My marriage license was never turned in by the officiant, am I married?
/Yes, under most circumstances, even if you had a technical defect in your Marriage License you are legally married under California family law.
The typical process for filing a Marriage License and Certificate looks like this:
1. The Parties apply for a license,
2. The wedding ceremony occurs,
3. The officiant sends the license back to the County Clerk,
4. The officiant then signs the registration, turning the Marriage License into a Marriage Certificate,
5. The County records this document with the County Recorder’s Office.
6. The County Clerk sends all original confidential marriage certificates retained, or originals of reproduced confidential marriage certificates filed after January 1, 1982, to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics (Family Code § 511).
If you have a wedding ceremony in California and you have applied for a marriage license, you are most likely married under California family law even if you fail to send in that license to the County. This is because there is at least one family law case that holds that registration of a marriage certificate is not essential to the validity of a marriage. In 2011, an Appellate Court found that parties who, after marriage ceremony in 1991, submitted marriage certificate for registration that was twice rejected for technical defects and was not resubmitted, and who were married in new ceremony about 10 years later, had been married for 17 years at time of dissolution of their marriage in 2008. In re Marriage of Cantarella (2011) 191 C.A. 4th 916, 923.
There is also a California Health and Safety Code section (§103450) that specifically allows for a party to bring an action requesting an order judicially establishing the fact of, and time and place of, the marriage. The definition of a party includes: “[a] member of a law enforcement agency or a representative of another governmental agency, as provided by law, who is conducting official business.” Health and Safety Code 103526(c)(2)(C).
What does that mean? Well, being married under California law requires you to file taxes with the State and Federal government as married. IRS Publication 17, page 20 states: “State law governs whether you are married or legally separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.”
It also means that you will have to use California's dissolution rules in the family code if you decide to formally and legally separate.
Contact me at amanda@gordonfamilylaw.com for more information.