Legal Question in Family Law in California

You are "married" but in a void marriage - one that is legally invalid. Unfortunately this is a serious mess that needs to be cleaned up. The good news is that if his ex is cooperative, it is a very straight-forward process that if handled properly will leave no residual problems. What you must do is obtain an annulment, complete his divorce, and then re-marry (not necessarily in that order). The law provides for annulments in this kind of situation in which the court can issue a finding of a "putative marriage." That has the effect of treating the void marriage as valid for most financial purposes, and that in turn means that if you get his divorce completed before the annulment goes through you can remarry immediately, almost same-day, and most if not all repercussions of the problem will go away. Two things I want to emphasize, however: 1. Do NOT think this will just go away or you can ignore it. Things like social security benefits, some insurance, tax filing status, etc., all depend on a valid marriage. Knowing your marriage is void, you cannot go on pretending you are legally married, as you risk having benefits denied and even accusations of fraud. 2. As straight-forward as the process is, an annulment is very technical and requires at least one court appearance. So it is NOT something you can just pick up a "do your own divorce" book and figure out. You will need to hire an attorney. I have actually done two of these cases in the last couple of years, which is kind of odd since I had never had one before in the last 25 years. But I have the process down and can do it for you as inexpensively as possible. I have client service facilities in Sacramento. If you would like further assistance, please let me know. Otherwise, please contact the Sacramento Bar Association for a referral to another family law attorney.

That does not make sense. A divorce decree is a piece of paper labelled judgment that states that the marital status of the parties has been terminated. The document is signed by a judge, but it does not have to be notarized to be valid. He needs to find out if he is divorced or not, and not run around talking to a bunch of know it alls that don't know what they are doing. Have him consult with an attorney.