Fairfield is the county seat of Solano County, about 38 miles straight-line from our office at 1520 W El Camino Ave #125, Sacramento, CA 95833. It had 119,881 residents in the 2020 Census and an estimated 122,489 on July 1, 2025. Valpro Attorney Services serves summonses, subpoenas and every other legal document at Fairfield homes, apartments and workplaces.
The courts are here, so the work is knowing which downtown building takes which paper.
Solano's court buildings in downtown Fairfield
The Superior Court's locations page lists four buildings: three in downtown Fairfield and a branch court in Vallejo. For a Fairfield civil, family or probate filing, you're choosing between two downtown streets.
Texas Street. The Old Solano Courthouse at 580 Texas Street serves civil, small claims and unlawful detainer cases. The civil filing clerk takes walk-ins from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and answers (707) 207-7330 from 8 to noon and 1 to 3. The small claims clerk is at (707) 207-7335. The court also offers civil and small claims clerk appointments.
Union Avenue. The Hall of Justice at 600 Union Avenue is the address on the Family Law division page (clerk (707) 207-7340) and the Probate division page (clerk (707) 207-7341). Small claims hearings are held in Courtroom 303 there, on a calendar that starts at 1 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. The Solano County Law Library is on the third floor. The Law and Justice Center at 530 Union Avenue completes the downtown group.
Every building has metal-detector screening at the door. If you come by train, the court notes that the Suisun/Fairfield Amtrak station at 177 Main Street, Suisun City, is less than a ten-minute walk from all three. Source: solano.courts.ca.gov location and division pages, checked October 2026.
What the civil clerk at 580 Texas Street expects
The civil division's FAQ answers the questions that cost a filer a second trip:
- Copies. Bring the original and two copies.
- Typing. The court prefers typed forms.
- Courtesy copies. Not required for motion papers.
- Fax. No direct fax filings. A fax filing agency is the only fax route.
- Ex parte. Heard only by appointment set through the assigned judge's assistant, under California Rules of Court 3.1200 to 3.1207.
- Tentative rulings. Available at (707) 207-7331 after 2 p.m. the day before the hearing.
Each civil case goes to one judge for all purposes from the day the complaint is filed, so you'll see the same judge at every hearing unless the case is reassigned. Source: solano.courts.ca.gov civil page, checked October 2026.
Paper that still goes to the counter under Local Rule 20
Solano made e-filing mandatory for attorneys in civil, family and probate cases on January 2, 2025, under Local Rule 20. People without a lawyer can still file by mail or in person. The rule has a list of exceptions, though, and several are common in Fairfield practice. The court's e-filing FAQ names these among the documents exempt from e-filing:
- civil harassment, elder abuse and workplace violence restraining orders
- the Notice of Deposit of Jury Fees
- a family law Request for Entry of Default, and family law judgments with the notice of entry
- original wills and codicils
- exhibits lodged for a hearing or trial, subpoenaed documents and sealed records
- any paper document the court orders filed in the clerk's office
Those are counter jobs, and our Solano County court filing service handles them at Texas Street or Union Avenue. Rule 20 also leaves personal service in place where a statute or rule requires it. E-filing a complaint doesn't serve the defendant. Source: solano.courts.ca.gov e-filing page, checked October 2026.
Fairfield evictions, from filing to the Sheriff
Unlawful detainer cases from Fairfield rentals are filed at the Old Solano Courthouse. Three points from the court's pages shape how one runs:
The file is private at first. The civil FAQ says unlawful detainer cases are confidential for 60 days. Don't expect to confirm a new filing online. Work from your endorsed copies and case number.
Free advice is a phone call away. The court's Unlawful Detainer Advisory Hotline, (707) 207-7330, runs Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Advisors from the Better Business Bureau Serving Central California and Inland Empire Counties answer for landlords and tenants. Have the case number or proof the property is in Solano County ready.
Jury fees run on a shorter clock. In an eviction, a party who wants a jury must pay the $150 nonrefundable fee at least five days before the trial date.
Service of the summons and complaint comes between filing and trial. Any adult who isn't a party can serve, so a Fairfield landlord can't hand the papers to their own tenant. Send us the endorsed papers with the unit number and any gate code. At the end of the case, the Solano County Sheriff's Civil Bureau, which lists evictions among its services, enforces the writ. The court's FAQ gives the Sheriff's civil office hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, (707) 784-7020.
Papers to serve in Fairfield?
Serving a Fairfield small claims defendant on time
The court's small claims filing instructions tie every service method to a deadline counted back from the hearing:
- Personal service or certified mail: at least 15 days before the hearing when the defendant is in Solano County, 20 days when outside it.
- Substituted service: add 10 days, so 25 days in county or 30 days out of county. The second copy goes by regular mail, not certified.
- Proof of service: back to the clerk at least five days before the hearing.
Certified mail is only done by the clerk, for a fee, and it fails if the defendant doesn't sign the receipt. When a hearing is three or four weeks out and the defendant is the kind of person who won't sign for mail, personal service is the safer plan.
The same instructions warn that a defendant named without their exact legal name may leave you with a judgment you can't enforce. For a corporation or LLC, check the California Secretary of State for the exact name and the agent for service of process. Our serving corporations page explains what to do with that agent's address. Free help is available from the court's Small Claims Legal Advisor by phone, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at (707) 863-1643. Source: solano.courts.ca.gov, checked October 2026.
Fairfield ZIP Code areas, Suisun City and Travis
Three Census ZIP Code areas overlap Fairfield, and none stops neatly at the city limit. The Census Bureau's 2020 relationship file shows:
- 94533 takes in downtown Fairfield, where the courthouses are, and also touches Suisun City and Vacaville.
- 94534 takes in the Green Valley Census place, and about two-thirds of its land lies outside any city or Census place.
- 94535 is the ZIP Code area for Travis Air Force Base. Roughly four-fifths of its land falls inside Fairfield's city limits.
Suisun City adjoins Fairfield, about 1.5 miles from its center. It's a separate city with the same county court. Travis Air Force Base is about 5.4 miles away. Entry is controlled, so for anyone tied to the base, give us an off-base address if you have one.
For hill or rural addresses in 94534, or anywhere a GPS pin works better than a street number, add directions to the Letter of Instruction. ZIP Code areas are Census approximations of postal ZIP Codes.
Putting a Fairfield request together
Upload up to 5 PDFs on the Service Request, then add who to serve, every address with a unit number, the hours the person is usually there, and your deadline. Choose Rush or Standard. You'll get a confirmation email, and every update comes in that thread. If a Fairfield address turns out to be stale, skip tracing looks for a current one. We make no guarantees for service.
The rules on who may serve are in our guide to who can serve papers in California, and the 2027 changes to substituted service are in the AB 747 guide.
Places near Fairfield we serve
Straight-line from central Fairfield:
- Suisun City, 1.5 miles
- Travis Air Force Base, 5.4 miles
- Vacaville, 7.5 miles, and Elmira, 9.2 miles
- Birds Landing, 12.5 miles, a rural community where remote areas are subject to different timelines
- American Canyon, 13.6 miles, across the line in Napa County
The full list is on the Solano County page.
More from Valpro Attorney Services for Fairfield
- Court Filings at the Fairfield courthouses and across California.
- Document retrieval of Solano case files.
- Secretary of State filings in Sacramento.
- Proof of service forms, explained.