Woodside is an incorporated town in southern San Mateo County, west of Redwood City and Atherton, with about 11.5 square miles of land. The 2020 Census counted 5,309 residents, and the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate is 5,181. Valpro Attorney Services serves summonses, complaints, subpoenas, restraining orders, family law and probate papers and eviction documents at Woodside addresses, and on Woodside residents at their workplaces around the Bay Area.
Woodside requests are handled from our Sacramento office, about 92 miles to the northeast. What slows a Woodside service is rarely the distance. It's the last few hundred feet between the road and the front door.
Woodside's ZIP Code areas
Two ZIP Code areas cover the Town, and neither matches the Town's borders. The Census Bureau's 2020 ZCTA-to-place file shows about 98.5% of Woodside's land in 94062 and the remaining 1.5% in 94061, the ZIP Code area that is mostly Redwood City. That Woodside slice is about 4.6% of the land in 94061, which also takes in a sliver of North Fair Oaks CDP.
Looked at from the other side, 94062 is much bigger than the Town, at about 64.7 square miles of land:
- Town of Woodside: about 17.5%.
- Redwood City: about 3.5%.
- Emerald Lake Hills CDP: about 1.8%.
- La Honda CDP: about 1.2%.
- Outside any named place: about 76%.
Emerald Lake Hills and La Honda are census-designated places with no town government; San Mateo County governs them and the unnamed land around them. So "Woodside, CA 94062" on an envelope doesn't prove the house is in the Town. For service that rarely matters. For a case that turns on a town ordinance, a building permit or the Town as a party, look up the parcel's jurisdiction before filing.
Interstate 280 is a useful landmark too. The Town's contact list splits public sewer service along it, sending residents east of 280 or in the Glens neighborhood to the Fair Oaks Sewer Maintenance District and everyone else on sewer to Town Hall. If you know which side of the freeway the house is on, or that it's in the Glens, put it in the Letter of Instruction; it narrows the search before the server leaves the highway.
Serving the Town of Woodside
When the Town of Woodside is a party, the papers go to Town Hall at 2955 Woodside Road, Woodside, CA 94062. The Town's site lists:
- Lobby hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed noon to 1:00 p.m.
- Planning counter: Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to noon.
- Building counter: Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.
- Phone: 650-851-6790, the same number the Town's directory gives for the Town Manager and the Town Clerk.
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 620005, Woodside, CA 94062.
CCP § 416.50 allows a summons on a public entity to be delivered to its clerk, secretary, president, presiding officer or other head of its governing body. We aim for the clerk during lobby hours, outside the lunch closure. Name the Town of Woodside as the case papers do. A claim for money damages usually reaches the Town as a written government claim first; your attorney decides how to handle that.
Private roads, state highways and horse country
The Town's own pages are the best guide to what a server meets in Woodside.
- Private roads. The Town's "Who to Contact" list tells residents to contact the appropriate homeowners association about private roads, meaning those roads aren't Town-maintained.
- State highways. The same list sends problems on State Highway 84, Woodside Road, and State Highway 35, Skyline Boulevard, to Caltrans. Both run through or along the Town.
- Horses. The Town's horse-keeping page opens with "Trails, not sidewalks. Hitching posts, not stop lights," and says many residents keep horses or have property that can be used for them.
That shapes the instructions we ask for:
- The access route. If the address is on a private road, give its name, where it meets the public road, and any homeowners association or gate contact you know.
- Gates and fences. A code, a call box name, the usual open hours, and whether a pasture gate has to be closed behind a vehicle.
- The right building. On a large parcel, say whether the person lives in the main house, a guest house, a barn apartment or another structure.
- Skyline addresses. For a home off Skyline Boulevard or another ridge road, add directions from the nearest intersection, since a map pin may not land on the driveway.
- A second location. An office, a stable or a regular appointment elsewhere gives the server a fallback.
- Animals. If dogs run loose or livestock graze near the drive, say so. The server won't walk into a pasture or a yard with loose animals, and a warning lets them plan another approach or another time.
Our server doesn't pass a locked gate, follow another vehicle through one, or stay on a private road after being asked to leave. Each attempt is recorded either way.
Law enforcement comes from the Sheriff
Woodside has no town police department. The Town's Sheriff's Department page directs residents to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and posts the Town's 2025–2030 law enforcement services agreement as a related document.
So when a Woodside collision report or incident report is needed in a civil case, it's a Sheriff's Office record. The subpoena names the Sheriff's custodian of records, not the Town Clerk. A deputy called as a witness is likewise served as a County employee.
Papers to serve in Woodside?
Filing a Woodside case in Redwood City
San Mateo County Superior Court takes Woodside civil, family law, probate and small claims filings at the Hall of Justice and Records, 400 County Center, Redwood City, about 4.7 miles from the Census Bureau's internal point for the Town. The civil, family law, probate and small claims clerk sees people by appointment only, 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on weekdays, with phone hours to match.
A few court rules shape how a Woodside case moves through that building:
- Drop box. The civil drop box outside Room A on the first floor is emptied at 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Papers deposited before 4:00 p.m. count as filed that court day.
- Judgments. The civil division page says that since August 11, 2025, attorneys must e-file civil judgment packets; only self-represented parties may still submit paper ones.
- Ex partes in ordinary civil cases. Those go to the assigned judge's department on that judge's ex parte days. Local Rule 3.500 allows remote appearances, subject to California Rules of Court, rule 3.1207.
- Paper-only documents. Local Rule 2.1.8 keeps writs, abstracts, subpoenas, bonds and trial exhibits on paper.
Our San Mateo County court filing service handles appointments, the drop box and e-filing, then sends the endorsed copies on to the server.
Small claims for a Woodside dispute
The small claims clerk works from Room A at the Hall of Justice on the same appointment schedule. Hearings are in person at the Hall of Justice or at the Northern Branch, 1050 Mission Road, South San Francisco, about 19 miles from Woodside. The court allows Zoom appearances for parties with a hardship, under its posted protocol.
The court runs a small claims mediation program, with remote sessions by Zoom, and its small claims page links the details. Whatever happens in mediation, the defendant still has to be served with the claim first. We serve it and return a signed proof of service so it can be filed before the hearing.
Family law and restraining orders
Woodside divorce, custody, support and domestic violence cases are filed at the Hall of Justice. The court's family law page posts standing Zoom links for three calendars: the Department of Child Support Services calendar, the domestic violence and temporary restraining order calendar, and the firearm relinquishment calendar. Other family hearings follow the judge's own calendar and the court's remote proceedings protocol.
A remote hearing doesn't change the service step. A petition, a request for order or a temporary restraining order has to reach the other party in person or by another method the law allows, before the hearing. For a Woodside respondent, send us the filed papers, the hearing date, the home address with the road and gate notes above, any workplace, and a recent photo.
Probate and conservatorship papers
Estate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship cases for Woodside families are filed with the Probate Division at the Hall of Justice. The court's civil division page notes that the Probate Judge keeps ex parte days and hours separate from the civil departments, so an urgent probate request runs on that department's schedule.
The probate page also lists education classes for people already appointed as conservators, held over ZoomGov; the next listed sessions are on December 3, 2026, one for conservators of the person in the morning and one for conservators of the estate in the afternoon. A conservator who lives in Woodside may be the one receiving notices in the case, so give us the address where they actually stay and a daytime alternative.
Woodside evictions
An eviction for a Woodside rental, a cottage, a guest house or an apartment on a larger property, is filed with the civil clerk in Redwood City or e-filed. Pretrials and court trials then move to the Central Branch, 800 North Humboldt Street in San Mateo, about 11.6 miles from Woodside, and eviction ex partes are heard there on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom H.
When you send the case, include the summons, the complaint, the names of all adult occupants and a description of which structure is the rental. A tenant served personally has 10 court days to respond. If the case settles, the court's eviction page says it won't sign a stipulated judgment until the plaintiff files form CM-200, the notice of settlement of the entire case.
From January 1, 2027, AB 747 treats three good-faith attempts at personal delivery, on three different days at three different times, as showing reasonable diligence before substituted service (CCP § 415.20(b)(2)). It also adds a stamped photo of the site to each proof of personal, substituted or posted service. Where a hillside or canyon property has no GPS or cell signal, the server explains that on the proof. Our AB 747 guide and proof of service guide go further. We make no guarantees for service.
Sending Woodside papers
Open a Service Request, upload up to 5 PDFs, add the road, gate and building notes, and choose Rush or Standard. The updates come to you by email. For a company, see serving corporations; if the person has moved, skip tracing can look for a current address. Call 855-582-5776 or email Service@ValproAttorneyServices.com.
Places near Woodside
Atherton is about 4 miles away and Portola Valley about 4.2. San Carlos is 5.3 miles, Redwood City 6.9 and Menlo Park 7.3. Every place we serve in the county is on our San Mateo County page.