Is my divorce public record, and can I keep our financial details out of it?

The starting point: court records are presumed open

California Rules of Court, rule 2.550(c) states that unless confidentiality is required by law, court records are presumed to be open. A record, as rule 2.550(b)(1) defines it, is all or part of any document, paper, exhibit, transcript or other thing filed or lodged with the court. A petition, a judgment and the papers filed between them are records in that sense.

Sealing is the exception, and it takes a court order. Rule 2.550(b)(2) defines a sealed record as one that by court order is not open to inspection by the public. The Family Code sections discussed below deal with particular documents: one provides for a request to seal a financial pleading, and the other lets a spouse black out a social security number. None of them, as written, closes an entire divorce file.

So the practical question is less "is my divorce public?" than "what financial information goes into the file at all, and what can be kept out of it?" The answer starts with what a divorce files and what it only serves.

The disclosures are served, not filed

Under Family Code section 2104, each spouse serves the other with a preliminary declaration of disclosure, and subdivision (b) states that the declaration shall not be filed with the court, except on court order. What the spouses file is proof that it was served. Subdivision (d) lets a spouse amend the declaration without leave of court, and again only the proof of service of the amendment is filed. Subdivision (e) requires an income and expense declaration to go to the other spouse along with it, unless a current one has already been provided.

The final declaration of disclosure under section 2105(a) is likewise served on the other spouse, unless the two of you mutually waive it. The Judicial Council's Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-140) says it directly: neither disclosure is filed with the court, and instead a declaration that service was completed or waived (form FL-141) is filed. The Schedule of Assets and Debts (form FL-142), the form that asks for bank names, branches and credit card account numbers, prints across its top that it should not be filed with the court.

Where both spouses waive the final disclosure, the Judicial Council's self-help guide says they sign and file a Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-144). That form is filed; the statements, tax returns and schedules behind it are not.

Where financial information still reaches the file

Some property information is filed, because the court cannot divide what it has not been told about. Item 10 of the Petition (form FL-100) has a box, item 10b, asking the court to determine rights to community and quasi-community assets and debts, which are then listed on a Property Declaration (form FL-160), on an attachment, or in the petition itself. The instructions to form FL-160 say that when it is attached to a petition or response for item 10, only column A, a brief description of each item, needs to be completed.

The judgment carries more. Rule 5.411(a) requires a stipulated judgment to be attached to the Judgment (form FL-180 or form FL-250) and to contain the exact terms of the judgment proposed, and rule 5.411(b) makes the stipulated judgment a written agreement between the parties on everything it covers. A stipulated judgment that assigns each account, vehicle and debt to one spouse is therefore filed with the Judgment. The FL-160 instructions add that courts may require a Property Declaration attached to a request to enter default or to the judgment, and that when it is filed that way, all of its columns are completed.

The same instructions draw a line around attachments: when a Property Declaration is filed with the court, the private financial documents listed in the instructions, such as deeds, statements, title documents and K-1s, are not to be filed with it. They are served on the other spouse with a disclosure, not placed in the court's file.

Family Code section 2024.6: what its text says

Section 2024.6 is the Family Code's provision on sealing financial information in a dissolution, nullity or legal separation case. Its text, read on October 19, 2026, still says in subdivision (a) that upon request by a party, the court shall order sealed a pleading that lists the parties' financial assets and liabilities and provides the location or identifying information about them. It says the request may be made by ex parte application, and that nothing sealed under the section may be unsealed except on petition to the court and good cause shown.

Subdivision (b) requires the Judicial Council form used to declare assets and liabilities to have the filer state whether it contains identifying information on the listed items. If the requesting party uses a pleading other than the Judicial Council form, that pleading must carry a notice on its front page, in bold capital letters, that it lists and identifies financial information and is therefore subject to the section. Subdivision (c) defines "pleading" for the section as a document that sets out or declares the parties' assets and liabilities or income and expenses, a marital settlement agreement that lists and identifies the parties' assets and liabilities, or any filed document incidental to that declaration or agreement that lists and identifies financial information.

Subdivision (d) has the spouse asking for sealing serve a copy of the pleading on the other spouse and file a proof of service with the request. Subdivision (e) says nothing in the section stops either spouse from using a document or information in a sealed pleading in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law.

In re Marriage of Burkle: the mandatory sealing held unconstitutional

In In re Marriage of Burkle (2006) 135 Cal.App.4th 1045, the California Court of Appeal concluded that section 2024.6 is unconstitutional on its face. The court held that the First Amendment provides a right of access to court records in divorce proceedings. It accepted that the privacy interests the statute protects may override that right in an appropriate case, but held that the statute is not narrowly tailored to serve them and that less restrictive means exist to achieve its objective. The opinion points to redaction of the specific identifying information as one such means.

The opinion records that the California Supreme Court denied review on May 17, 2006. The words of section 2024.6 remain in the Family Code, which is why the statute still reads as a command to seal. After Burkle, a request to seal a financial pleading is not granted automatically: it is decided under the general sealing standard in rules 2.550 and 2.551, described below, which requires the court to make specific findings before any record is sealed and to seal no more than the material that needs protection.

What section 2024.6 does and does not reach

The section's reach is limited by its own definition. It concerns a pleading that lists the assets and liabilities and provides their location or identifying information, and it names a settlement agreement only when the agreement lists and identifies them. The statute does not say that it reaches the petition generally, the names of the spouses, the fact that a case exists, or a judgment that does not list and identify financial information, and this post does not read more into it.

Section 2024.6 does not say when a request must be made, and it does not name a Judicial Council form for the request beyond the ex parte application it permits. Its text says nothing about findings; after Burkle, the findings that decide a request are the ones rule 2.550(d) requires.

Social security and account numbers

Two narrower rules apply whether or not anything is sealed. Family Code section 2024.5(a) lets the petitioner or respondent redact any social security number from any pleading, attachment or other written material filed in a dissolution, nullity or legal separation case, and requires the Judicial Council's petition and response forms to say so. The Petition (form FL-100) carries that notice. Subdivision (b) excludes forms used to collect child or spousal support, such as an abstract of support judgment, which may not be redacted under the section.

California Rules of Court, rule 1.201(a) goes further: parties must not include, or must redact where inclusion is necessary, social security numbers and financial account numbers from all pleadings and other papers filed in the court's public file, unless the law provides otherwise or the court orders it. Where a number is required, only its last four digits may be used. Under rule 1.201(b), that responsibility rests solely with the parties and their attorneys; the clerk does not review each paper for compliance. Rule 1.201(c) allows the court, on a showing of good cause, to order a confidential reference list on form MC-120 that pairs each redacted identifier with a reference, and rule 1.201(d) says the rule does not apply to records filed entirely under seal or confidentially.

Rules 2.550 and 2.551, the general sealing rules

Under the general rules, a request to seal a court record must meet the standard in rule 2.550. Rule 2.550(d) allows a court to order a record filed under seal only if it expressly finds facts establishing an overriding interest that overcomes the right of public access, that the interest supports sealing, that a substantial probability exists the interest will be prejudiced without sealing, that the sealing is narrowly tailored, and that no less restrictive means exist. Under rule 2.550(e), the order must specifically state the facts that support those findings and must seal only the documents and pages, or portions of them, that contain the material needing protection; everything else stays in the public file.

Rule 2.551(a) states that a record must not be filed under seal without a court order, and that the court must not permit sealing based solely on the agreement or stipulation of the parties. Two spouses who agree that their file should be private cannot make it so by agreement alone. Rule 2.551(b)(1) requires a motion or application supported by a memorandum and a declaration with facts sufficient to justify sealing, and rule 2.551(b)(4) has the requesting party lodge the record with the court when the motion or application is made, unless good cause exists for not lodging it or the record has previously been lodged; a lodged record is conditionally under seal until the motion or application is decided.

The rules also govern what the order says and how a sealed record is reopened. Rule 2.551(e)(2) requires the order to state whether the order itself, the register of actions or any other records in the case are sealed too, and rule 2.551(h)(1) says a sealed record must not be unsealed except on order of the court.

Rule 2.550(a)(1) says the two rules apply to records sealed or proposed to be sealed by court order, and rule 2.550(a)(2) says they do not apply to records that are required to be kept confidential by law. Neither rule names Family Code section 2024.6, and after Burkle a request to seal a financial pleading in a divorce is decided under this standard rather than granted on request.

Privacy when the divorce is agreed

In an agreed divorce, the disclosure schedules and statements pass only between the spouses, and what the court receives about them is a declaration that they were served or waived. The property descriptions in the petition and the stipulated judgment attached to the Judgment are filed, and rule 1.201(a) applies to them as to any other filed paper: a financial account number that has to appear is limited to its last four digits.

Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene represents one spouse only and prepares and reviews every document for a flat fee, in an engagement limited in scope under rule 5.425 of the California Rules of Court. The client, not the office, files the documents, following written filing instructions reviewed by the attorney, and the office does not serve papers, appear in court, provide a notary, or prepare or record deeds. Rozsa Gyene, State Bar of California No. 208356, 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505.