BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1102
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1102 (Hancock)
As Amended August 22, 2006
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |42-32|(May 9, 2005) |SENATE: |22-15|(August 28, |
| | | | | |2006) |
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Original Committee Reference: JUD.
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 the county clerk to exercise reasonable discretion as
to whether to approve a confidential marriage licensee.
Requires a notary public, before he or she can be approved to
issue confidential marriages, or before his or her application
to do so can be renewed, the notary public must complete a
course given by the county clerk, not to exceed six hours in
duration. 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
$300.
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
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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, including
confidential marriage certificates, be transmitted to the
State Registrar not less than quarterly, as specified. Allows
the Registrar to respond to inquiries regarding confidential
marriages, but may not disclose the date of such marriages.
8)Eliminates issuance, upon request, of a decorative heirloom
marriage certificate by the State Registrar.
9)Effective January 1, 2007, allows an applicant, witness or
person solemnizing a marriage ceremony to use his or her
business address or post office box, in addition to a
residential address, on the certificate of registry or
marriage license.
10)Makes this bill's provisions effective January 1, 2008,
unless otherwise provided.
11)Contains provisions to avoid conflicts with AB 2051.
The Senate amendments make changes to the process for notary
publics to issue confidential marriage licenses, including
changing the notary public license fee to $300 a year and make
changes set forth in the summary # 9-11, above.
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.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar,
except as set forth above.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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
confidential marriage licenses in order to minimize
fraud as well as increase the proficiency of notary
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publics who are authorized to issue confidential
marriage licenses.
While this 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 allowing for a 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 $300.
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
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.
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
FN:
0017232