Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County by population, and it has its own full-service courthouse. We serve summonses, subpoenas and every other legal document anywhere in the city. We also file at the Long Beach courthouse and the other Los Angeles Superior Court locations, at the counter or by eFiling.
Send a Service Request with up to 5 PDFs, or email the papers to Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com. Our office is in Sacramento, roughly 380 miles north in a straight line. You get every update by email, so distance doesn't add a step for you.
The Long Beach courthouse and when cases leave it
The Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse at 275 Magnolia, Long Beach, CA 90802, is where most Long Beach cases land. The court's directory lists civil, criminal, family law, juvenile justice, small claims, traffic and unlawful detainer work there. The building opens at 8:00 a.m., and the Clerk's Office is open 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. on court days.
The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, doesn't keep every Long Beach case in Long Beach, though. Its Filing Court Locator assigns cases by community, ZIP Code and case type. We ran every Long Beach community through it on October 28, 2026. Here is what came back.
| Case type | Where it goes from Long Beach |
|---|---|
| Unlimited civil (over $35,000) | Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia |
| Family law and restraining orders | Deukmejian Courthouse |
| Limited civil, not a collection | Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles |
| Limited civil collection | Norwalk Courthouse, 12720 Norwalk Blvd., Norwalk |
| Probate | Stanley Mosk Courthouse |
| Limited unlawful detainer | Deukmejian for most communities; Compton or Norwalk for a few (below) |
| Small claims | Deukmejian for most communities; Bellflower for a few (below) |
So a $20,000 contract dispute between two Long Beach businesses is filed in downtown Los Angeles, not on Magnolia. A collection case of the same size goes to Norwalk. Only the larger civil cases, family matters and most evictions and small claims stay local.
The north Long Beach exceptions
The locator splits the north end of the city by community name, not just by ZIP Code. These are the results that differ from the rest of Long Beach:
- Bixby Knolls east of Long Beach Boulevard (90807). Small claims go to the Bellflower Courthouse. Limited eviction cases go to the Compton Courthouse, 200 West Compton Blvd.
- The 90810 area. Small claims go to Bellflower. Evictions stay at Deukmejian.
- North Long Beach (90805). Small claims go to Bellflower. Limited eviction cases go to the Norwalk Courthouse.
Here's the catch. The same ZIP Codes searched under the plain name "Long Beach" return the Deukmejian Courthouse for both case types. The locator's own instructions explain why the name matters: a mailing address may name the post office's community rather than the actual neighborhood. If an address sits near one of these lines, check with the clerk before filing. The final criteria are in Local Rules Chapter 2.
The Bellflower Courthouse is at 10025 East Flower Street, Bellflower, CA 90706. It handles criminal and small claims matters, and its parking is in the structure behind the library off Civic Center Drive.
Catalina and the South District
Local Rule 2.2 gives the South District two courthouses: the Deukmejian Courthouse and the Catalina Courthouse, 215 Sumner Avenue in Avalon. For Avalon, ZIP Code 90704, the locator sends small claims, limited unlawful detainer and both kinds of limited civil case to the Catalina building. Unlimited civil, family law and restraining orders come across to Long Beach, and probate goes to Stanley Mosk.
The Catalina Courthouse keeps short hours. Its directory entry says it opens from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on one Friday a month, on dates the court posts in a calendar, and that criminal mail goes to the Criminal Division at 275 Magnolia. Plan an Avalon filing around those dates.
Catalina is an island, so an Avalon address is a remote one, and remote areas are subject to different timelines. Call 855-582-5776 before choosing Rush for it.
Finding the right counter at 275 Magnolia
Inside the Deukmejian Courthouse, the directory sends civil, small claims and unlawful detainer filers to one 1st-floor room, 1401. Family law has its own clerk in Room 1201. Family Court Services and the Family Law Facilitator share Room 3001 on the 3rd floor, and a mediation appointment can be set with the clerk when a Request for Order is filed. A Children's Waiting Room, Room 1053, takes children up to age 13.
Papers to serve in Long Beach?
E-filing and the Long Beach counter
Attorneys in Los Angeles civil cases have to e-file unless the court exempts them, according to the court's civil e-filing FAQ. For a case in a district outside Central, the FAQ says an attorney asks that district's supervising judge for an exemption. Self-represented parties may still file on paper.
We handle both. Send us the documents with the courthouse and case number, and we eFile or take them to the counter when paper is allowed. When a new complaint needs serving, one request covers filing it and sending the issued summons out. Details are on our Los Angeles County court filing page.
How do you serve papers in Long Beach?
The city had 466,742 residents in the 2020 Census, and the Census Bureau estimates 450,469 as of July 1, 2025. The Census counts 14 ZIP Code areas that overlap the city, from 90802 downtown to 90815 on the east side and 90840.
The locator lists several places in town as separate communities: California State University, Long Beach at 90840, the Long Beach Marina at 90803, the municipal airport at 90846 and the World Trade Center at 90831. When papers go to one of those, give us the building and office details the way you would for a tower downtown.
What helps most in a Long Beach request:
- The exact unit. For an apartment or condo building, the unit number and the right entrance save a return trip.
- Business hours for a workplace. For a shop, office or warehouse, tell us the hours and who usually answers the door.
- Timing at home. Early morning and evening are often when people are in.
- Every other address you have, even one across the county line.
The harbor adds a wrinkle for workplace service. TSA says its Transportation Worker Identification Credential is required under the Maritime Transportation Security Act for workers who need access to secure areas of ports. Because a terminal's secure area is closed to the public, a dockworker's job site is a poor place to plan an attempt. A home address, a shift schedule or the gate the person uses each day gives the server a better chance.
The person who serves the papers has to be at least 18 and not a party to the case (CCP § 414.10). That rules out serving your own small claims papers. In a small claims case, the server usually signs form SC-104, and you file it with the court.
Long Beach landlords and eviction notices
Eviction work in Long Beach often starts with a notice served before any case is filed. From January 1, 2027, an unlawful detainer complaint must state the date, time and location the termination notice was served (CCP § 1166(a)(5), operative January 1, 2027). Ask whoever serves the notice to record all three.
Once the case is filed, check where it belongs. Most Long Beach evictions go to the Deukmejian Courthouse, but north Long Beach addresses may go to Compton or Norwalk, as the list above shows. Get it right before the summons is issued, so the papers we serve name the right courthouse.
Businesses and agents for service in Long Beach
To serve a corporation or LLC, start with its record on the Secretary of State's bizfile Online search. California entities must name an agent for service of process (Corporations Code §§ 1502 and 17701.13). Send us that agent's name and address with the exact legal name of the business.
The agent may not be at the Long Beach location where the company operates. If it's a registered agent company somewhere else in California, we serve there. If the agent can't be found, our serving corporations guide covers the other routes.
When nobody answers the door
Substituted service lets a server leave the papers with a competent adult at a home or office and then mail a copy, after reasonable diligence (CCP § 415.20). From January 1, 2027, reasonable diligence will be shown by tries on at least 3 occasions, on 3 different days at 3 different times. See our AB 747 guide for the rest of that law.
If the person has moved, ask about skip tracing, and read our post on how to find a defendant in California. Get each update by email. We make no guarantees for service.
Around Long Beach
Signal Hill is 1.6 miles from the center of Long Beach, and the locator sends its cases to the same courthouses on the same pattern. Lakewood, Carson and Hawaiian Gardens are also in Los Angeles County. Seal Beach and Los Alamitos are in Orange County.
The city of Los Angeles files its harbor-area cases here too: the locator sends San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City to the Deukmejian Courthouse. For the rest of the county, see the Los Angeles County page and Torrance to the west.