Pen. Code, § 70.5 · Title 5. OF CRIMES BY AND AGAINST THE EXECUTIVE POWER OF THE STATE
Pen. Code, § 70.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Every commissioner of civil marriages or every deputy commissioner of civil marriages who accepts any money or other thing of value for performing any marriage pursuant to Section 401 of the Family Code, including any money or thing of value voluntarily tendered by the persons about to be married or who have been married by the commissioner of civil marriages or deputy commissioner of civil marriages, other than a fee expressly imposed by law for performance of a marriage, whether the acceptance occurs before or after performance of the marriage and whether or not performance of the marriage is conditioned on the giving of such money or the thing of value by the persons being married, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
It is not a necessary element of the offense described by this section that the acceptance of the money or other thing of value be committed with intent to commit extortion or with other criminal intent.
This section does not apply to the request or acceptance by any retired commissioner of civil marriages of a fee for the performance of a marriage.
This section is inapplicable to the acceptance of a fee for the performance of a marriage on Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1992, Ch. 163, Sec. 100. Effective January 1, 1993. Operative January 1, 1994, by Sec. 161 of Ch. 163.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=70.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 1773fcc5b55a97954dfb600785b9f9ca21d7f9df98f58e92d6d71b3a6fd93a5e
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.