What is the purpose of FL-180 and the Marital Settlement Agreement/Addendum?

The FL-180 is the actual Judgment of Dissolution in your case, also known as your divorce decree. The marital settlement agreement (MSA) is the contract between you and your spouse as to how you want to resolve/dissolve your marriage. You will need to attach your MSA to the Judgment for it to be incorporated into the Judgment and made a court order. However, there are certain provisions in the MSA that need to be duplicated as attachments to the FL-180 Judgment form -- child support, spousal support, custody and visitation are generally the required provisions. In other words, even if your MSA were not attached to the Judgment, there would still be another attachment(s) that specifically make orders with respect to support, custody and visitation. The attachments to FL-180 need not be on Judicial Council forms; however, some counties in the state have a habit of rejecting Judgments if those attachments are not on the forms. Alameda and Solano counties come to mind immediately. You may want to schedule a telephone consultation with an attorney who practices in California to review your dissolution package (send an advance copy or scan/email it as a PDF file). Otherwise, you may end up in a continual cycle of rejected Judgments. Believe it or not, it even happens to lawyers sometimes.