California Rule of Court 5.125: Preliminary and Final Disclosures

California Rule of Court 5.125 does not govern financial disclosure in a divorce. It covers the preparation, service, and submission of orders after hearing.¹ The mandatory disclosure requirements that people frequently look for under this rule number actually live in California Family Code sections 2100 through 2110. Those statutes require both spouses to exchange detailed financial information during a dissolution, legal separation, or nullity case, and no judgment on property or support can be entered until the exchange is complete or a valid waiver is on file.² Because the disclosure rules are what most people actually need when they search for 5.125, the rest of this article walks through them.

Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure

The first round of financial exchange is the Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure (PDD). Each party serves it on the other spouse, not on the court. The petitioner has 60 days after filing the petition, and the respondent has 60 days after filing the response. When the petition was served by publication and the respondent later files a response, the petitioner’s deadline shortens to 30 days after that response is filed.³

The PDD uses Form FL-140 as its cover sheet and must include:⁴

Schedule of Assets and Debts (Form FL-142), listing every asset and debt in which either spouse has or may have an interest, whether community or separate. Some courts also accept the Property Declaration (Form FL-160) as an alternative.
Income and Expense Declaration (Form FL-150), detailing monthly income from all sources, payroll deductions, and living expenses.
Copies of all tax returns filed within the two years before serving the disclosure.³
At least two months of recent pay stubs, or a profit-and-loss statement if you are self-employed.⁵

What “All Assets” Means

The PDD must identify every asset in which you have or may have an interest and every debt for which you are or may be liable.³ That reaches bank accounts, retirement plans, pensions, stock options, real property, vehicles, life insurance with cash value, cryptocurrency, and interests in businesses or partnerships. A share of a closely held company or professional practice needs to be disclosed with enough information for the other side to assess its value, including recent business financial statements, tax returns for the business, and any buy-sell agreements.

When property is not owned solely by one or both spouses, you must state your percentage of ownership in each asset and your percentage of obligation for each debt.³ You can also state how you characterize each item — community, quasi-community, or separate — but the other side is free to disagree, and the court decides if it comes to that.

Amending the Preliminary Disclosure

If you discover an asset you forgot or a debt you missed, you can amend the PDD at any time without asking the court. Serve the amendment on the other party and file proof of service.³ Amending voluntarily is safer than having the omission surface later and look like concealment.

Final Declaration of Disclosure

The Final Declaration of Disclosure (FDD) updates the preliminary version. It must be served before or at the time the parties sign a settlement agreement resolving property or support, or no later than 45 days before the first assigned trial date if the case does not settle.⁶ Like the PDD, it uses Form FL-140 as its cover sheet and must be accompanied by a current income and expense declaration.

The FDD is more detailed. It must cover:

How each asset and liability should be characterized (community, separate, or quasi-community)
The valuation of every asset claimed to be community property or in which the community has an interest
The amounts of all debts claimed to be community obligations
Updated earnings, expenses, and accumulations as reflected in the income and expense declaration⁶

Perjury in the final disclosure is an independent ground for setting aside the judgment later, in addition to any civil or criminal penalties that apply.⁶

Waiving the Final Disclosure

Spouses who have already exchanged preliminary disclosures and reached a settlement often skip the final round by mutual waiver. The waiver typically uses Form FL-144 (Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure) and must include sworn statements that:

Both parties completed and exchanged preliminary disclosures
Both parties exchanged current income and expense declarations
Both parties have fully updated their disclosures to reflect any material changes since the preliminary exchange⁶

The waiver can be signed in open court or executed as a separate written stipulation under penalty of perjury.⁶ Waiving the FDD does not waive the preliminary disclosure obligation or the ongoing duty to update.

What Gets Filed With the Court and What Does Not

The financial documents themselves never go to the court. Form FL-140, Form FL-142, Form FL-150, tax returns, and pay stubs are served only on the other spouse. Form FL-140 says in bold print not to file declarations of disclosure or financial attachments with the court.⁴ This keeps sensitive financial information out of the public court file.

What gets filed is the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure (Form FL-141). It tells the court that the exchange happened, which declarations were served (preliminary, final, or both), and how service was accomplished. It is signed under penalty of perjury.³ The FL-141, along with any FL-144 waiver of the FDD, is what the court checks before entering judgment. Without one of these on file, the case stalls.²

Your Continuing Duty to Update

Serving the initial disclosures does not end the obligation. Family Code section 2100 imposes a continuing duty to immediately, fully, and accurately update your financial disclosures whenever a material change occurs.⁷ A bonus, an inheritance, new debt, or the sale of an asset between the preliminary and final disclosures has to be communicated to the other side. The duty runs up to the date of the settlement agreement or trial, whichever comes first.

When Disclosure Is Not Required

The exceptions are narrow. In a summary dissolution — a simplified process for couples with limited assets, no children, and a short marriage — the standard disclosure rules do not apply. Summary dissolutions use their own streamlined financial exchange.⁸

In a true default case where the petition was served by publication or posting and the respondent never appeared, the petitioner is excused from serving the PDD on someone who cannot be reached.⁸ In every other default scenario, including where the respondent was personally served but chose not to respond, the petitioner must still serve the PDD and file proof of service before the court will enter a default judgment.⁵

Sanctions for Failing to Disclose

If one side refuses to serve disclosures, the complying party can request compliance informally first. If that fails, the statute offers three escalating options:

Motion to compel: ask the court to order the other side to produce the required documents.
Evidence exclusion: ask the court to bar the noncomplying party from presenting evidence on issues that should have been covered in the disclosure.
Voluntary waiver with preserved rights: ask the court to waive your right to receive the other party’s disclosure while preserving your ability to seek sanctions and set-aside relief later.⁹

On top of any specific remedy, the court is required to impose monetary sanctions on a noncomplying party. Sanctions must include reasonable attorney fees and costs the other side incurred to force compliance, and must be large enough to discourage the same behavior in the future. The only exception is when the court finds the noncomplying party had substantial justification or that imposing sanctions would be unjust. The statute also states that failure to comply is not harmless error, and a judgment entered without proper disclosure must be set aside.⁹

Consequences of Hiding Assets

The penalties for intentionally concealing assets go well beyond sanctions. Family Code section 1101 provides that when one spouse breaches the fiduciary duty by hiding or transferring community property, the court can award the other spouse 50 percent of the undisclosed asset’s value, plus attorney fees. The asset is valued at its highest point, whether that is the date of the breach, the date the asset was sold, or the date of the court’s award.¹⁰

When the concealment rises to fraud, oppression, or malice, the penalty doubles: the court can award 100 percent of the hidden asset to the injured spouse.¹⁰ Hiding a brokerage account worth $200,000 could mean losing the entire account to the other spouse rather than splitting it.

Time Limits for Setting Aside a Judgment

If you discover after the divorce is final that the other side lied on their disclosures or failed to disclose entirely, Family Code section 2122 allows a motion to set aside the judgment on three relevant grounds:

Fraud, when you were kept in the dark or prevented from fully participating. One year from the date you discovered or should have discovered the fraud.
Perjury, when false statements were made under oath in the disclosure forms, the waiver, or the income and expense declaration. One year from discovery.
Failure to comply with the disclosure requirements, the broadest ground. One year from the date you discovered or should have discovered the noncompliance.¹¹

The one-year window starts when you learn about the problem, not when the judgment was entered. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to show you could not have discovered the issue sooner.

The court also has authority to limit the set-aside to only the portions of the judgment materially affected by the nondisclosure, rather than tossing out the entire agreement.⁶ In practice, a judge can reopen the division of a hidden retirement account without unwinding the entire property settlement.

1
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 5.125 – Preparation, Service, and Submission of Order After Hearing
2
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2106 – Final Declaration of Disclosure
3
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2104 – Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure
4
Judicial Council of California. Declaration of Disclosure (Family Law) – Form FL-140
5
California Courts. Share Your Financial Information
6
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2105 – Final Declaration of Disclosure
7
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2100 – Disclosure of Assets and Liabilities
8
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2110 – Exceptions to Disclosure Requirements
9
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2107 – Noncompliance With Disclosure Requirements
10
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 1101 – Breach of Fiduciary Duty
11
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2122 – Grounds and Time Limits for Set-Aside Motion