The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) It is the policy of the State of California (1) to marshal, preserve, and protect community and quasi-community assets and liabilities that exist at the date of separation so as to avoid dissipation of the community estate before distribution, (2) to ensure fair and sufficient child and spousal support awards, and (3) to achieve a division of community and quasi-community assets and liabilities on the dissolution or nullity of marriage or legal separation of the parties as provided under California law.

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Terms Used In California Family Code 2100

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Community estate: includes both community property and quasi-community property. See California Family Code 63
  • Date of separation: means the date that a complete and final break in the marital relationship has occurred, as evidenced by both of the following:

    California Family Code 70

  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • order: include a decree, as appropriate under the circumstances. See California Family Code 100
  • Proceeding: includes an action. See California Family Code 110
  • Spousal support: means support of the spouse of the obligor. See California Family Code 142
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, or a commonwealth, territory, or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See California Family Code 145
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.

(b) Sound public policy further favors the reduction of the adversarial nature of marital dissolution and the attendant costs by fostering full disclosure and cooperative discovery.

(c) In order to promote this public policy, a full and accurate disclosure of all assets and liabilities in which one or both parties have or may have an interest must be made in the early stages of a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or legal separation of the parties, regardless of the characterization as community or separate, together with a disclosure of all income and expenses of the parties. Moreover, each party has a continuing duty to immediately, fully, and accurately update and augment that disclosure to the extent there have been any material changes so that at the time the parties enter into an agreement for the resolution of any of these issues, or at the time of trial on these issues, each party will have a full and complete knowledge of the relevant underlying facts.

(Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 703, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.)