AB 1134: Coerced marriage. - California

04/23/25 - Amended Assembly → 09/08/25 - Enrolled · 5 edits · Sep 8, 2025

MODERATE

The enrolled version of AB 1134 significantly narrows the bill's approach to marriage nullity time limits compared to the amended assembly version. Instead of immediately eliminating all statutes of limitations for nullity proceedings, the enrolled bill retains four-year filing deadlines and only adds a narrow judicial exception (good cause) for force-based coerced marriage cases beginning January 1, 2027. The bill also finalizes gender-neutral language in the Penal Code's coerced marriage statute and removes the defilement offense.

REQUIREMENT

The amended assembly version would have immediately removed all time limits for marriage nullity proceedings (allowing them 'at any time'). The enrolled version instead keeps four-year filing deadlines for fraud, force, and physical incapacity grounds, both before and after January 1, 2027.

ELIGIBILITY

The good cause exception allowing courts to accept late-filed nullity petitions is limited to cases where consent was obtained by force (coerced marriage), rather than applying to all nullity grounds as the earlier version would have done.

TIMELINE

The four-year time limits now apply immediately upon enactment and continue after January 1, 2027. The good cause exception for force-based cases only becomes available on January 1, 2027, rather than having no time limits at all from the start.

SCOPE

The Penal Code Section 265 amendment in the enrolled version cleanly removes the 'defilement' offense and uses gender-neutral language ('compels another person... to marry them or to marry another person'), whereas the amended assembly version retained awkward transitional markup still referencing defilement.

Assembly Member Kalra as coauthor is removed in the enrolled version, leaving only Assembly Member Bains as the author.

10/11/25 - Chaptered → AB1134 · 2 edits

MINOR

No substantive policy changes occurred between these two versions. The diff reflects a reformatting of the same enacted bill (Chapter 633, approved October 11, 2025) from the official chaptered document layout to a web-based bill tracking page format. All legal provisions regarding coerced marriage remain identical.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted from the official chaptered document (with page numbers, centered headers, and traditional legislative formatting) to a web page layout that includes navigation elements (skip to content, home, accessibility, FAQ, etc.), a version selector, and metadata fields.

A Digest Key section was added showing administrative metadata: Vote: MAJORITY, Appropriation: NO, Fiscal Committee: YES, Local Program: NO. This is informational only and does not change the bill's substance.

04/01/25 - Amended Assembly → 04/23/25 - Amended Assembly · 6 edits · Apr 23, 2025

MODERATE

AB 1134 was significantly revised between April 1 and April 23, 2025. The bill narrowed its criminal law changes by removing the provision that criminalized attempts to force marriage and eliminating the separate defilement offense from Penal Code Section 265. On the civil side, instead of deleting all time limits for nullity petitions (as the prior version did), the revised bill keeps existing four-year deadlines but adds a new mechanism effective January 1, 2027, allowing courts to grant extensions for force-based nullity petitions upon a showing of good cause. A coauthor (Assembly Member Kalra) was added and the state-mandated local program designation was removed.

SCOPE

Removed the criminalization of attempts to force marriage. The prior version punished both compelling and attempting to compel; the revised version only punishes actual compulsion.

Eliminated the crime of compelling a person to be defiled from Penal Code Section 265, narrowing the statute to cover only forced marriage.

Assembly Member Kalra was added as a coauthor of the bill.

TIMELINE

Replaced the prior approach of eliminating all time limits for nullity petitions with a phased approach: existing four-year deadlines remain in effect until January 1, 2027, after which a new version takes over that keeps the deadlines but allows courts to grant extensions for force-based petitions upon a showing of good cause.

ENFORCEMENT

Added a provision requiring the Judicial Council to modify or develop forms necessary to implement the new court-discretion extension process for late-filed force-based nullity petitions, effective January 1, 2027.

FISCAL

Removed the state-mandated local program designation and the associated reimbursement provision (former Section 4), changing the fiscal committee determination from yes to no.

09/08/25 - Enrolled → 10/11/25 - Chaptered · 3 edits · Oct 11, 2025

MINOR

No substantive policy changes occurred between these two versions. The differences are entirely formatting and presentation changes that occur when a bill transitions from its enrolled form (after passing both houses) to its chaptered form (after the Governor signs it into law). The bill was assigned Chapter 633 and approved by the Governor on October 11, 2025.

TECHNICAL

Header changed from legislative process format (Assembly and Senate passage dates, clerk signatures) to official state authentication format with 'STATE OF CALIFORNIA AUTHENTICATED ELECTRONIC LEGICAL MATERIAL' and chapter number 633.

Governor's approval date (October 11, 2025) and filing date were added to the official header.

Text was reformatted throughout for the official codified layout, including line breaks, page numbering, and column alignment. No words were added or removed from the operative provisions.

03/10/25 - Amended Assembly → 04/01/25 - Amended Assembly · 4 edits · Apr 1, 2025

MODERATE

AB 1134 was amended to remove all time limits for seeking annulment of a marriage based on fraud, force, underage consent, or physical incapacity, and to make the criminal statute for coerced marriage and defilement fully gender-neutral. Previously, the crime only protected women from being compelled by men; now it protects any person from any other person. The age-equal application clause was also simplified for clarity.

REQUIREMENT

All time limits for filing a nullity of marriage proceeding were eliminated. Victims can now seek annulment at any time after the marriage (or after discovering fraud), rather than being limited to four years as before.

SCOPE

The criminal statute in Penal Code Section 265 was made gender-neutral. The old law only criminalized a man taking a woman against her will to compel marriage or defilement. The new law applies to any person compelling any other person, regardless of the gender of either party.

DEFINITION

The age-equal application provision (Section 265(b)) was reworded from a longer formulation listing 'attempted force marriage, forced marriage, attempted defilement, or defilement' to a simpler statement that the section applies equally regardless of the victim's age at the time of the forced marriage or defilement.

TECHNICAL

The bill's digest was updated to remove the 'Abduction for marriage or defilement' heading and add language about equal application regardless of age. Section numbering was reorganized so the repeal of old Section 265 now precedes the addition of the new section.

02/20/25 - Introduced → 03/10/25 - Amended Assembly · 3 edits · Mar 10, 2025

MINOR

The amended version adds a new component to the bill that removes all time limits for seeking annulment (nullity) of marriage under Family Code Section 2211. Previously, victims had to file within specific windows (generally 4 years); now they can file at any time. The criminal provisions in Penal Code Section 265 remain substantively the same, with only minor grammatical corrections.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded from solely amending the Penal Code (criminal law on forced marriage/defilement) to also amending the Family Code, removing time limits for marriage annulment proceedings. This adds a civil remedy component that allows victims of coerced or fraudulent marriages to seek annulment indefinitely.

SCOPE

New Section 1 amends Family Code Section 2211 to eliminate all time limits for seeking a judgment of nullity of marriage. Victims can now file at any time for causes including underage marriage, fraud, force, and physical incapacity, rather than being limited to a 4-year window.

REQUIREMENT

For underage marriage (Section 2210(a)), the time limit changed from 'within four years after arriving at the age of consent' to 'at any time.' For fraud (Section 2210(d)), it changed from 'within four years after discovery of the facts' to 'at any time.' For force (Section 2210(e)), it changed from 'within four years after the marriage' to 'at any time.' For physical incapacity (Section 2210(f)), it changed from 'within four years after the marriage' to 'at any time.'

TECHNICAL

Penal Code Section 265 subsection (a) had grammatical corrections: 'Compel or make any attempts' was changed to 'Compels or makes any attempt' in all three subclauses. No substantive change to the criminal offense.

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