Family Code, 1992

Unless the provision or context requires otherwise, the definitions in this chapter control how this division is read.

A marriage license must show the parties’ identity, full given names at birth or by court order, mailing addresses, and dates of birth.

If requested, a marriage certificate registry and marriage license must show a business address or USPS post office box instead of a residential address.

Mailing addresses used by an applicant, witness, or person performing or solemnizing the marriage ceremony must be a residential address, a business address, or a USPS post office box.

This section says “separate property” does not include quasi-community property.

A marriage license may not be granted if either applicant lacks capacity to marry or is under the influence of alcohol or a narcotic drug when applying.

Marriage license applicants must show acceptable photo ID, unless a credible witness affidavit is used instead. The clerk may interview applicants on oath and request more documents, and applicants must sign any written examination. Applicants cannot be required to state race or color. An attorney in fact must comply with these requirements for an overseas applicant when needed.

The State Department of Public Health prescribes marriage license forms, and applicants must sign the included affidavit confirming receipt of the Section 358 brochure. If the marriage is under Section 420(b) and the applicant is overseas, the attorney in fact signs the affidavit. The forms must also include spaces for a name change choice.

This section defines “obligee” and “obligor,” and says an obligor who is present or resident in the state has the duty of support, even if the obligee is not present or resident.

Spousal privilege rules do not apply here, and spouses can testify about relevant matters, including marriage and parentage.

In support proceedings, a party cannot refuse to submit state and federal income tax returns to the court, and the other party may examine and discover them.

An appeal may be taken from an order or judgment under this division, in the same way as in other civil actions.

If support is paid through a court-designated county officer, that officer must send the money to the designated payee within the required time standards.

A noncustodial parent’s support duty for a minor child is not changed by the custodial parent’s failure or refusal to carry out court-ordered custody or visitation rights.

A court must award reasonable attorney’s fees in certain support-enforcement actions when the listed conditions are met, and it may not use this section to award fees to or against a governmental entity.

In a child or family support case, the court may require a parent to attend job-related training, placement, rehabilitation, and work programs, and to provide participation records.

A marriage license under this part expires 90 days after it is issued, and the expiration date must be clearly noted on the license.

The county clerk must number each marriage license and send copies or a list to the county recorder. The county recorder must notify certain licenseholders within 60 days if a license has not been returned, and must also notify them about the 10-day return obligation for the person who solemnized the marriage.

The State Department of Public Health must prepare and publish a marriage-license brochure, and several officials must distribute it.

Spouses may make a written agreement for immediate separation and may include support terms for either spouse and their children.

Parents’ child support agreement terms are treated as separate from other agreement terms, and a court may make a child support order based on that agreement.

If parents’ agreement mixes child support and spousal support without separating the amounts, the court does not have to issue a separate child support order.

The court may approve a parents’ stipulated agreement to support an adult child or continue child support after age 18, and may issue a support order to carry out that agreement.

Applicants must appear together in person before the county clerk to get a marriage license, and the marriage license must later be presented, completed, and returned on time.

Support-agreement terms are treated as separate from property terms, and support orders based on the agreement are made under the court’s power to order spousal support.

Support agreements can usually be changed or ended by court order, but not for amounts that already accrued before the motion or order to show cause was filed, and not where the parties specifically agreed in writing or in open court that spousal support cannot be modified or terminated.

If a spouse-support or property-settlement obligation is discharged in bankruptcy, the court may make proper support orders for the spouse.

Sections 3590 and 3591 apply only to property settlement agreements made on or after January 1, 1970.

This section requires the person solemnizing the marriage to get and return a duplicate marriage license in certain cases, and lets the county clerk charge an actual-cost fee.

During certain family-law proceedings, the court may order spouse or parent support payments.

A child support order under this chapter stays in effect until the court ends it or it ends by operation of law.

An order under this chapter is not enforceable while the parties have reconciled and are living together, unless the order says otherwise.

An order under this chapter may be changed or ended at any time, but not for amounts that accrued before the filing date of the motion or order to show cause.

An order under this chapter does not affect the parties’ or child’s rights regarding any later order.

In this chapter, “support order” means a child, family, or spousal support order, unless the provision or context requires otherwise.

This section lets courts modify or end support orders, but it limits when that can happen and adds special rules for deployed servicemembers.

A support-order modification, termination, or set-aside order may include attorney’s fees and court costs for the prevailing party, except against a governmental agency.

Courts may make support-order modifications or terminations retroactive, but certain unemployment- and military-service-based cases must be retroactive unless the court finds good cause not to do so.

At the request of either party, an order modifying, terminating, or setting aside a support order must include a statement of decision.

This article allows inexpensive discovery of facts before a proceeding to modify or terminate child, family, or spousal support is started.

Other discovery methods may be used only if a motion to modify or terminate the support order is already pending.

If there is no pending motion to modify or terminate a support order, discovery under this article may be requested no more than once every 12 months.

This section lets a support party, the support recipient, or that person’s assignee request income-and-expense information, and later request limited income-and-benefit information from the other party’s employer if the first response is missing or incomplete.

Each party must attach prior-year federal and state personal income tax returns to the income and expense declaration, and a party may not share the other party’s tax returns except with listed people or by court permission.

This article may be enforced using specified civil procedure discovery enforcement rules.

If a support-order modification or termination motion is later filed, the court may sanction the responding party if their income-and-expense declaration was incomplete, inaccurate, missing prior-year tax returns, or not made in good faith.

The Judicial Council must adopt forms for the procedure in this article.

The Legislature says parents need a simpler way to modify support orders, and it expresses the intent that the Judicial Council adopt court rules and forms for that purpose.

The local child support agency must monitor child support cases and seek modifications when needed.

A court may relieve a party from a support order if the statutory conditions are met, but only after the six-month Section 473 time limit has run and only on just terms.

This section sets the grounds and deadlines for asking to set aside a support order, including fraud, perjury, and lack of notice.

A support order cannot be set aside just because it was unfair when made or because later changes make it too high or too low.

When deciding whether to set aside a support order, the court must limit relief to the provisions materially affected, unless equitable considerations make setting aside the entire order necessary.

This section defines “health insurance coverage” for this article.

Support orders in this chapter must include health-insurance provisions for the child and related reporting, maintenance, application, and continuation requirements.

Employers and insurers may not refuse a child’s enrollment in a parent’s health coverage on listed grounds, and must follow special rules for court-ordered child coverage.

The court must order a parent to notify the local child support agency when health insurance is applied for and obtained for the child, and the agency must handle a medical form and share policy information in certain cases.

Child support orders must require both parents to share health insurance information, and the Judicial Council must update the family law order form, with a temporary exception for subdivision (b) until January 1, 2010.

The cost of health insurance is added on top of the child support amount ordered under Article 2, with actual health insurance costs given due consideration.

This section defines terms used in the article on health insurance coverage assignment.

A court may order an employer or other health insurer to enroll the supported child in the obligor’s health plan and deduct any premium or cost from the obligor’s earnings, unless the court finds good cause not to do so.

A court can refuse a health insurance coverage assignment order only for the listed statutory grounds or if the order would cause extraordinary hardship to the obligor.

A court may order a health insurance coverage assignment order at trial or when entering a judgment for health insurance coverage, and may later modify the order at any time.

A health insurance coverage assignment order is not effective until 20 days after service, and the employer or other health insurer must give the obligor a copy of the order and a written statement of rights within 10 days after service.

The obligor may ask the court to quash a health insurance coverage assignment order if the obligor declares under penalty of perjury that one of the listed errors exists.

Employers or other health insurance providers must begin coverage for an assignment order quickly, and may need to enroll the child or return the order if coverage is unavailable.

The employer or other person providing health insurance must notify the assignment-order applicant of the child’s coverage start date, and must provide coverage evidence, needed information, and claim forms in specified situations.

An employer or other person providing health insurance must comply with a valid health insurance coverage assignment order, or they may be liable for covered health care costs and punished for contempt of court.

Employers must not use a health insurance coverage assignment order as a reason to refuse to hire, fire, or discipline someone.

The court must terminate a health insurance coverage assignment order when the obligor moves for termination and one of the listed conditions is met.

An employer must give specified information to the local child support agency within 30 days of request, and must later report any lapse in health insurance coverage.

The Judicial Council must adopt health insurance coverage assignment forms and include required information in them.

In certain Title IV-D support cases, the local child support agency must serve the employer with a national medical support notice after a court orders a parent to provide health insurance coverage.

This section defines key terms used in the chapter on deferred sale of home orders.

If a party requests a deferred sale of home order, the court must first decide whether keeping up payments, taxes, insurance, and home condition is economically feasible.

A court may grant a deferred sale of the family home to a custodial parent if it is economically feasible and necessary to reduce the harm to the child from divorce or separation.

A deferred sale of home order must state how long the order lasts, and it may also include the property's legal description and assessor’s parcel number.

A deferred sale of home order may be recorded with the county recorder in the county where the property is located.

The court may issue an order assigning the parties’ responsibilities for routine maintenance and capital improvement costs.

A court may modify or terminate a deferred sale of home order at any time, unless the parties have agreed otherwise in writing.

This section says that, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, remarriage or a qualifying change in circumstances can create a rebuttable presumption that further delaying the home sale is no longer equitable.

When making an order under this chapter, the court must keep jurisdiction to decide later issues about the deferred sale of the home order.

This chapter applies whether the deferred sale of home order was made before or after January 1, 1989.

Courts may not use software to help determine child or spousal support unless the software meets Judicial Council standards.

Parents of a minor child have an equal responsibility to support the child in a way suitable to the child’s circumstances.

A parent’s support duty can continue for an unmarried 18-year-old who is a full-time high school student and not self-supporting, until 12th grade is completed or the child turns 19, unless excused for a physician-documented medical condition.

The court may allow a parent to receive money from a child’s property for the child’s support if it is for the child’s benefit.

Each parent must support a child who cannot earn a living and lacks sufficient means, to the extent of the parent’s ability. The court may also direct support payments to a special needs trust.

A parent has no duty to support the parent’s grandchild.

If a parent fails to provide necessary articles for a child under the parent’s care, a third person may in good faith supply them and recover their reasonable value from the parent.

A parent generally does not have to pay another parent, a relative, or a stranger for voluntary child support unless an agreement requires payment, but the parent’s duty to support the child continues when a government entity is providing support.

If a parent dies and the child is supported by the county or a state institution, county supervisors or the state department director may claim the child’s support from the parent’s estate if the estate is sufficient.

This section says when new law applies and when old law still governs around the operative date.

Section 400 lists who may solemnize a marriage and restricts compensation and eligibility for some officeholders.

If a parent must support a child and willfully fails to do so, the other parent or the child through a guardian ad litem may sue to enforce that duty.

In support proceedings, the court may order one or both parents to pay an amount needed for the child’s support.

The county may enforce a child’s support rights against a parent, and the court may order the parent to pay the county’s reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.

The court may order a separate trial on child support for good cause, and if custody is also set for separate trial, the two issues must be tried together.

In a child-support case, the court must require the parties to disclose whether a party is receiving public assistance or plans to apply for it.

If either party asks, the court must make appropriate findings about the circumstances underlying a child support order.

In child support proceedings, the court must consider whether the parties have health insurance coverage.

A support-payor’s obligation ends when the specified contingency happens, and the court may order notice of that contingency in the original support order.

Child support payments are suspended during qualifying incarceration or involuntary institutionalization, subject to a means-to-pay exception, and may later resume or be adjusted through court or agency processes.

A court may decide what proportions of community property, quasi-community property, and separate property can be used for child support, so long as the proportions are just.

A court may make an original child support order retroactive to the filing date, but if the payor was not served within 90 days and was not avoiding service, the order cannot take effect before service.

County clerks in each county are designated as commissioners of civil marriages, and those commissioners may appoint deputy commissioners to solemnize marriages and do other assigned duties.

When a court orders child support, it must give the parties a document explaining how the order can be modified, at the time it gives written notice of the order.

A person who owes court-ordered child support must pay it before paying other creditors.

If good cause is shown, the court may order a parent who must pay child support to give reasonable security for that payment.

If child support obligations are discharged in bankruptcy, the court may make any proper support orders it considers just.

Child support orders must require parents to share employer and contact information, and certain cases must file updated information with the court or registry on a 10-day timeline.

A county may license certain officials of a nonprofit religious institution to solemnize marriages for affiliated or member couples, if the institution is registered with the Secretary of State and the licensee meets the stated qualifications.

The Legislature states that the statewide uniform child support guideline is intended to keep the state in compliance with federal child support guideline regulations.

The court must follow the statewide uniform child-support guideline and can depart from it only in the special circumstances listed in this article.

For cases involving a child with more than two parents, the court must apply the statewide uniform child support guideline and divide support among the parents based on income and time spent with the child.

Courts must follow the statewide child support principles and ensure children receive fair, timely, and sufficient support.

The Judicial Council must periodically review the statewide child support guideline and recommend revisions to the Legislature.

This section sets California’s child support guideline formula and related rules for calculating and paying support.

When ordering child support that departs from the statewide uniform guideline, the court must state specified reasons and amounts in writing or on the record. On request, it must also state the information used to determine the guideline amount.

The child support formula is presumed correct, but the court may depart from it if admissible evidence shows the result would be unjust or inappropriate and the listed conditions are met.

Courts generally must not count a parent’s new spouse or nonmarital partner’s income when setting or changing child support, unless this is an extraordinary case involving extreme and severe hardship to a child.

This section defines a parent’s annual gross income, tells the court when to consider earning capacity, and excludes certain child-support and need-based public assistance income.

This section lists what deductions may be used to calculate each parent’s annual net disposable income for child support, and gives the court and Judicial Council specific hardship-related duties.

The court may adjust child-support amounts if the monthly net disposable income figure does not reflect the parties’ actual or expected earnings.

Section 4061 sets how child support-related expenses are computed and split between parents.

The court must order certain additional child support items and may order others.

This section requires the court and parents to follow specific steps for child-support related reimbursement of additional child costs, including itemized statements, repayment timing, and treatment of health-care and childcare expenses.

The court may adjust a child support order to account for seasonal or fluctuating income of either parent.

Parties may agree to child support amounts, but court approval is limited when the agreed amount is below the guideline formula amount.

Child support orders and stipulations that comply with the statewide uniform guideline may be labeled as “family support” as an unallocated total sum, and the order amount must be adjusted to maximize tax benefits for both parents.

The Legislature must review the statewide uniform child support guideline at least every four years and revise it as appropriate.

The Judicial Council may create child-support worksheets and a court form, and must develop a simplified income and expense form and related usage factors by June 1, 1995.

The establishment of the statewide uniform guideline is treated as a change of circumstances.

If a parent has extreme financial hardship from justifiable expenses tied to Section 4071 circumstances, the court may allow income deductions under Section 4059 when a party requests it.

This section lists hardship circumstances, lets a court allow certain income deductions to cover them, caps one deduction, and lets the Judicial Council develop tables for the cap.

If a hardship-expense deduction is allowed, the court must explain it in writing or on the record and document the amount and supporting facts. When possible, the court should also state how long the deduction will last.

The court must follow the article’s goals when deciding whether to allow a financial hardship deduction and when setting its amount.

This article applies to child support awards, including “family support” awards that cover support for both children and a spouse.

This section says the article does not change how spousal support and separate maintenance payments are treated under federal tax law.

A court may phase in a child support increase in limited cases, and must document the reasons and schedule in writing.

The Department of Child Support Services and the Judicial Council must meet and confer by November 21, 2022, and each must submit its own report to specified legislative committees.

This section says marriages do not need a set ceremony form, but the parties must declare in the physical presence of the officiant and necessary witnesses that they take each other as spouses. It also allows an overseas deployed service member in a conflict or war to marry through an attorney in fact, with specific power-of-attorney requirements.

If a court orders child support to be paid to a parent receiving welfare moneys, the court must direct where the payments go and must direct the local child support agency to appear for the welfare recipient to enforce the order.

The court may direct child support payments to a county officer, and once the State Disbursement Unit is implemented, payments must go to that Unit instead. The court may also direct the local child support agency to appear for the minor children in enforcement proceedings.

If the custodial parent and the support-paying parent live in different counties, the court may send payments to a county officer in the custodial parent’s county and may assign either county’s local child support agency to enforce the order.

Certain county and child support enforcement costs are charged to the county, with an exception for Section 4202.

A local child support agency must issue and serve notice, and file it with the court, when child support has been assigned to the county or enforcement services have been requested.

If a local child support agency asks a support obligor to meet, the notice must tell the obligor they may have an attorney present.

A person solemnizing a marriage must require the marriage license to be presented before the ceremony, and if there is reason to doubt the license facts, must be satisfied they are correct before proceeding.

The person who solemnizes a marriage must sign and type or print a prescribed statement on the marriage license.

The person who solemnizes a marriage must return the endorsed marriage license to the county recorder within 10 days after the ceremony, and must include a court order copy if either spouse was a minor.

If no prior solemnization record is known to exist, the parties may buy a License and Certificate of Declaration of Marriage from the county clerk after one year or more, and they must return the license and certificate to the county recorder.

The Legislature states that child and spousal support are serious obligations and says the court system should be faster, simpler, and more accessible for support cases.

This section requires superior courts to provide enough child support commissioners, sends most listed child support cases to a commissioner, and sets review, temporary-judge, and de novo hearing procedures.

The superior court must appoint child support commissioners, and the Judicial Council must set qualifications, standards, rules, training, funding procedures, and related implementation measures for them.

A commissioner or referee hearing child support matters may enter default orders if the defendant does not respond to notice or other process on time.

The county clerk may issue a marriage license to the person solemnizing the marriage when the parties cannot appear in person and the listed affidavit and authentication requirements are met.

A person must support their spouse, subject to this division.

A person must support their spouse while they live together, using the person’s separate property, when there is no community or quasi-community property, subject to Section 914.

A person living separate from a spouse by agreement is not liable for spousal support unless the agreement says support is required.

The obligee spouse, or the county on the spouse’s behalf, may sue the obligor spouse to enforce support. If the county provides support, it gets the same reimbursement and continuing-support rights as the spouse, subject to state-law limits. The court may also order the obligor to pay the county’s reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.

When ordering spousal support, the court must consider the listed circumstances.

In a dissolution or legal separation case, the court may deny support from one spouse’s separate property if the listed conditions are met.

In certain support proceedings with no children, support cannot be ordered or continued against a party who has enough separate estate, including employment income, for proper support.

The court may modify or terminate spousal support if circumstances have changed, and income of a supporting spouse’s new spouse or nonmarital partner cannot be used when setting or changing support.

In certain marriage dissolution cases involving a qualifying violent sexual or domestic violence felony conviction, the section bars spousal support to the convicted spouse and limits fee shifting and property treatment.

In certain divorce cases involving a recent domestic-violence misdemeanor conviction against a spouse, spousal support to the convicted spouse is prohibited unless the presumption is rebutted.

If child support ends, either party may ask to modify spousal support, but the request must be filed within six months of the child support termination date.

In a dissolution or legal separation case, the court may order spousal support that is just and reasonable, and it may also advise the supported spouse to make reasonable efforts to meet support needs unless that warning is inadvisable in a long-duration marriage.

In a dissolution or legal separation case, the court may order a party to be examined by a vocational training counselor and may also order the supporting spouse to pay the counseling, retraining, or education costs.

In dissolution or legal separation cases, the court must make specific findings about the standard of living during the marriage, and must also make other factual determinations if either party asks.

A spousal support order in a dissolution or legal separation case may be made retroactive to the filing date of the notice of motion or order to show cause, or a later date.

If a contingency ends a spousal support order, the support obligation ends then; the court may require notice of the contingency; and overpayments received after the contingency must be refunded, subject to first applying them to any defaulted support.

A spousal support order ends when the period stated in the order ends, and it cannot be extended unless the court keeps jurisdiction in the order or under Section 4336.

The court generally keeps jurisdiction over spousal support indefinitely in dissolution or legal separation cases involving a long-duration marriage, unless the parties agree otherwise or support is terminated by court order.

A spousal support obligation ends when either party dies or the supported spouse remarries, unless the parties have agreed otherwise in writing.

When enforcing a spousal support order, the court must use the listed property sources in the stated order.

A court may order the supporting party to provide reasonable security for paying spousal support.

A court handling a spousal support order may direct that payments be made to a county officer the court designates, and may add a service charge allowed under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 279.

The court may refer spousal-support enforcement to the local child support agency, which may handle appropriate enforcement proceedings, and in some cases must also enforce overdue spousal support. Notices about meetings with the support obligor must say the obligor may have an attorney present.

Certain enforcement expenses and service-of-process fees are charged to the relevant county.

A court may factor in support arrangements like annuities, insurance, or a trust to protect a supported spouse if that is just and reasonable.

An adult child must support a parent if the parent is in need and cannot self-support by work, to the extent the adult child is able, unless another law provides otherwise.

An adult child’s promise to pay for necessaries previously provided to a parent covered by Section 4400 is binding.

The duty of support under this part adds to, and does not replace, any other support duty.

A parent, or the county for the parent, may sue the child to enforce support duties, and the county may also seek reimbursement and continuing support when it has furnished support to a parent.

When setting support, the court must consider each party’s earning capacity, needs, obligations, assets, age, health, standard of living, and other just and equitable factors.

The court may keep jurisdiction over a support order and may modify or end it when justice requires.

An adult child may ask the court to relieve them from the legal duty to support a parent, and the petition must be filed in the parent’s county of residence; if the parent lives outside the state, it must be filed where the adult child lives.

The court must grant the requested Section 4410 order only if the petition and the court’s findings satisfy the listed abandonment conditions.

When a petition is filed under this chapter, the clerk must set a hearing and issue a citation with the hearing time and place.

If the parent lives in this state, the court cannot make an order under this chapter until 30 days after notice is served.

If the court finds Section 4411’s requirements are met, it must issue an order relieving the petitioner from the legal duty to support the parent.

Support orders for child, family, or spousal support are enforceable in this state under this code, even if they were not made under this code.

A family support order can be enforced the same way and to the same extent as a child support order.

This section says that enforcement timing and renewal procedures for support judgments or orders are governed by Section 291.

A parent may bring an arrearage-collection action for child support payments within the normal enforcement period, even after the child turns 18.

This section requires the custodial parent or other child support obligee to contact the appropriate federal agency within 30 days after notice, and to apply and cooperate if the child may be eligible for certain federal benefits. It also requires the noncustodial parent to cooperate and provide needed information, and it gives a credit against support when the child support obligee refuses to apply or cooperate.

A court may require an unemployed parent who says a support-order default is due to unemployment to submit a list of at least five places they applied for work.