Marin is a short county to file in and a long one to drive. Valpro Attorney Services handles service of process at any Marin address and files with Marin Superior Court, coordinated from our Sacramento office through our statewide network of experienced process servers and court runners. One Service Request covers both, as one request.
Upload up to 5 PDFs with the request, or email them to Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com. Phone 855-582-5776, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
One building for every filing
Marin Superior Court has a single filing location: the Hall of Justice in the Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael. Civil, unlawful detainer, family law, probate and small claims papers all go to the Clerk's Office in Room 113. The court's other listed location, Marin County Juvenile Hall at 16 Jeannette Prandi Way, is a hearing site for juvenile matters, not a filing counter.
The clerk's windows are open 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, closed over the lunch hour. Phones are answered 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. A new case should reach the counter before 3:30 p.m., with the original and at least two copies. Self-represented filers can also use eFiling, the mail or the drop box. Source: the court's civil, small claims and location pages, checked October 2026.
Because there's only one counter, the venue question that dominates bigger counties doesn't come up here. What matters is timing: a runner who arrives at 12:15 p.m. or 3:45 p.m. with a new complaint loses the day.
E-filing rules for Marin attorneys
Local Rule 1.51(B)(1) requires parties represented by attorneys to file and serve electronically in all civil cases, including family, juvenile dependency and probate, and in Appellate Division cases. Attorneys under the rule can't object to electronic service. Self-represented parties are encouraged to e-file but aren't required to. The court's eFiling page lists civil, small claims, family law, probate and adoption as e-fileable, and says criminal, traffic and juvenile filings aren't offered.
Our Court Filings service covers both routes: eFiling through an approved provider, and a counter filing in Room 113 for documents that have to go on paper. The Marin County court filing page has the county detail. Send the case number and any hearing date with the documents. General information, not legal advice.
East Marin along US 101
Marin County counted 262,321 residents in the 2020 Census, and the Census Bureau estimates 253,694 for July 1, 2025. The county seat, San Rafael, had 61,271, and Novato to the north had 53,225. Novato is the closest Marin city to our office, about 68 miles straight-line.
South of San Rafael, US 101 runs past Corte Madera, Larkspur and Mill Valley toward the Golden Gate Bridge, with Sausalito, Tiburon and Belvedere on the bay side. Corte Madera, Tiburon, Ross, San Anselmo and Fairfax are incorporated towns. Several communities have no city government at all: Santa Venetia, just north of the Civic Center, had 4,289 residents in 2020 and is unincorporated, as are Kentfield and Greenbrae. The address still works for service exactly as the person writes it.
Where a house number is hard to see from the street, a description of the house, a parking note or a side-entrance detail saves the server a second trip.
Papers to serve in Marin County?
West Marin and Tomales Bay
West Marin is a different kind of job. Point Reyes Station counted 895 residents in 2020, Inverness 1,379 and Tomales 187. Marshall, on the east shore of Tomales Bay, is small enough that the Census doesn't count it separately. Bolinas, Stinson Beach and Dillon Beach are on the coast, and Inverness is about 82 miles straight-line from our office.
Highway 1 and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard are the main roads out there, and some addresses are on ranch roads or private drives. Remote areas are subject to different timelines. If you know a gate code, a landmark, a mailbox number that differs from the house, or when the person is usually home, put it in the Letter of Instruction.
Evictions in Marin
Marin unlawful detainers are filed in Room 113 like every other civil case, and attorneys file them electronically. Once the summons and complaint are personally served, the tenant has 10 court days to file a response, so the date and manner of service on the proof matter when the landlord asks for a default. After judgment, the Sheriff's Civil Division handles the lockout; its fee schedule lists $180 for an eviction.
We serve the summons and complaint, any notices that go with them, and the papers in a later motion. See our proof of service guide for what the returned proof shows.
The Sheriff's Civil Division
The Marin County Sheriff's Documentary Services / Civil Division, 1600 Los Gamos Drive, Suite 200, San Rafael, also serves process. It asks for two copies of the documents per defendant, a completed SER-001 (or SER-001A or WG-001 for wage garnishments), and at least one Marin County address. Any adult who isn't a party to the case may serve a summons, so a private server is the other route. See who can serve papers in California.
Sending a Marin County Service Request
- Every address you have, including a workplace in San Rafael, San Francisco or elsewhere.
- Unit and gate details for apartments, condos and gated drives.
- The best hours to find the person at home.
- A business's legal name, checked on bizfile Online. Our serving corporations guide covers the agent for service of process.
Start a Service Request and get each update by email. If an address is stale, skip tracing can look for a current one before the next attempt.
Changes coming January 1, 2027
Under AB 747, three good-faith attempts on 3 different days at 3 different times show reasonable diligence before substituted service (Code of Civil Procedure § 415.20(b)(2)). The Marin County Clerk's register of process servers also becomes public (Business and Professions Code § 22355). Our AB 747 guide covers the rest. General information, not legal advice.
Beyond the county line
Marin work often continues into Sonoma County to the north, San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge and Contra Costa County across the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge.