Stockton is the seat of San Joaquin County and its largest city, with 320,804 residents in the 2020 Census and an estimated 324,597 on July 1, 2025. It sits about 45 miles straight-line south of our office at 1520 W El Camino Ave #125, Sacramento, CA 95833. Valpro Attorney Services takes Stockton work from that office: summonses, subpoenas and every other legal document, served on people and businesses at homes, offices and job sites across the city.
We also handle the court side. Filings at the Stockton Courthouse go in at the counter or through the court's eFiling portal, and we pull records from San Joaquin County case files on request.
Which San Joaquin courthouse a Stockton case goes to
San Joaquin Superior Court runs one main courthouse in downtown Stockton and two branches in other cities. Most Stockton matters stay downtown, but the branches matter if your case or your opposing party is in the south or north of the county.
| Courthouse | Address | What it handles | Clerk and drop box |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stockton Courthouse | 180 E. Weber Avenue, Stockton, CA 95202 | Civil, family, unlawful detainer and most other case types (not small claims or probate) | Clerk 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Mon–Fri |
| Lodi Courthouse, Department L-1 | 217 W. Elm Street, 2nd floor, Lodi, CA 95240 | Criminal, civil name changes, small claims, civil harassment, municipal codes, some probate | Clerk 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Mon–Fri |
| Lodi Courthouse, Department L-2 | 315 W. Elm Street, Lodi, CA 95240 | Probate | Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. |
| Manteca Branch | 315 E. Center Street, Manteca, CA 95336 | Criminal, traffic, civil harassment, unlawful detainer | Clerk and drop box 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Mon–Fri |
Source: sjcourts.org location pages and the Judicial Council's Find My Court data, checked October 2026.
Two practical notes for the downtown building. Street parking around the courthouse is metered, and the public garages to the north, east and west charge by the hour and take cash only. The clerk's office keeps 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. It ran shortened 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. hours from September 7 through October 30, 2026, after a new case management system went live on August 24, 2026, so check the court's hours page before you count on an afternoon filing.
Eviction cases filed from Stockton
Landlords and property managers file unlawful detainer cases at the Stockton Courthouse, and the Manteca Branch also takes them (its UD line is (209) 239-9188). Since January 3, 2022, the court has required new UD complaints to go in at the clerk's office window or the civil drop box. It processes them within 24 hours.
UD complaints are not on the court's eFiling portal. The court tells filers to watch appfile.sjcourts.org for the day that changes. Until then, a UD filing is a counter or drop box job.
Once the summons is issued, the tenant has to be served by someone 18 or older who is not a party to the case, and the server completes a proof of service for filing. Send us the endorsed complaint and summons on a Service Request, with the unit number and any gate details, and choose Rush if the clock is short.
E-filing at San Joaquin Superior Court
San Joaquin doesn't use the usual list of outside e-filing vendors. It runs its own portal, App File, with payments processed by nCourt. The portal lists civil, criminal, family law, probate and small claims filings. The portal's eFiling FAQ says eFiling is presently optional for attorneys and for people representing themselves, so a counter filing is still an option.
The portal's own warning is worth taking seriously: the filer is responsible for timely filing, and technical or payment problems may force an alternative filing method. When a deadline is close, we can file at the counter instead. See San Joaquin County court filing for how we handle filings there, or read our post on same-day court filing.
Papers to serve in Stockton?
The sheriff or a private server in Stockton
The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Civil Division moved to 400 E. Main St., Suite 760, Stockton, CA 95202, effective August 4, 2025. Its office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m., excluding holidays, with an after-hours drop box in the first-floor lobby.
Its rules shape the choice:
- Every request needs a signed letter of instructions to the sheriff and the service fee, or a court order waiving the fee.
- Documents must reach the office at least 10 days before the last day for service.
- Deputies attempt service between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays.
The sheriff is still the office for levies, wage garnishments and the lockout at the end of an eviction. For serving a summons, a subpoena or a notice inside that 10-day window, a private process server is the usual route. On our Service Request you choose Rush or Standard, and the turnaround for each level is shown on this page. We make no guarantees for service.
Source: sjsheriff.org Civil Division page, checked October 2026.
Small claims in Stockton
Small claims cases from Stockton are filed in Lodi, at Department L-1, 217 W. Elm Street, not at the downtown Stockton courthouse. The court's page sets the limit at $12,500 for most claims, and you can't file more than two claims over $2,500 in a calendar year. Lawyers don't appear for the parties at the hearing.
The San Joaquin County Bar Association's Small Claims Advisors answer questions at (209) 473-6463. They also run a free evening clinic on the second Thursday of each month, 5:00–7:00 p.m., at the Margaret K. Troke Public Library, 502 W. Benjamin Holt Drive, Stockton. Seats are limited, so call first.
The claim still has to be served on the defendant before the hearing. Send us the filed claim with the defendant's address and we'll serve it and return the proof.
Sending us a Stockton service
The more you tell us up front, the fewer wasted trips. A good Stockton request includes:
- The papers. Upload up to 5 PDFs on the Service Request. Add your Billing Reference if your office uses one.
- Who to serve. The full name of the person, or the exact name of the business and its agent for service of process.
- Where. Every address you have: home, work, a second unit. Include the apartment, building or space number.
- When and how. In the Letter of Instruction, note the hours they're usually there, a description, a vehicle and any gate code.
You'll get a confirmation email, and every update comes in that thread. Reply to that email any time for an update. If something changes after you send it, call 855-582-5776 or email Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com, Mon–Fri 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Stockton ZIP Code areas
These 11 Census ZIP Code areas overlap the Stockton city limits:
95202, 95203, 95204, 95205, 95206, 95207, 95209, 95210, 95211, 95212, 95219.
Some of them, especially 95206, 95212 and 95219, also take in unincorporated county land on the city's edges. An address there may have a Stockton mailing address but sit outside the city. That doesn't change the court, since it's all San Joaquin County, but it can matter for a city code or a local notice.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2020 Census, Vintage 2025 population estimates and the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file. ZIP Code areas are Census approximations of postal ZIP Codes.
Cities around Stockton
We serve each of these too. Distances are straight-line between city centers.
- Lodi (10.1 miles), home of the court's Lodi departments
- Lathrop (11.6) and Manteca (13.5), near the Manteca Branch
- Tracy (18.8) and Ripon (19)
- Knightsen (18.3), which is across the line in Contra Costa County, so its cases belong to a different superior court
See every city on the San Joaquin County page. Stockton is also about 29 miles straight-line from Modesto, whose Stanislaus County court splits its civil and small claims work between two cities.
Other work we handle in Stockton
- Court Filings: counter filings and eFiling at San Joaquin Superior Court and courts across California.
- Document retrieval: copies of Stockton case files, delivered by messenger.
- Skip tracing: a current address when the Stockton one goes stale. Our post on how to find a defendant in California covers what helps.
- Serving corporations: finding the registered agent for a business with a Stockton office.
- Secretary of State filings: business filings and document requests in Sacramento.