Looking For Free California Divorce Records
Jun 17th, 2009 by Dave Kelly
Retrieving public information from government departments is usually not only time-consuming but also bogged with procedures, requirements and waiting time. Requesting Divorce Records in California from their Office of Vital Records of California is a good example. Although it’s technically possible to obtain Free Divorce Records directly from the office, the odds are long. For some reason, the available records there are decades from current and far from complete.
In 2007, day-to-day operations at the former California Department of Health Services (CHDS) were reorganized under two new departments namely the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) purportedly to better serve the community. Public records went under the charge of the CDPH. This service is offered through their Vital Records Office which reports into the Certificate and Licenses Unit.
The Vital California Divorce Records can only issue Certificates of Record for divorces that occurred between 1962 and June 1984. For divorces that date outside this time window, the records are only available at the very county offices where the divorce proceedings were heard or through non-governmental sources. This is quite disappointing for a state like California. The state is also one of the 4 states that do not keep track of its number of divorces. The other 3 are Colorado, Indiana and Louisiana.
A Certificate of Record includes the names of the parties to the divorce, the county where the divorce was filed and the court case number. It is not equivalent to a divorce decree and does not indicate whether the divorce was ever finalized in court. The basic processing fee for each certificate is $13 and the processing time can easily exceed 6 months. Requestors are often advised to submit their requests directly to the County Recorder’s Office in the county where the divorce was filed.
Certified copies of Free Public Divorce Records are only available from the Superior Court in the county where the divorce was filed. The complete details of the divorce settlement are stipulated on this document. They typically include the rulings on matrimonial assets, alimony order and child support, custody and visitation rights. Disposition on all other contentions between the divorcing parties are also captured on the divorce decree.
California Divorce Records are also known as Records of Marriage Dissolution. Marriage and divorce records invariably appear side by side in a search whether the search is primarily for one or the other. They are often merged as Marriage and Divorce Records, in both government and commercial databases. Many states require a certified copy of Divorce Records detailing the proper dissolution of previous marriages when divorcees apply for Marriage License to re-marry. California is one such state.
With a population of 36 million and 58 counties, it can get laborious contending with government procedures in a California Divorce Records Search. Fortunately, unlike state repositories which are not linked, commercial databases are crossed and networked. That makes life a whole lot easier for people searching for records. They come in particularly handy in certain states where this public service is slack which California is clearly one in this regard.
