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California Public Divorce Records

By Claire Dowell


The California Vital Records Office, Department of Health Services is in charge of keeping files that involves a Divorce in California. In the past, procuring copies of divorce records was free of charge. Today, the Department of Health Services imposes a certain fee before releasing them to whoever requests for them. The fee is not for the records itself but for the process of retrieving them.

Only divorce records that were filed between 1962 and 1984 can be found at the Vital Records Office. However, they can only provide a divorce certificate, which can only be used as a source of reference and not as a legal document. Certified divorce records are kept at the exact Clerk of Superior Court that finalized the divorce. Only certified divorce records are recognized by the court as a legal file that can be used in a court hearing.

Any person can request for a divorce certificate but only the couple and their representatives have full access to the certified divorce records. A request form is available at the California Health Department. The request form should be filled-out correctly and be submitted with a signed sworn statement. If the request is through mail, the sworn statement should be signed and be notarized. A request costs $13 and there is an additional fee of $7 in case you want to fax your request.

Government agencies employ only a handful of people. That is why transactions take longer to process, reaching 15 to 20 weeks. If you do not need the records immediately, there should not be any trouble. But if you need them right away, you can get them from search tools. Government agencies have their own website where they keep public files in their database. Online search tools also have their own database and they have the permission of the court to provide the files to the public. Getting the files through online search tools saves you an ample amount of time.

There are two kinds of search tools that you can choose from. Some provide the files free of charge while others render corresponding fees. You will get the basic pieces of information from both kinds of search tools such as the full names of the husband and the wife, their birth date, place and date when the divorce was approved, and more. If you register as a member of online search tools that have corresponding fee, you will get the luxury of doing unlimited searches and get more than the basic pieces of information. You become a member by paying a membership fee that is paid just once and with no additional payment. You may also pay separately for every file that you search.

Marriage and Divorce Records are usually kept in one repository because they complement each other. Marriage records are necessary when filing for a divorce while divorce files are required of people who wish to acquire a marriage license. Both files can be obtained from an online search tool but corresponding requirements should be submitted, which varies from state to state.




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