Geeky folks may actually find it rewarding to be able to retrieve Public Divorce Records free of charge from state agencies but the majority of us are not likely to be cut out for the task. In itself, government sources for public information has always tend to be a test of patience, not least if you're researching State Divorce Records and all the more so if you are attempting to extract California Divorce Records in particular from the Office of Vital Records of California.

The California Department of Health Services (CHDS) has recently reorganized into the following two departments: The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and The California Department of Public Health (CDPH). If it's public records of Californians you are after, CDPH is the responsible department. One of their services is maintaining a central registry of California Marriages and Divorces. This task is undertaken through their Office of Vital Records under the Certificate and Licenses Unit.

The Vital Records of California 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.

The information attached in a Certificate of Record includes the names of the divorcing parties, the county it happened at and the divorce court case number. This applies to divorces that were never finalized in court and the average processing time is 6 months but exceeds that easily during peak periods. It's also important to note that a Certificate of Record does not constitute a Divorce Decree. It merely indicates that a divorce was filed.

The centre stage of California Divorce Records is the California Divorce Decrees. They can be obtained solely from the Superior Court in the county where the divorce was filed and granted. Besides the basic information pertaining to the divorce, it is to principally state the settlement ruling of the separation such as asset division, alimony and children custody, support and visitation. All divorces, contested or uncontested and fault or no-fault will be issued with an official decree upon its finalization by the courts.

Divorce records and other associated information about an individual are commonly found in his or her Marriage Records as these two vital records inherently go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, a recognized alternative term for divorce records is Records of Marriage Dissolution so that would be a good place to look when sizing up someone's divorce background. Divorce records often show up as substantive information in a marriage record search conducted through commercial records providers and vice-versa.

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.