San Joaquin County borders Sacramento County, so it's one of the closest to our office. The 2020 Census counted 779,233 residents. Stockton holds 320,804 of them, and Tracy (93,000), Manteca (83,498) and Lodi (66,348) are the next largest. Lathrop, Ripon and Escalon fill out the southern part of the county.
We handle service of process, court filings and document retrieval here. Send a Service Request with the documents attached, or email PDFs to Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com.
Three court towns and a juvenile campus
San Joaquin Superior Court works out of four sites, and several departments have moved in recent years. Check the department page before a counter trip.
Stockton Courthouse, 180 E. Weber Avenue. The Civil Department and the Unlawful Detainer / Landlord-Tenant Department both list the 2nd floor as their physical address. Family Law is on the 4th floor. Metered street parking and cash-only garages surround the building.
Lodi Courthouse, West Elm Street. Department L-1, upstairs at 217 W. Elm, takes small claims, criminal, civil name changes, civil harassment, municipal code cases and some probate. The court's small claims page gives Lodi as its contact location. Department L-2, at 315 W. Elm, has housed the Probate Department since February 3, 2025.
Manteca Branch, 315 E. Center Street. Criminal, traffic and civil harassment, with its own landlord-tenant phone line. Free parking surrounds the building.
Juvenile Justice Center, 535 W. Mathews Road, French Camp. Departments J-1 and J-2, next to the Juvenile Probation Department.
The court lists clerk's office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. During its switch to the new eCourt case management system, which went live August 24, 2026, it cut counter and phone hours in stages, and the last shortened schedule (8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) ran through October 30, 2026. Courtrooms stayed open the whole time. Confirm current hours on sjcourts.org before you send a runner.
App File, the window and the drop box
San Joaquin doesn't use the usual list of outside e-filing vendors. It runs its own portal, App File, with nCourt processing payments. The portal lists civil, criminal, family law, probate and small claims as supported case types. Local Rule 6 points filers to the court's website for which documents can and can't be e-filed.
E-filing is optional here. The court's FAQ gives the same answer to attorneys and to self-represented litigants: presently, eFiling is optional.
Evictions follow a different path. Since January 3, 2022, new unlawful detainer complaints have gone to the clerk's window or the civil drop box, not the portal. The Lodi and Manteca drop boxes keep 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekday hours.
Probate e-filing has a backlog. The court's probate page asks filers with a court date in the next 30 days to file in person instead. Our Court Filings service works all three routes. Tell us the courthouse, the case number and the deadline. The Court Filings page covers the documents we need. This is general information, not legal advice.
Papers to serve in San Joaquin County?
Where San Joaquin addresses get complicated
Most San Joaquin County addresses are routine suburban or city addresses. The exceptions tend to fall in a few patterns.
The Delta. West of Stockton and I-5, the county breaks into reclaimed islands and tracts laced with levee roads. Farm properties there can share one mailing address across several buildings, and a levee road may have only a few marked driveways. A map pin or a description of the house helps.
The farm belt east of 99. Linden, Lockeford, Clements and Farmington are rural communities with ranch and orchard properties. If the person works the land, a home attempt may work better early or late in the day.
Long commutes. If the person works in the Bay Area or leaves before dawn and returns after dark, say so in the Letter of Instruction, and list any weekend availability you know of.
Gated and new subdivisions. Some newer south county neighborhoods have gates or new street names that maps don't show yet. Include the gate code if you have one, and the builder's tract name if the street is new.
The Sheriff and private service
The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Civil Division also serves papers, from its office at 400 E. Main Street, Suite 760, in Stockton. Its posted attempt hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Any adult who is at least 18 and not a party to the case may serve a summons, and our guide on who can serve papers in California explains the registration rule for people who serve for pay.
After service, the proof of service guide shows which form fits which method. From January 1, 2027, AB 747 changes how attempts are documented; see the AB 747 guide. This is general information, not legal advice.
Businesses, warehouses and agents
Logistics and distribution sites along I-5 and Highway 99 near Stockton, Lathrop and Tracy often belong to companies headquartered elsewhere. Service on a corporation or LLC usually goes to its agent for service of process. Our serving corporations page shows how to look the agent up.
When the only address you have is a former rental or a closed business, skip tracing can search for a newer one before the first attempt. Our post on how to find a defendant in California lists what to gather.
Starting a San Joaquin County request
Start a Service Request, upload up to 5 PDFs, list each person and address, and pick Rush or Standard. Get status updates by email. Phones are answered Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 855-582-5776.
If the other side lives just across a county line, see our hubs for Sacramento County, Stanislaus County, Contra Costa County and Alameda County.