Privilege Not to Testify Against Spouse
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 47 Cal. 4th 318 - People v. McWhorter (2009)
Most recently applied in 47 Cal. 4th 318 - People v. McWhorter (August 2009)
Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Unless erroneously compelled to do so, a married person who testifies in a proceeding to which his spouse is a party, or who testifies against his spouse in any proceeding, does not have a privilege under this article in the proceeding in which such testimony is given.
(b) There is no privilege under this article in a civil proceeding brought or defended by a married person for the immediate benefit of his spouse or of himself and his spouse.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.