The mandatory and optional forms of the California Judicial Council are the subject of this article. California Judicial Council forms are approved as mandatory or approved as an option pursuant to the provisions of California Government Code Section 68511. Mandatory forms must be used. You may not need to use the elective forms even though the local rules of some courts make the use of some or all of the elective judicial council forms mandatory in courts located in that county, so any California attorneys or parties involved in litigation should review the rules of their local courts carefully.
An example of a mandatory form is Form FL-100 which is the petition form used to request dissolution, legal separation, or annulment in California. An example of an optional form is Form FL-145, which is an interrogation form that can be used for family law cases. The first few letters of the model number indicate the type of case for which it is designed. For example, FL stands for Family Law Form.
Certain types of litigation in California, such as family law and probate, require the use of several mandatory court forms.
To determine whether a particular Judicial Council form is mandatory or optional, look at the bottom left corner of the first page of that form. This will indicate whether the form has been approved as mandatory or approved as an option by the California Judicial Council.
Optional forms must be accepted by all courts pursuant to California Court Rule 1.35 as long as they are applicable to the state in which they are used.
The fact that some people in the legal profession do not know is that the lower right corner of the first page of many, if not most, Judicial Council forms cite the sections of the California Code that apply to that particular form. For example, Form FL-145 cited earlier cites CPC Sections 2030.10 through 2030.410 as well as CPC Section 2033.710 all of which are applicable to this form. Anyone who is presented with a form may wish to carefully review the lower right corner of the first page, and then review all sections of code mentioned. This may be useful in some cases.
To browse all California Judicial Council forms, you can visit the official California Courts website at the following link: http://www.courts.ca.gov/forms.htm
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