Prenup attorney in Concord
This office prepares prenuptial and postnuptial agreements for people marrying in Concord. The matter runs through your own portal, so you are not asked to come anywhere to sign anything.
Below: where a Concord couple gets the marriage licence, where a case would be heard if the agreement were ever disputed, and what has to happen before either of you signs.
Nothing is charged until you have read and signed the fee agreement.
Where a Concord couple gets the marriage licence
Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder, 555 Escobar Street, Martinez. Not in Concord. The clerk office and the family law centre are both at Martinez.
This is the office for the county, and a licence is a county document rather than a city one.
Both of you go in person, with identification, and the licence is issued the same day. It is valid for ninety days, so there is no advantage in getting it early, and no relationship between the licence and the agreement: neither depends on the other and they are handled by different people at different times.
Where a Concord case would be heard
Peter L. Spinetta Family Law Center, 751 Pine Street, Martinez. It serves the whole of Contra Costa County for family law.
Not in Concord. Contra Costa hears family law at Martinez, about ten miles north-west, in a building given over to it.
A premarital agreement is not filed with any court
Naming a courthouse on this page invites an obvious question, so here is the answer: nothing is filed. A premarital agreement is a private document between two people. It is not lodged with Peter L. Spinetta Family Law Center, not recorded anywhere, and no judge sees it when it is made.
The courthouse matters for one reason only. If the agreement is ever disputed, that dispute happens in a dissolution, and the dissolution is heard there. Knowing which building that is tells you whose procedures would apply and where the papers would go, years from now, in a situation nobody is planning for.
The practical consequence is that there is no filing fee, no queue and no waiting on a court for anything. What takes the time is the periods before signing, not any court.
A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties. It does not require consideration. Fam. Code, § 1611
What you would actually do
Nothing in a Concord matter requires you to come to an office. The whole matter runs through your own portal: you answer the questions about what you own and what you owe, the schedules are prepared and served, the agreement is drafted and served, the periods run, and the signing opens when they have.
This office is in Burbank. Clients across California are acted for the same way, and where you live changes the licence office and the courthouse named above and nothing else about how a matter is run.
The two things worth knowing before you start are that the fee is flat and quoted before anything begins, and that nothing is charged until the fee agreement has been read and signed.
This office quotes a flat fee before any work begins, and the written fee agreement states what it covers, when each part is earned, and your right to a refund of anything not earned.
The requirements do not change from city to city
Nothing about what has to happen before signing varies by city. It is the same in Los Angeles as in Bakersfield, and it is set out in full on the pages linked below rather than repeated here.
Two are worth naming because they decide the timetable more than anything else. There is a period before signing, counted in calendar days, and there is a second one attached to the written advice to seek independent counsel. Where they start on different days, the later of them governs.
On an agreement signed on or after 1 January 2020, at least seven calendar days must pass between the day a party is first given the final agreement and the day that party signs it, whether or not that party has a lawyer. Fam. Code, § 1615, subd. (c)(2)(B)
A premarital agreement is not treated as signed voluntarily unless the party against whom it is later asserted was represented by their own independent lawyer when they signed, or was advised to seek one and expressly waived that right in a separate signed writing. Fam. Code, § 1615, subd. (c)(1)
Concord in practice
- Your marriage licence
- Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder, 555 Escobar Street, Martinez. Not in Concord. The clerk office and the family law centre are both at Martinez.
- Where a case would be heard
- Peter L. Spinetta Family Law Center, 751 Pine Street, Martinez.
Checked against contracosta.courts.ca.gov, Spinetta Family Law Center; contracosta.ca.gov, Clerk-Recorder.
Common questions
- Do we have to come to an office in Concord?
- This office quotes a flat fee before any work begins, and the written fee agreement states what it covers, when each part is earned, and your right to a refund of anything not earned.
- Is the agreement filed with the court?
- A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties. It does not require consideration.
- How long before the wedding do we need to start?
- On an agreement signed on or after 1 January 2020, at least seven calendar days must pass between the day a party is first given the final agreement and the day that party signs it, whether or not that party has a lawyer.
- Does each of us need our own lawyer?
- A premarital agreement is not treated as signed voluntarily unless the party against whom it is later asserted was represented by their own independent lawyer when they signed, or was advised to seek one and expressly waived that right in a separate signed writing.
Nothing is charged until you have read and signed the fee agreement.
Questions before you start? Telephone the office on (818) 337-4071, or open a matter and it can be dealt with in your portal.