BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1102
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1102 (Hancock)
As Amended May 2, 2005
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 6-2 APPROPRIATIONS 13-5
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|Ayes:|Jones, Berg, Laird, |Ayes:|Chu, Bass, Berg, |
| |Levine, Lieber, Montanez | |Calderon, Mullin, |
| | | |Karnette, Klehs, Leno, |
| | | |Nation, Oropeza, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Saldana, |
| | | |Yee |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Harman, Leslie |Nays:|Sharon Runner, Emmerson, |
| | | |Haynes, Nakanishi, |
| | | |Walters |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes numerous changes to the issuance and
registration of marriage licenses. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires parties to be married to appear in person, together,
before the county clerk to obtain a marriage license. Allows
the clerk, if either or both parties to be married, whether
through a regular license or a confidential license, are
physically unable to appear in person before the county clerk
to obtain the license, to issue the marriage license to the
person solemnizing the marriage, provided that person presents
an affidavit setting forth sufficient reason why the party or
parties to be married could not attend in person. Sufficient
reason includes hospitalization, incarceration or any other
reason proved to the satisfaction of the county clerk.
2)Requires county clerks, who choose to authorize notary publics
to issue confidential marriage licenses, to establish a policy
outlining the requirements for filing applications and
maintaining registration. Violation of the clerk's policy
results in the suspension or revocation of the authorization
of the notary public to issue confidential marriage licenses.
Before the notary public can be approved to issue confidential
marriages, or have his or her application renewed, the notary
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public must complete a course given by the county clerk. The
county clerk must exercise reasonable judgment in scheduling
the length of the training course. Applicants seeking
approval to issue confidential licenses must successfully
complete the training course and not have violated any other
requirements for issuance of confidential licenses. The fee
for the one-year license is $400.
3)Requires that a duplicate marriage license or confidential
marriage license, which may be issued if the original is lost,
damaged or destroyed after the marriage ceremony takes place,
must be returned to the county recorder within one year of the
issuance of the original marriage license. The clerk may
charge, as a fee for issuing a duplicate license, the actual
costs of issuing the duplicate. Requires that if a marriage
license is lost, damaged or destroyed before the ceremony, the
applicants must purchase a new license.
4)Clarifies that the power of attorney required for marriages by
proxy when one party is stationed overseas and serving in a
conflict or war, must be the original document and not a copy.
5)Requires each applicant to a marriage license to present
authentic photo identification acceptable to the county clerk
as to name and date of birth. Allows a credible witness
affidavit to be used in lieu of authentic photo
identification. Replaces the term "certificate of registry"
with "marriage license."
6)Clarifies that a marriage license issued by a county clerk is
such until it is registered with the county recorder, at which
point it becomes a marriage certificate.
7)Requires that all original marriage certificates, except
confidential marriage certificates, be transmitted to the
State Registrar not less than quarterly. No longer requires
that confidential marriage certificates be transmitted to the
State Registrar. Confidential marriage certificates remain
with the county clerk.
8)Eliminates issuance, upon request, of a decorative heirloom
marriage certificate by the State Registrar.
EXISTING LAW :
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1)Requires parties to obtain a marriage license from the county
clerk before entering a marriage. Each applicant may be
required to present authentic identification as to name.
2)Requires parties to be married to solemnize their marriage
before an authorized person.
3)Allows an unmarried man and woman who have been living
together as husband and wife to be married through a
confidential process. The marriage certificate shall remain
confidential and not open to public inspection except upon
order of the court issued upon a showing of good cause.
Notary publics, approved by the court clerk, may authorize
confidential marriages provided they have taken a course of
instruction, paid the required $175 annual fee and complied
with other requirements.
4)Requires the State Registrar, upon request, to supply any
marriage applicant with a decorative heirloom marriage
certificate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
analysis, a minor county General Fund increase in fee revenue of
less than $130,000 for increasing annual notary fees from $175
to $400. These revenues will be used to offset increases
training requirements established by this bill. According to
estimates, approximately 750 notaries issue confidential
marriage licenses in 14 counties statewide.
COMMENTS : This bill, sponsored by the California Association of
Clerks and Election Officials, seeks to make technical and
clarifying changes to the law regarding issuance of marriage
licenses and to establish procedures for issuing confidential
marriage licenses through notary publics. This bill would also
require both parties to a marriage license to appear, in person,
together before the county clerk, subject to exceptions.
According to the author:
AB 1102 clarifies outdated and unclear language of
statutes to reflect current procedures for issuance
and registration of marriage licenses. In addition,
it creates stricter regulations for the issuance of
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confidential marriage licenses in order to minimize
fraud as well as increase the proficiency of notary
publics who are authorized to issue confidential
marriage licenses.
While the bill makes numerous changes to the law surrounding
marriage licenses, most of the changes are indeed technical in
nature and other changes conform the law to actual practices by
the county clerks, the courts and the State Registrar. There
are a few exceptions that involve more extensive changes to the
law, discussed below.
While not all clerks offices authorize notary publics to issue
confidential marriage licenses, those that do have reported
significant problems, resulting in delays, overcharging and
fraud. The problems include errors in completing the marriage
licenses, selling or transferring the licenses to unauthorized
persons, charging fees which exceed the established fee for the
license, issuing the confidential licenses to couples who do not
qualify (because they are not living together) and performing
the marriage outside of the county.
According to the author, this bill seeks to correct those
problems by enabling county clerks to establish policies and
procedures for the acceptance of applications of notary publics
to issue confidential marriage licenses and by giving clerks the
authority to suspend or revoke applications of notary publics
not complying with the requirements. It would also allow for a
more extensive training course of instruction for notaries, thus
helping ensure that notaries are properly trained. This bill
would also raise the annual application fee for these notaries
from $175 to $400.
Current law does not require that both parties appear in person,
together before the county clerk to obtain their marriage
license. For a regular marriage license, the law requires that
applicants fill out the form "in the presence of the county
clerk." Confidential marriage licenses can be issued by the
clerk to the person solemnizing the marriage if one or both
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parties are unable to appear in person, provided that person has
an affidavit, signed by the parties to be married, "explaining
the reasons for the inability to appear."
This bill requires the parties to be married, whether through a
regular marriage license or a confidential one, to appear
together in the clerk's office to obtain the marriage license.
The one exception would be if either or both parties were
physically unable to appear in person. In that case, the person
solemnizing the marriage could present an affidavit, signed and
notarized by the party or parties who could not be present,
explaining why they could not appear. Sufficient reason why
they could not appear includes hospitalization, incarceration or
any other reason proved to the satisfaction of the county clerk.
The clerks believe that this requirement should minimize
fraudulent marriages.
Currently county clerks are required to transfer copies of all
original confidential marriage certificates to the State
Registrar of Vital Records. Apparently, the State Registrar
stores the copies in boxes with no index system so that, for all
practical purposes, the records are unavailable. This bill
would delete the requirement that copies be transferred to the
State Registrar. The original would remain with the county
clerk and be subject to inspection only with a court order.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
FN: 0009918