Legal Question in Family Law in California

I don't know what your question is? The marriage certificate does not have to be recorded, or filed in California for the marriage to be valid. If the marriage is valid in Nevada it would be valid in California. Your daughter, assuming that she reasonably believed they were married, would have the same rights as if she was legally married. The same would not apply to him, assuming he knew the marriage was invalid.

Marriage certificates or licenses are only recorded in the state and county in which the marriage takes place. I don't know why he said he would record it in California. No California county clerk/recorder would ever accept a marriage license or certificate from another state, or even from another county in California. So that has nothing to do with the validity of the marriage. The Nevada marriage is, however, entirely void due to bigamy. As Mr. Johnson said, however, that does not mean your daughter doesn't have the same community property rights, etc., that she would have if they were married. If a person enters into a bigamous marriage with an unwitting spouse, they cannot then use their criminal and fraudulent conduct to escape their marital obligations. So if this marriage is on the rocks and your daughter wants out, she should be entitled to all the rights she would have had the marriage been valid, and probably additional civil damages as well. And of course she can press criminal charges for bigamy. If the marriage is good, and she just wants to forgive and move on, then they do need to get properly and legally married. It can be a simple civil process, probably handled all in one day by going down to the county clerk, taking out a wedding license, having the Commissioner of Marriages (every county has one, usually someone in the clerk's office or at least in the same building) conduct the vows, and recording the license back at the clerk's office. If she does want to stay in the relationship, however, I cannot recommend strongly enough that she have a pre-nuptual agreement to establish that all her rights from the bigamous marriage are retained, particularly including all community property and support rights. Please feel free to contact me via the email in my LawGuru profile if you have follow-up questions or concerns.