarantees for service.
What to send for a Corte Madera address
Attach up to 5 PDFs to the Service Request and include:
- The party's name exactly as the papers show it, and whether it's a person, a business or a public body.
- The full address, with a unit number for condos and apartments, or a suite number at a commercial address.
- The deadline: hearing date, answer date or the service window printed on a restraining order.
- A description of the person and their likely hours at home or at work.
For a company, look up its agent on the Secretary of State's site, and see our serving corporations page. You'll get the signed proof described in our proof of service guide, and you can get every update by email. Questions go to 855-582-5776 or Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Around Corte Madera
Larkspur and San Quentin are each about 1.4 miles from Corte Madera's center, Greenbrae about 1.5, Mill Valley 2.5 and San Rafael 3.4. See every community we serve on our Marin County page.