Searching For San Diego County Divorce Records

The California Department of Public Health Vital Records can help you achieve the information you need concerning divorce incidents that took place in the said region.  The said agency can provide you with relevant details on divorce occurrences which gained approval between 1962 to June 1984.  Since certified copies of the San Diego County Divorce Records can only be obtained from the Superior Court where the divorce was granted, the above-mentioned bureau can only release a Certificate of Record to the requesting parties.

The issuance of a divorce document comes in two types, the authorized duplicate and the informational copy. The acquisition of the former is limited only to those persons whose names appear on the record, their parents, child, grandchild, grand parent, brother, sister, spouse or domestic partner.  Those individuals who are members of a law enforcement bureau can be given an authorized copy of a particular divorce file as long as the retrieval of said record is for the conduct of an official business.  Also, representatives of another government institution may recover such document as long as a proper authorization letter from the government agency is presented.  You may also check the worldwide web for a detailed list of approved individuals and agencies.

One should take note that the Vital Records Bureau will only accept orders made via mail.  Before you start preparing your application, you must determine if the record you want exists in the registry of the said agency.  After which, you need to find-out if you are allowed to request for an authorized copy or just the informational duplicate.  There is a specific application form that you need to complete as you make your demand.  The proper forms are available online and the same can be downloaded for your convenience.  As with any other record request, there are relevant fees involved.  The processing fee of your application submitted in the state office may not be the same amount if you make your order from your local office.  So to make sure of the current fees, you can make use of the Internet and check-out the online facilities maintained by the concerned agencies.

In case the agency you approached could not find the record you need, said office will provide you with a Certificate of No Record.  However, the payment you disbursed to cover the processing fees will not be returned.  A specific State Law authorizes such payment to be considered as a search fee and therefore no refunds are made.

If you are desperate to get hold of a particular divorce record, you can communicate with the Superior Court of the specific county where the divorce was finalized rather than send your petition to the state agency.  As the state office usually receives a huge number of applications, most probably, the time to process your request may take longer than the standard processing period.  Your order for a particular San Diego County divorce decree submitted to your county office might only take one whole week to process.  It is something that one gets to appreciate especially if one is experiencing time constraints.