Article 2. Local Administration of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 102. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 2.
The health officer of any approved local health department,
as defined in Article 1 (commencing with Section 101175) of Part 3
of Division 101 and approved thereunder, is the local registrar in
and for all registration districts within that health jurisdiction
and shall perform all the duties of local registrar of births and
deaths.
In other areas, the State Registrar shall appoint a local
registrar of births and deaths for each registration district, whose
term of office shall be four years. The State Registrar may remove
such appointee forthwith for failure or neglect to perform his or her
duty.
The county recorder is the local registrar of marriages and
shall perform all the duties of the local registrar of marriages.
Each assistant or deputy of a local registrar may perform
all of the duties of the local registrar in the name and place of his
or her principal.
Each local registrar is hereby charged with the enforcement
of this part in his or her registration district under the
supervision and direction of the State Registrar and shall make an
immediate report to the State Registrar of any violation of this law
coming to his or her knowledge.
Each local registrar shall supply blank forms to persons
who require them.
The local registrar of births and deaths shall carefully
examine each certificate before acceptance for registration and, if
any are not completed in a manner consistent with the policies
established by the State Registrar, he or she shall require further
information to be furnished as may be necessary to make the record
consistent with those policies before acceptance for registration.
The local registrar of marriages shall carefully examine
each license before acceptance for registration and, if it is
incomplete or unsatisfactory, he or she shall require any further
information to be furnished as may be necessary to make the record
satisfactory before acceptance for registration.
The local registrar shall affix his or her signature to
each certificate in attest to the date of acceptance for registration
in his or her office.
The local registrar shall number the certificates of live
birth, fetal death, and death consecutively in separate series,
beginning with number one for the first event in each calendar year.
The local registrar shall number each marriage certificate
consecutively beginning with the number one for either the first
event occurring, or first event registered in, each calendar year.
Numbering may be based on either the year that the event occurs or
the year of registration.
The local registrar shall make a complete and accurate copy
of each certificate accepted for registration and shall preserve it
in his or her office as the local registrar's copy of the record in
the manner directed by the State Registrar.
Each local registrar of births and deaths, except a local
registrar of a city and county shall transmit to the county recorder
for a special county record at the same time the original
certificates are forwarded to the State Registrar a copy of each
original birth certificate and death certificate.
In lieu of the procedure outlined above in this section, the
county recorder may make the copies of certificates for the special
county record, in which case the original certificates shall be
transmitted by the local registrar to the county recorder for this
purpose, after which the county recorder shall forward the original
certificates to the State Registrar pursuant to Section 102345.
Any local registrar serving a county-wide health
jurisdiction of over 550,000 population, as determined by the
official 1950 census, and in whose office is maintained a central
depository of birth and death records, is excepted from Section
102335.
(a) The local registrar of births and deaths shall transmit
each week to the State Registrar all original certificates accepted
for registration by him or her during the preceding week.
(b) This section shall become operative on January 1, 1993.
(a) The local registrar of births and deaths shall transmit
each month to the Department of Industrial Relations a copy of each
certificate of death for which the death has been marked as
work-related and which was accepted for registration by him or her
during the preceding month.
(b) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2003.
The county board of supervisors may, by resolution, require
the local registrar to send a copy of each certificate of death to
the physician and surgeon whose statement appears on the certificate
pursuant to Section 102825.
The local registrar of marriages shall transmit to the
State Registrar not less than quarterly all original marriage
certificates accepted for registration by him or her during the
preceding quarter. Certificates shall be batched by calendar year of
event prior to transmission. Certificates may be transmitted at more
frequent intervals by arrangement with the State Registrar.
The local registrar of births and deaths shall furnish to
the registrar of voters or county clerk not later than the 15th day
of each month a notification of all deceased persons 18 years of age
and over whose deaths were registered with him or her or of whose
deaths he or she was notified by the state registrar of vital
statistics during the preceding month. This notification shall
include at least the name, social security number, sex, age,
birthplace, birthdate, place of residence, and date and place of
death for each decedent. Copies of this notification list shall be
sent at the same time to the county welfare department and the local
district social security office.
Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a local
registrar of births and deaths, after one year from the date of
registration and with the approval of, and under the supervision of,
the State Registrar, may dispose of the local registrar's copies of
the records, if both of the following exist:
(a) The original copies of the records are on file in the office
of the State Registrar.
(b) Copies of the records are on file in the office of the county
recorder. If the county recorder does not have copies of the records,
he or she may accept the local registrar's copies as a special
county record of the events.
The local custodian of records is hereby authorized to
receive original records or abstracts of records of any birth or
death that were filed with any political subdivision prior to July 1,
1905, and to retain them as a special county record of the events.
Special county records of birth certificates and death
certificates transmitted and filed with the county recorder under
this article shall be open for inspection by the public in accordance
with regulations adopted by the department for local registrars.
Nothing in this section shall authorize the use of a certificate
marked pursuant to subdivision (a) of former Section 10056.5 by any
person compiling a business contact list.
The county recorder and the local registrar of births and
deaths, with the approval and under the supervision of the State
Registrar and with the approval of the board of supervisors of any
county or city and county by ordinance, may authorize the transfer of
special county records of deaths and marriages and local registrar's
records of deaths for events that occurred subsequent to July 1,
1905, to a private nonprofit agency or public agency that shall
preserve the records for local public use. The receiving agency shall
protect and preserve the records to assure access for any person who
has a need or interest in reviewing the records, and shall prohibit
the photocopying or sale of copies of the records, but may convert
the records to microform format.
If the office of the local registrar or the county recorder does
not have copies of the records, that office is hereby authorized to
accept them from the county recorder or local registrar.
If a public agency or private nonprofit agency that
receives copies of records pursuant to this section is unable to
assure the continued preservation and protection of those records for
public use, the records shall be returned to the contributing local
registrar or county recorder.
Any record of death and marriage transferred to a public
agency or private nonprofit agency pursuant to Section 102380 is
exempt from Sections 102230 and 103245.
Special county records of birth, death, and marriage and
the local registrar's records of birth, death, and marriage shall be
subject to Sections 26205.5 and 26205.7 of the Government Code.