Legal Question in Family Law in California

You can inform the DA [people do not file criminal charges, they make complaints to the DA who may then file a criminal charge] but not if you try to force your husband to pay you money instead of your telling the DA of the crime.

What Mr. Shers means is don't try to use the bigamy threat as blackmail in the divorce. It will only get you charged with extortion. He correctly states that you cannot file criminal charges; only the DA can do that. Lastly, there is a three-year statute of limitations on bigamy if charged as a felony, one year if charged as a misdemeanor. So if you want to try to get the DA to charge him, you need to contact the DA immediately. On a brighter note, however, converting your divorce to an annullment based on bigamy may have substantial advantages in allocation of attorneys fees and in property distribution.