765.12 Marriage license, when authorized; corrections; contents.

(1)

(a) If ss. 765.02, 765.05, 765.08, and 765.09 are complied with, and if there is no prohibition against or legal objection to the marriage, the county clerk shall issue a marriage license. With each marriage license the county clerk shall provide information describing the causes and effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and the dangers to a fetus from the mother's use of cocaine or other drugs during pregnancy.

(b) If, after completion of the marriage license application, one of the applicants notifies the clerk in writing that any of the information provided by that applicant for the license is erroneous, the clerk shall notify the other applicant of the correction as soon as reasonably possible. If the marriage license has not been issued, the clerk shall prepare a new license with the correct information entered. If the marriage license has been issued, the clerk shall immediately send a letter of correction to the state registrar to amend the erroneous information.

(c) If, after completion of the marriage license application, the clerk discovers that correct information has been entered erroneously, the clerk shall, if the marriage license has not been issued, prepare a new license with the correct information correctly entered. If the marriage license has been issued, the clerk shall immediately send a letter of correction to the state registrar to amend the erroneous information.

(2) The marriage license shall authorize the marriage ceremony to be performed in any county of this state within 30 days of issuance, excepting that where both parties are nonresidents of the state, the ceremony shall be performed only in the county in which the marriage license is issued. The officiating person shall determine that the parties presenting themselves to be married are the parties named in the marriage license. If aware of any legal impediment to such marriage, the person shall refuse to perform the ceremony. The issuance of a marriage license shall not be deemed to remove or dispense with any legal disability, impediment or prohibition rendering marriage between the parties illegal, and the marriage license shall contain a statement to that effect.

History: 1977 c. 105; 1979 c. 32 ss. 48, 92 (2); 1979 c. 176, 196; Stats. 1979 s. 765.12; 1981 c. 20; 1985 a. 19; 2001 a. 16; 2015 a. 162.