California surrogacy law: a review checklist

Explain family circumstances, the carrier’s residence, treatment and birth plans, and gamete sources. A general description of California does not establish eligibility for every project.

Prepare a factual summary: where the clients and carrier live, where treatment and birth are planned, any donated gametes, and residence-country needs for parentage and birth documents. Attorneys may need more facts before advising.

Treatment in California, a California resident carrier, and birth in California are different facts. Do not treat one as satisfying every legal condition.

California Family Code section 7962 is an important provision to check for gestational carrier agreements. Attorneys must review the current law before explaining representation, form, and execution requirements.

Ask each attorney about costs, payment, medical communication, privacy, obligations, changes, disputes, and ending arrangements. The attorney explains applicability, signing, and enforcement for the individual case.

Agency service agreements and surrogacy agreements usually address different relationships. Identify the parties, whom each attorney represents, and engagement scope; one signed document does not complete all legal work.

Coordinate clinical requirements after attorneys confirm the necessary agreement and legal steps. Do not use a website summary to decide when medication or transfer may begin.

Ask attorneys and clinicians separately which documents or confirmations are needed, who issues and receives them, and before which clinical stage. Ask whether amendments or changed participants require renewed confirmation. Medical teams determine medication and procedure timing.

Check jurisdiction, application documents, timing, and birth registration. Whether a procedure is available, who applies, and when documents can be obtained need individual assessment.

• Which attorney represents each party?
• Which documents need signing, witnessing, or notarization?
• Which legal confirmations are needed before care begins?
• Which documents are handled before and after birth?

Ask about the application, jurisdictional basis, document responsibilities, expected stages, and delivery of documents. Confirm identification, translation, authentication, and correction of discrepancies.

International clients also need residence-country advice about using US documents, additional procedures, and infant travel or admission. A US procedure does not resolve every question in another jurisdiction.

This consultation checklist has not completed professional review of current law or individual applicability and is not an eligibility assessment.